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 always 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 vets, farriers and 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. His wife, Suze, continues to run all aspects of the business, including the on-going investment in further facilities scheduled in 2012 and Nicky Davies, who has been with Gary for 14 years, remains as Yard Manager and continues to work remedial cases that are referred along with assisting with the racehorses that are sent to Westcourt.
Gary's interest in Andalucian horses is as keen as ever with his stallion, Brujo, standing at stud and with his plans for the 2 new additions to Westcourt, Destinado, the new stallion, and Desperta who is a lovely mare. Gary will also continue to visit Spain to buy bloodstock for UK owners.
Webshop
We relaunched our webshop on an external site in order to enable us to take payment by Paypal.
The ever popular Double Diamond Halters are available to buy on-line, together with booklets written by Gary, Aloe Vera and special offers.
Go to our Merchandise page for full information or visit the external site by visiting http://garywitheford.org.uk/cgi-bin/online/storepro.php
Witheford Equine Ltd
Westcourt Stables Westcourt · Burbage
Marlborough · Wiltshire
SN8 3BW
Office 01672 811423
info@garywitheford.co.uk
Whilst Brujo remains very much alive, well and full of beans, we are all aware that he is not getting any younger and have found another PRE Stallion to reside at Westcourt!
He arrived on the 13th March from Spain along with a PRE mare "DESPERTA II" - so Brujo will have a new wife and can concentrate on her whilst Gary begins training the new stallion "DESTINADO LXXXI" for his work at home and at his external demonstrations.
Both stallion and mare have now been graded and we are focussing on getting them fit and fully trained in the Witheford methods, ready for external demonstrations next year.
These photos show them both just relaxing in the paddocks.....
Witheford Equine is a company registered in England and Wales with Company No 3574879
Registered Office Westcourt Stables, Westcourt, Burbage, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 3BW
VAT Registration No 717 9615 07
Whilst written for Internet Explorer, this site is best viewed on Mozilla Firefox - which can be downloaded by visiting http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/
CCTV installed
We are currently updating our network and once this is complete we will be able to offer remote access to this facility so that it is more readily accessible.
Changes at Westcourt
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.....
A new website is currently under construction and will be launched in Autumn 2011.
See Gary's interview with Attheraces from the Discover Racing Day at Lingfield Park on the 27th October, select this link to watch
Gary is featured in the latest issue of Australia's Track To Track, on Pages 32 - 37 - select this link to view
