The press may have been preoccupied with the retirement of Zara Phillip's horse Toytown recently but I actually felt far sadder when I heard that Phoebe Buckley's diminuitive grey mare, Little Tiger aka Frostie, was no longer going to be seen trying her heart out over the big fences of four star eventing. So I caught up with Phoebe to chat about Frostie, and her other horses.
"Frostie got a bit 'feely' on one of her legs, and although it was just off and on, I spoke to her owner, Dr Polly Taylor, and we decided that she was trying to tell us something. Basically, she's been such a fantastic little mare, she owes us nothing, and even though it's a real shame she won't get to do her fifth Burghley, the worst thing I could imagine would be for her to go lame, or not get round. Frostie is so well in herself and full of self importance, she doesn't think she's old at all. But, I've seen too many people do too many runs on an old horse and I didn't want that for her. Frostie is so brave and brilliant, I'd hate to think that she was really hurting."
The good news is that Dr Taylor has handed the full ownership of Frostie over to Phoebe."Yes, I'm now the owner of a wild sixteen year old" she laughs. But, unlike Toytown the life of a happy hacker isn't for her. Frostie isn't the sort of horse who is happy lounging around in a field but loves to work so she'll be kept fit and doing what she loves best, jumping. In fact Phoebe has set them both quite a big challenge by aiming to win the biggest three hunt rides, the Melton Cup, The Golden Button and the Harborough all in one year. A prospect which Phoebe says is "quite scary but Frostie's idea of heaven!'
Frostie's shoes may be hard to fill but I asked Phoebe if she had any future stars waiting in the wings.
"Flash Gordon is really coming on-he has a fantastic brain. He won his first two star recently and did two double clears but we still need to work on his canter, which is really big, for the dressage. His brain is all there but his body just needs to catch up so I want to take it steady with him and not push for too much too soon."
Flash Gordon is just a tadge bigger than Frosite at 15.2 but he is another complicated horse that other people had given up on until he found his way to Phoebe.
"I've also got a new horse called Identity Crisis aka Colin. He's very smart if you can get inside his head. I bought him for a pittance as he'd been eventing but was very inconsistent, really cold backed and naughty to get on. However I could see that he could jump so I bought him to take hunting and had an awesome season on him."
Whilst he was enjoying his hunting season, Colin showed no signs of being cold backed or difficult to mount but when Phoebe decided to have another go at eventing him and took him to Gt Witchingham Horse Trials that's when the trouble started. He became really naughty so it became really obvious that it was eventing that he had the problem with.
"I discovered that if he made just one mistake when jumping, he threw the towel in. Basically he had no confidence, had experienced a lot of years doing it the wrong way, and had come to believe that he was a bloody useless thing. I also discovered that he hates tight nosebands. So he now has on a really loose noseband and I ride him on the buckle end as if I were hunting, let him find his way through the jump and really praise him. I give him lots of really big pats and say 'you're a brilliant jumper, you can do it' and he says 'Oh yes I can, can't !'"
If you haven't seen it already then check out our videocast with Phoebe and Frostie.
Source: http://blog.trotontv.com/2011/08/catch-up-with-phoebe-buckley-little.html
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