Train like a pro

William Fox-Pitt demonstrates his systematic approach to fl atwork training with his two top horses — and suggests a handy pre-season exercise for fresh jumpers

Flatwork

IT’S a bright but blustery morning at Wood Lane Stables in Dorset, but the training intensity is hotting up. William Fox-Pitt’s top horses, Little Fire and Oratorio II, are both in the running for the Olympics and being geared up for early-season CCI5*s. For this session, William is riding Little Fire, with his assistant head groom Adam Short on Oratorio (pictured, right). Both horses step out from their stables in smart, navy exercise sheets, which they’ll keep on for the first 10 minutes.

Although these horses are at the pinnacle of the sport, William follows the same basic routine with all his horses at the start of any flatwork session.

“As a general rule, a rough guide would be that I break it up into three sections of 10 minutes: the warm-up, then suppling, followed by discipline and movements,” says William, adding that this is only a target time. “I’ll do this at home and at shows. I feel if they can’t do a test after that, they’re probably in the wrong job. Of course, at a big event, I might ride them earlier in the day as well, but the actual work before a test will be half an hour.

“Horses are creatures of habit — we humans like variety, but horses don’t like surprises,” he adds. “So I do the same routine every day and they know what to expect.”

WARM-UP

BOTH horses are walking purposefully around the arena on a long rein, taking in their surroundings.