Hi, I am Tamara Stafford, the trainer of these pod casts. The two up coming pod casts will enfold horses and their daily lives -  in and out of training. My son Clyde, who has grown up accompanying me to more than 15 race tracks in the United States and Canada including several training centers, will show how children that grow up and assimilate not only the technical but more importantly the nuances that these majestic animals require. Clyde and I will participate together training, showing and racing with the occasional  horse shoer, equine therapist, riders, vets, and social life. Living and training three very different horses and give the audience a view into our lives with horses. It will enfold not only our technical beliefs but as importantly, the individual personalities and idiosyncrasies of each individual horse. The first HORSE REALITY SHOW.

     The first pod cast will deal with taking a trained race horse and showing how to re train the horses mind and body commands towards a new discipline. This will include not only the different physical aids that the rider gives as a race horse to a show horse, but also how to change the mental association with tack, rider and traveling in the ring with other horses and not think ‘race’. Naja Haje happens to be a wonderfully built colt that embraces conformation ally speaking, the conformation of a classic hunter and the movement and scope of a dressage horse. He is l6.2 dark bay, by Silver Move, a stallion that has been cross registered in the Thoroughbred Jockey Club Sport Horse Registry. I knew his dam,   a ‘big’ mare with (what the ‘old’ school horseman would call “substance”. He is generous in his nature but definitely has his own mind. Over the last 35 years that I have been riding thoroughbreds, I’ve found that this nature can make the most consistent mount. But the trainer/rider will arrive at his or her goals much smoother and faster by approaching their personality by ‘’making a deal’’ with their mind, as apposed to making them do it. I use a form of Palate’s (for the horse, not the rider) through long reining. This  gives a big advantage with the Thoroughbred breed, given that they were bred for stamina and “mind over matter”……..I go straight to the deep flexor muscles, as apposed to starting with the superficial muscle groupings. Through ongoing pod casts  I will also be able to show you the changes in his balance and frame. Everyone is used to looking at the “finished” picture in a book or video. Now you will see how a horse grows into the upper more collected and self balanced frame in ‘’real’’ time and the procedures that ultimately make jumping and the passage or piaffe come to life. I want to ‘bring out into the light’  the actual procedure involved in training a horse to the upper levels and not just the technical commands.

     Revelations, the Thoroughbred filly by Van Nistlerooy, out of our mare, Shareshten…..is a precocious well coupled yearling and the seventh generation of my families breeding. We will be showing how “breaking” doesn’t just start next Fall. For a hopeful ‘to be’ race horse, we show how to train manners whilst all the time NEVER taking the race out of the race horse. Some of the daily routine will be at this time more about the mental and emotional first, and blending the self discipline gradually towards behavior patterns and ultimately riding. You will see her first bitted, saddled, ridden, galloped, breezed, trained to the starting gate, gate card and  ultimately raced at Keenland in the Fall of 2010. Also, part of this same pod cast will be her dam, Shareshten. She will be bred again and we will show  the  process and maintenance of a Thoroughbred broodmare and all that it encompasses up until the birth. Hopefully, we will have a live birth online for you to witness.

     The two pod casts will also show feed, leg work and therapy that is involved with athletes of this nature. The other people are mostly professionals that I have already worked with on and off the race tracks. Over the years I have had the luck to study with some of the greats. Top riders, Hall of Fame trainers, Olympic coaches, incredible grooms (that showed me so much about leg work) and wonderful students. All of which contributed to the main character…….The Horse.