We have three main gallops here at Knockeen - a six furlong uphill wood chip gallop, a three furlong sand gallop and a four furlong uphill grass gallop.
We tend to use the round sand gallop for easy days. It's great for getting horses to relax and switch off.
We use both the uphill wood chip and grass gallops for stronger work. Each one plays it's own part in how we train our horses and allows us to exercise our horses 365 days a year regardless of
our unpredictable weather.
Jumping is the name of the game and our indoor school arena is a major part of our schooling process. We loose school our horses in the arena every morning, with a hurdle and an easyfix fence on either side, the objective being to get them to think for themselves, see their own strides and gain confidence in their own jumping ability.
Our outdoor schooling area consists of four lines of hurdles and fences. We use the schooling ground in final preparation before races.
Dressage & Flatwork
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Working with Rosemary Connors we incorporate dressage/flat work into our horses training regimes.
With racehorses if they can't arch their back they'll never reach their full jumping potential, so we find this work beneficial at keeping them as agile as we possibly can, improving their core strength and getting all the power from behind.
