equine we l fare
C ROS S T R A I N I N G
Chris Waller has long been utilising dressage as a cross-training method for his stable stars, which has proven beneficial in helping to build muscle and keeping the horses fit and happy. He’s quite possibly the fastest sprinter on the planet – although fans of the English-trained speedster, Battaash might contest the point – but Nature Strip, like so many top horses, doesn’t come without his complications. It often seemed that he had only two gears: stationary or flat out, so quickly did he explode out of the starting gates and so rapidly did he get into his stride, leaving opponents struggling to keep upright from the start. It tended to result in either boom, with Nature Strip running his rivals ragged, or bust, with the star sprinter running out of petrol in the final stages of a high-pressure contest to finish out of the places. Well, that was his pattern when in the hands of his first few trainers. He has had a peripatetic career, at various times being in the Victorian stables of four different trainers before finally landing in Sydney with master trainer Chris Waller a few years ago. And it is there, at Rosehill yard, that the penny seems to have dropped and Nature Strip has learned to relax and make more use of that enormous talent he was born with. The method Waller has employed might surprise many, however, as he has been sending Nature Strip (as he did Winx before that) off for a quick course of dressage. All that control and disciplined movement is the antithesis of flat out racing, but it seems to have done the trick. Nature Strip is now far more tractable, his riders can put him into positions in races that they want to occupy rather than letting the horse take charge, and as a result, his performance levels have gone even higher.
Waller, in his usual self-deprecating style, is reluctant to take too much credit for finding dressage to be a key to Nature Strip.
“Horses continue to improve with confidence and with time,” he said.
“Our job is to make horses run fast. Over time, he has become half a percent better every week of his training life, and all of a sudden a couple of years down the track we have got a horse that’s 100 percent better than he was two years ago.”
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