POINT OF VIEW
of Prix St. Georges competitions, he never had quite the composure required for the highest levels. He would get very nervous at shows and found it hard to concentrate through a whole Grand Prix test. A friend of mine had bought a fairly similar Irish horse with hopes to make it to the US Eventing team, but his was lacking the ability in front of the big jumps. After years of frustration, we ended up trading horse for horse. That made the four of us happy: my ex-horse jumped like a bird, his ex-horse piaffed brilliantly for as long as I pleased. The British call it “Horses for courses.” Every horse can
have a job, determined by a combination of his genetic assets and his individual ability. This must be understood by the owner and respected as much as it is practical. I re- member a talented Thoroughbred who hated dressage (his rider’s choice) but became a wonderful cow horse af- ter she sold him to a good cowboy. Giving up her goals for her horse and accepting the fact that he might be happier doing something else with somebody else was the greatest act of kindness she could do for him.
The Human Dimension The final and most important dimension a horse needs is to be interested in human company, just as much as a
rider needs to truly love horses. To form the fascinating horse/rider combination we all admire when we see it, it takes a special horse and a special rider sharing a very unique and powerful bond. This bond does not mean that there won’t be times when the rider has to insist to make a point. Horses are like children: they need boundaries and clear directives so they understand what their job is. And then they need the freedom to their job the best they know how. Famous nineteenth century trainer and author General
Alexis L’Hotte used to say “the horse who enjoys himself in his movement . . . moves as of his own accord.” Great horses are born but they must be “revealed” by the riders who love them and understand the way they need to be ridden. Which dimensions do you share with your horse?
JP Giacomini has trained close to 20 Grand Prix horses and worked on thousands of remedial horses of various breeds. He studied under Nuno Oliveira and later at the National Portuguese Stud of Alter Real. He has produced international winners in all three disciplines and invented a unique training method called “Endotapping.” JP breeds and trains Iberian Sport Horses his wife Shelley at Baroque Farms USA in Harrods- burg, Kentucky. He can be reached at
jpgiacomini@gmail.com.
78 March/April 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100
