Riding the Recession with Lucinda McAlpine
Riding the Recession with Lucinda McAlpine "I just wanted to write and say thank you for a brilliant day yesterday at the Conquest Centre. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and gained so much - one of the best bits was watching "Hilly" canter so very softly, lightly and quietly up through the yards." Claire - Exeter Dear Friends, |  |
Lucinda spoke about the solace the horses gave her in difficult times and how much personal criticism she'd endured for turning out her valuable dressage horses when traditionally they rarely saw the light of day, let alone a blade of grass.
Meanwhile her horses entertained themselves and us - admiring themselves in the mirror, spontaneously popping over jumps, resolving small squabbles with a lifted leg and showing off their confidence, movement and beauty.
Movement is a key aspect of Lucinda's management routine. This along with being in social groups and continuous access to food are the fundamental secrets to Lucinda's success with her happy horses.
Nigel Gatesman, established farrier who independently researched the horses' foot and how best to trim for comfort and performance, gave an informative, thought provoking presentation covering many aspects of his knowledge and experience.
Lucinda tacked up Hilly telling us the moving story of how he was rescued and then amply demonstrated that you don't have to buy expensive horses to deliver beautiful, graceful, athletic performance. To end the first half Lucinda and Hilly exited the arena and gave us a display of the strength of the unshod horse's foot by doing a beautiful little canter routine on the concrete and scratchy stones in the car park.
Robert Fowler from Fibre Gold opened the second half of the show with a hugely informative presentation about how the horse's digestion works and how to best feed for optimum gut health. With Hilly acting as model Robert described how high forage diets benefit the horses' naturally evolved digestive systems and what can happen with high-starch diets.
Lucinda then described how she came about producing her cheapest equine friends - by home breeding. The Bowhayes Farm Andulucian stallion El Cid and a cut-price TB mare live together and produce foals. Richie is one of the offspring. What a horse! He's full of energy, curiosity and confidence. He's rarely been in a stable, was born in a paddock and grew up with Mum and Dad. Lucinda describes in detail how she has brought him on and then gets on a rides - giving such a soft example of positive development for youngsters that we, the audience, are quite moved by the comparison with the usual approach we have been led to believe is the way to ‘break' horses.
The finale is simply not to be missed. Lucinda and Borange - who has had a look of tolerating the ‘goings-on' throughout the demo is tacked up - incidentally, all the horses wear the same tack, Lucinda shows us how that all works - and Borange becomes a different horse. He is transformed. The harmonious display of horsemanship and the deep bond between woman and horse is powerfully demonstrated and the audience cannot help but spontaneously show it's appreciation in witnessing such a moving performance.
Lucinda has spent years researching, studying, worrying and doing ‘unthinkable' things to improve the lot of her horses. This demonstration amply shows her long pioneering journey has been worth every demanding second. Lucinda's aim is to support, help and advise others to think about undertaking a gentler, easier, more compassionate journey with their own horses - and the happy by-product of this is the saving in cost and time her approach allows us.
You can only benefit from attending the next Riding the Recession event near you.
We hope to see some of you at the Avon Riding Centre in Bristol this coming Sunday.
"I had a really fun day - Lucinda is so approachable and is so genuinely concerned about horses welfare - and at the level she is at... Its brilliant!!!!"
We'll be at the Avon Riding Centre, in Bristol, on April 26 with our Riding the Recession Tour.
The ARC is easily accessible from the M5 motorway junctions 17 and 18, within 15 minutes drive of the city centre and on bus routes to Henbury and Lawrence Weston.
For those of you with sat nav here's the postcode - BS10 7QT
Delicious Vowley Farm homemade, homegrown, lovingly prepared food will be available for the best burgers, baps and cakes. I don't believe in Sundays without great food!
Come along, learn how Lucinda and her 24 horses are coping with the credit crunch - and finding all sorts of positive benefits; enjoy the spectacle of her lovely horses working to music and help support the RDA - all in one enjoyable event.
And now we've booked The Riding The Recession Tour to come to Hadlow, in Kent on July 5th.
 | Please click on the Ticket Web symbol to buy tickets for either event. With best wishes Di Gilpin - Equestain Events |
Added on: 22/04/09.
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