Witheford Equine Ltd
Westcourt Stables Westcourt · Burbage
Marlborough · Wiltshire
SN8 3BW
Office : 01672 811423
Changes at Westcourt
After more than 20 years of remedial work with horses and ponies of all sorts, Autumn 2008 saw Gary announce his decision to close his yard to the general public. This decision had been deliberated on for the last 2 years and was obviously not taken lightly. The demand for Gary’s services to the racing industry has taken the business in a new direction and over the last few years his dealings with private horse owners has become more frustrating – those owners who ask his advice but will not heed it cause him the most frustration along with others who fail to settle their debts!
Gary says “This has been a tough decision for me and one that has been brewing for a couple of years now. I feel sad that there will be many horse owners out there who will contact me for help and I won’t be able to respond, not only will that be sad for me but also my staff who all still share my passion for helping all sorts of cases”
Gary will still accept repeat bookings from long-standing customers who are familiar with his work and also referrals from professional instructors or trainers who he works with and who endorse his techniques, but new enquiries from the general public will generally be out of his remit.
“The beauty of working with professional trainers or breeders is that they let me get on with my job and once I know what a horse needs they take my advice. The anguish I sometimes have with the public is that I see horses desperately in need of certain specialist treatments or work programmes but the owners don’t follow my advice for either financial or blinkered reasons. This means I see a horse that I know I can help but my hands are tied and I have to accept that sometimes I am restricted from doing my job as I would see fit”
That being said Gary stresses that he has thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the owners past and present from all over the UK and from all backgrounds. “I have made some very good friends over the years and also worked on some amazing horses which I will never forget, I have a very loyal following and I would like all my owners to know that it has been an honour for me to work all the hundreds of horses that they have sent to me”
Westcourt will continue to be as busy as ever. Gary and his son, Craig, both have hectic schedules covering race meetings all over the UK, Eire and Europe. Suze will continue to run all aspects of the business, including the on-going investment in further facilities scheduled in 2009 and Nicky Davies, who has been with Gary for 13 years, will remain as Yard Manager and continue to work remedial cases that are referred along with assisting with the racehorses that are sent to Westcourt.
Gary’s interest in Andalucian horses will continue with his stallion, Brujo, standing at stud. Gary will also continue to visit Spain to buy bloodstock for UK owners and also find another stallion to take over from Brujo when he retires in the next few years.
Event News
We had a great time at The East Anglian Game & Country Fair in April - as these pictures show! We spent lots of time talking with visitors to the show as well as working with horseowners who brought their 'problem' horses to the show to be worked by Gary. Star of the Show was, in fact, NOT Gary but Kate, the little girl seen here with her 'naughty' pony, Tina!
Gallery and Website
Despite the changes to the business we will continue to update our Website and have plans to upload a Press Cuttings page with articles from the Racing
New arrivals.....
The new foals for 2009 have all arrived safe and well! The first was a beautiful colt foal by Brujo out of our Swedish Warmblood, Top Quality Mystery.
Please visit the Emily's page under the Natural Horsemanship section of this site for news of the latest addition to the team at Westcourt.....
She was the lucky winner of the organisers' competition and won the chance to bring her pony to the show for Gary to work with her. Tina was generally difficult to handle and tended to bite and demand treats in order to let Kate catch her - Gary spent time teaching Kate and her mother techniques to help with these issues.
Forthcoming Events
Gary’s next appearance will be at the Cotswold Show & Country Fair on 4th & 5th July. We will have slots available for 'problem' horses to be brought to the show - these will be limited and on a first come, first served basis so if you are interested, please get in touch!
We also successfully started a 7 year old gelding, Max. His owner, Lyndsey, had spent a year long-reining and lungeing him but had been unable to proceed any further as he was flighty and nervous of having a rider on board.
Gary and Nicky were successful on the first day and on the second day worked him again and managed to give Lyndsey the opportunity to ride him herself!
Once weaned, they will be offered for sale so if you are interested in viewing them, please contact us!
Brujo was visited by Thoroughbred, Cleveland Bay,Warmblood and Arab mares last season and is currently standing at £400 plus VAT for the 2009 season. His Facebook page includes his Events schedule and news in general - visit http://www.facebook.com/brujo.witheford
We are making changes to our
on-line Merchandise ordering and payment methods with the ever popular Double Diamond Halters still available to buy on-line, together with booklets written by Gary
The Guineas festival also brought success for Ghanaati, trained by Barry Hills, who won the Stanjames.com 1,000 Guineas. Gary has carried out stalls training work for this filly and was down at the start to load her prior to the race.
Latest racing successes!
Gary was thrilled with the success of Sea The Stars, trained by John Oxx, who won the Investec Derby at Epsom.
The colt was ridden by Mick Kinane and Gary was on hand to load him into the starting stalls. This follows on from the success of Sea The Stars at The stanjames.com Guineas Festival 2009 in May where he ran a brilliant race and won The stanjames.com 2000 Guineas.
This horse was one of the batch Gary worked with when he visited John Oxx's yard at The Curragh - Sea The Stars was backed by Craig and Gary completed some additional handling work with him.
Updated 28.06.09
Ghanaati means 'My Love' in Arabic - her fans will certainly consider that to be an apt name after today as she went on to win, in true style, the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot. Gary was on hand to load her in the stalls to ensure a good start to the race!
Gary is very proud to have been involved with both horses and is looking forward to their continued future success! Congratulations to both trainers and all connections!
Post and Irish Field which have highlighted our racing work. Other archive clippings will include the work from the past 5 or 6 years with racehorses and zebras! For a variety of photographs taken of Gary and his team, please visit our Gallery.....
Emily was thrilled with the safe arrival on 26th June of a colt by Brujo out of her mare, Hannah. Another colt for Brujo this year!
After safely flying from Cambridge in a twin engined Cessna, Gary's latest winner was Spanish Moon who today ran an exciting race at Saint-Cloud winning the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Group 1) for Sir Michael Stoute. He was banned for 6 months in Britain before Gary was called upon by Sir Michael, now having worked the horse at Newmarket a couple of times, Gary was present to guide the French stalls team in persuading Spanish Moon to load calmly and enable Ryan Moore to ride a convincing win. Congratulations to all connections!
