Claire Owen Horses

07/06/2026

Successful trip to Ponderosa Equestrian Centre yesterday for the British Novice second rounds. I’d failed to actually read the format of the second-rounds, to know that they are a 3 round competition and that all triple clears qualified. So I shouldn’t have entered the BN first as a warm-up 🤦‍♀️.
However it did her the world of good to jump several rounds. So no regrets!
The BN caused a lot of trouble. So we were thrilled to start off with a lovely double-clear for 2nd in a big class.
Onto the main event, and she jumped two lovely clears in the first two rounds, I then got a bit competitive in the jump-off to have an unlucky 1 down, which cost us a qualification and a win. Lesson learnt. Lots to work on. But thrilled with how she conducted herself.

06/05/2026

First trip out, an arena hire to Kings Sedgemoor Equestrian Centre 🥰

11/04/2026

First go at sharing an arena with someone else. Always interesting with an ex-racehorse, as they’re so used to doing everything in the same direction as everyone else and the same speed… to have another horse working in entirely different speeds and directions to them can be worrying to start with. Not for this chap, nothing worries him! 😎 but always good to start gently.

05/04/2026

Taken this post from someone else but it’s too true and something that hugely affects the industry. As a buyer please EDUCATE YOURSELF on management of horses especially competition horses. Horses are horses NOT perfectly mechanical machines. The majority of horses at the top level wouldn’t get anywhere near passing a vetting and yet they still do their job 👌🏼

Today I’m going to say something that might ruffle a few feathers… 👀
Some of the BEST horses I’ve ever seen…
wouldn’t pass a vet check.
Not “slightly fail”… I mean fail. ❌

And yet
they’ve jumped rounds after round 🏆
they’ve carried nervous riders safely 🤍
They’ve DONE the job they were bought for… over and over again.

So what are we actually doing? 🤔

Somewhere along the line, vet checks stopped being about:

👉 “Is this horse fit for purpose?”
…and started being about:
👉 “Can I legally protect myself by writing down everything I see?”

And I get it. I really do.
Vets are under pressure. Massive pressure. ⚖️
But the flow-on effect?
💥 Buyers panic over wording
💥 Sellers lose sales
💥 Good horses get labelled as “problems”
…over things that often don’t actually affect the job the horse is doing.

Real talk for a second 👇
Most horses with miles
the educated ones, the schoolmasters, the ones you TRUST
will not have a “clean” vet check.
Because they’ve lived.
They’ve worked.
They’ve done exactly what we’ve asked of them.
Wear and tear does NOT equal unsound. 🚫

I’ve seen it happen too many times…
A kind, safe, confidence-giving horse 💛
fails a sale because of “mild changes” on a report.

Meanwhile…
a young, green horse with spotless X-rays gets the tick ✔️
With zero proof it can actually do the job.
Make that make sense.
And here’s the bit no one wants to say out loud…
Are we starting to value ✨perfect reports✨
over proven performance?

Before anyone comes for me this is NOT vet bashing. 🙅‍♀️
This is about a system that’s shifted.
Where: Vets are protecting themselves
Buyers are protecting their money
Sellers are protecting their horses
…and somewhere in the middle, the actual question gets lost.

So I’ll ask it again:
👉 Is this horse fit for the job I want it to do?
Because THAT is what matters.
Not whether every line on a report is squeaky clean.

04/04/2026

03/04/2026

While the horse person may be gloriously reckless in certain financial decisions (mainly the choice to own a horse or two in the first place, then possibly the saddlepad collection), there is a method to the madness.

Horse people have a very specific budgeting strategy: spend wildly on the big, important things… and then cling to every last pound everywhere else like a dragon guarding treasure.

‘Need’ a new saddle? Of course. Vet bill? Paid immediately, no questions asked, possibly while sobbing at the amount of 000’s, but still. Second horse? Well, it would be rude not to.

But replacing everyday items?
Absolutely not.

If it still *technically functions*, it stays.

Boots with holes? “They’ve got character.”
Gloves on their last thread? “They’re perfectly broken in.”
Jackets held together by hope and one surviving zip tooth? “Still good for the yard.”

Anything that can be stretched, patched, ignored, or redefined as “fine” will be—because every tiny saving gets mentally redirected into the *horse fund*.

It’s not being tight, it’s being strategic.

Why spend £30 replacing something mildly inconvenient when that £30 could go towards feed, a physio visit, a new saddle, or—inevitably—some mysterious, unplanned expense that appears the moment you feel financially stable?

So yes, from the outside it may look like chaotic spending paired with questionable life choices and a deep emotional attachment to worn-out gear…

But really, it’s a carefully balanced system:

Cut corners on the small stuff so the horses can live like absolute royalty while I personally dress like I’ve lost a fight with a hedge. 👌🏽

02/04/2026

Fresh off the lorry. Meet the new boy. 🥰 Last ran 3 weeks ago. Now going to turn his hoof to other things.

09/11/2025

With Speedy off games with a poorly paw, it’s been Hasty’s turn to play. He’s been trying his hand at arena eventing and growing in confidence every time 🤗 he’s only had a few outings in his life so places like the warm-up arena are very scary places for him. But with 3 trips out over consecutive weekends, by Pontispool yesterday he was quite the professional 😎 although an unlucky 1 down kept him out the placings, the weekend before he managed a 3rd place at Chard and the one before that he managed a lovely double clear at Downe Farm, all be it very slowly ☺️
Cleaver boy Hasty, grassroots here he comes 🥰

14/09/2025

No prizes this weekend. But what felt like a huge step up in level. Where she tried really hard and proved how much she’s come on I’m still thrilled with her. Onward and upwards 🤗