The importance of pre-training for young thoroughbreds

Instead, Shenae’s World Championship horse, the thoroughbred Bold Venture, Sam’s 5* eventing horse Cage Fighter and their other horses reside at Bimbadeen Park, where Sam and Shenae worked for several years with triple Olympic eventing medallist Shane Rose.

Now they rent a separate property, Booleroo, from Shane and work closely with him as they develop their own business in the breaking, pre-training, rehabilitation and spelling of thoroughbred horses, alongside their eventing careers.

“It’s a great facility” says Sam as we look out over the lush property at Booleroo, where a lucerne crop for the horses is profusely growing.

“We have hill gallops, water walkers, treadmills, all-weather gallops and a round yard. Plus of course the two large stable blocks  and plenty of turn-out paddocks”.

It isn’t just the physical facilities, many of which Sam, the son of a builder, has helped to construct, that make Woodlow Equine special. It is also the unique knowledge that Shenae and Sam bring from their elite level eventing careers, years working at Bimbadeen Park with young thoroughbred horses and their innate sense of horsemanship.

“My mother owned a riding school and from the very beginning she instilled in me the commitment that horses need,” says the softly spoken Sam, whose quiet and relaxed manner remains the same, regardless of whatever his flighty young charges are up to.

Sam grew up around horses, originally competing in showjumping but a chance meeting with Penny Rose, Shane’s mother, led him to work at Bimbadeen Park during his Year 11 and 12 school holidays. On leaving school, Shane offered him a job and a horse to event, leading Sam not only into his eventing career but also his initial encounters with Shenae at competitions.

The horse was Cage Fighter, an off the track racehorse who raced as Cagey and later partnered with Sam to win the CCI4*-L at the 2021 Sydney International Three Day Event, one of the most prestigious classes in Australia. They then backed it up with second place in 2022, taking the Victoria Racing Club Best Performed Thoroughbred prize two years in a row.

While the 19-year-old Cage Fighter has recently retired from competition, there are plenty more up and coming eventing horses in the stable for Sam. These include the seven-year-old thoroughbred Yiyi who enjoyed a successful time on the track, picking up five wins and 10 placings from his 26 starts with trainer Chris Waller, before coming to Sam for his second career in eventing.

There is no doubt that Sam has an affinity with thoroughbred horses and this comes through in the work that both he and Shenae, who represented Australia at the 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships in Italy with her off the track thoroughbred Bold Venture, do at Woodlow Equine.

“This is such an important part of a racehorse’s life,” says Shenae of their pre-training and breaking-in process.

“If you do it correctly, it gives them the best possible chance in life – not just their racing life but whatever they go on to afterwards as well.  We know horses inside out, having produced them to the highest levels over the years, and we aim to prepare them for a long career.

“They start very young, as yearlings, so those early experiences are very important, and we aim to give them the best possible start.

If they can gain confidence early in their career, that helps them to go on and do great things, be it in racing, eventing or simply as a lovely companion horse for an amateur to ride.”

Both Shenae and Sam ride the horses that come in for pre-training (‘gym work’ for horses already racing, explains Sam), exercising them on the scenic gallops around the lucerne fields at Booleroo and the all-weather uphill gallops leading up to the stable blocks where they are washed down and cared for by their team. It is not just Sam and Shenae who are skilled in their field, as their support team is also made up of experienced riders and horse handlers, including the recently crowned Australian Young Eventing Rider Champion, Olivia Shore.

Sam is responsible for the breaking-in of the very young horses, a job that takes aptitude, patience and great balance, three traits that Sam possesses in abundance. And while he may not have been on an Australian team like Shenae, he continues to hone his skills with some of the best in the business. While Shenae was competing in eventing for Australia in Europe recently, Sam took the opportunity to visit Newmarket, the ‘home of horse racing’ in England.

“I worked for a French racehorse trainer, riding out in Newmarket and learning how they do things there. It was just another great opportunity to ‘tick the box’ and get to work in a place totally dedicated to horses – even the traffic lights there are horse and rider friendly!”

There may not be traffic lights at Woodlow Equine but being horse-friendly is key to Sam and Shenae’s training philosophy and one that will reap rewards for the horses trained here for years to come.