Race horse to dressage horse: Crunchie the RoR British Dressage Champ!
Well done to Pro-Equine Brand Ambassador Boogie Machin and Crunchie (Closer than Close) who won the Magical Song Shield for the overall highest placed RoR at the British Dressage Championships! Hard work really did pay off for this pair. Read on to learn how Crunchie went from race horse to dressage horse thanks to Boogie’s patience and expertise.
Boogie purchased Crunchie straight off the racetrack, unseen for £1. She says, “I sent my friend to go and collect him and when he arrived and came off the lorry, I was like, yikes he’s small! Crunchie has been the most difficult race horse I have ever retrained, he had no confidence in his work. He bolted and rushed with zero rhythm and could hardly even trot! It took a full year of hard work, lessons and training before we did our first BD. I think we got 52% in a Prelim! I carried on persevering and competing him and, another year on, he’s now working towards Medium BD and currently scoring mid 60’s at Elementary level. “
Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) is British Horseracing’s official charity for the welfare of horses that have retired from racing. RoR believes that every former racehorse deserves a life well-lived throughout every stage of their life. RoR’s long term vision is ‘for all former racehorses to enjoy a good life’ and their Mission is to safeguard the wellbeing of all former racehorses. Since its launch in 2000, RoR has established itself as one of the country’s pre-eminent equine charities, promoting the highest standards of horse welfare and providing care and funding for former racehorses that would otherwise be vulnerable.
Free registration and access to education
By joining RoR for free, you will have the benefit of taking part in any of the training and educational events and residential camps throughout the country, last year RoR offered over 700 events and had over 1870 participants.
Competition membership
By upgrading to competition membership, you can compete in any of the 39 RoR competition series across 14 disciplines. With over 2400 horses registered for competition membership. Riders must be 15 years of age on the 1st of January of the current year to take part in RoR training activities and competitions.
Boogie runs the Machin Event Yard, a competition livery yard based in high Leicestershire between Melton Mowbray and Grantham. The impressive Machin Event Yard facilities include 20 stables, an indoor school, a 100m x 40m grass arena with full set of jumps, a 50m x 26m outdoor arena, a waxed surface lunge pen, an indoor horse walker with rubber flooring, fabulous off-road hacking, an old race course within 5 minutes hacking and paddocks with 5ft post and rail fencing, all with automatic water drinkers. Centrally placed for all the major Midlands show venues where you will see Boogie regularly compete in eventing, show jumping & showing.
Boogie offers a wide range of equestrian services at the Machin Event Yard, including backing and training young, inexperienced horses and dressage, show jumping and cross country schooling. Boogie will compete horses at local unaffiliated, national and international competitions, however young, inexperienced or experienced your horse/pony may be. The areas of competition offered include Eventing, Show Jumping, Dressage, Showing and Worker Hunters. Boogie also offers clipping and hunting with the Belvoir Hunt.
Boogie is sponsored by Pro-Equine, Topspec, Voltaire Design, Revitavet, 24/7 Clothing Direct and Professional Paddock Care.
Boogie feeds Ulsa-Soothe to her horses and claims it’s an absolutely amazing product!
Keep up to date with @boogiemachin and her team on instagram and Facebook to see how this partnership is getting on or email her at [email protected]
