About:
Since 1995, Paul has expanded the yard gradually up to its current capacity of 63 boxes. Cropredy Lawn has wonderful facilities to give the horses the best possible environment in which to be trained:
- A 6½ furlong all weather gallop
- equine swimming pool
- numerous different schooling facilities
- loose-jumping school
- indoor school
- grass gallops
- loads of turnout paddocks and two horsewalkers.
All Weather Gallop: This is a 6½ furlong all weather surfaced gallop made of Eurotrack surface. Eurotrack is a mixture of sand, chopped rubber and Vaseline. This provides a safe, forgiving surface for the horses to work on all the year round. The gallop is maintained daily and also groomed to keep the surface level and consistent. So far the gallop has coped with flash floods and frosts up to minus 14°C. The gallop finishes with a 2½ furlong uphill climb which is ideal to improve and test the horses fitness and ability.
Grass Gallops: We have a 7f oval grass gallop situated on our land, which is a wonderful luxury to have. It is a flat gallop, which is a good contrast to the uphill all-weather gallop. It is an ideal gallop to teach the young horses about galloping on grass over distances of up to 1¾ miles.
Schooling Ground: Our jumping paddock or schooling ground is fitted with all sorts of obstacles. We have three steeplechase fences, including an open ditch and a Grand National-type fence. We also have two rows of tyres which serve as excellent practice and warm-up jumps. There are also three brush hurdles and three regular flights of hurdles. We also have some American-type fences, which are a more substantial type of hurdle with brush behind.
Jumping Lane: This is an oval loose jumping school where the horses jump their first ever obstacles. It consists of a telegraph pole threaded through tyres, which can be on the ground or raised up to a height of 4 feet. The horses are attached by a long rope and start by being led over the tyres. When they are confident about jumping they are let loose and go around on their own. One of the best parts of a trainer’s day is watching a horse enjoying his first jumping lesson and doing it naturally. Equine Swimming Pool Every horse that has exercised has a swim after he/she has worked and you can just imagine what a benefit that is through the hot weather. Obviously, its most important use is to exercise those horses that, for whatever reason, are unable to be cantered that day maybe due to sore shins, little splints or bruised feet. We are unable to get a horse fit by solely swimming but it is a tremendous extra exercise particular for the heavy topped horses who have had tendon injuries in the past.
Water Walk We have a water feature here at Cropredy. This allows the horses to walk through a natural stream after their work on the gallops… which the horses really enjoy.
Services:
Racehorse Training