EUROPEAN TRAINER ISSUE 45 YOGI_Jerkins feature.qxd 30/06/2014 21:04 Page 2
YOGI BREISNER
YOGI BREISNER Taking racehorses back to school For anyone involved in the sport horse world, the name Yogi Breisner carries with it not just familiarity but the hallmark of excellence. The national coach and performance manager of the Great British three-day eventing team is not unknown in racing circles either, though his behind-the-scenes work in this field is not always widely recognised.
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WORDS: EMMA BERRY PHOTOS: CAROlinE nORRiS, MATTHEW WEBB
OR National Hunt trainers, Breisner performs a vital supporting role in aiding recalcitrant jumpers and schooling young horses as they learn to cope with poles, show jumps, and eventually hurdles and steeplechase fences. And, as a former top-class rider and member of Sweden’s gold medal-winning eventing team, he is also perfectly placed to coach the two-legged members of the jumping community.“ When I first came to Britain I was based with [show jumping and eventing coach] Lars Sederholm at Waterstock House and he had some racehorses come in from trainers, mainly from Captain [Tim] Forster and the odd one from Nick Gaselee. I got stuck in and rode them,” says Breisner, who joined his compatriot in Oxfordshire in 1978. “I was always interested in racing. I rode a bit as an amateur in Sweden and when I lived in Ireland I rode in the odd point-to-point – but I wasn’t terribly glamorous or successful!” Success, however, did come his way on the international three-day eventing circuit, and his skills honed in the top competitions around the world, including the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, have informed a thriving secondary career as coach and advisor for both horses and jockeys. One trainer to have had a long-term association with Breisner is Henrietta Knight, who is famed for her approach of preparing
racehorses thoroughly, not just on the gallops but also in the school. “Back in the early ’90s when Henrietta Knight trained point-to-pointers, I used to help her with them and when she took out the licence I got more involved and started to help a few more trainers around the Lambourn area,” recalls Breisner, who is now called upon by the likes of Nicky Henderson, Kim Bailey, Venetia Williams, and Jennie Candlish. “They either send me horses or I go to see them on a one-off basis. Where I come in from a racing point of view is that I can take the experience of the jumping technique in the
“It’s worth pointing out that the National Hunt trainers have a very good way of training their horses and getting them to jump very well” event horses – the variety of the type of fences you jump – and use that to assist the racehorses in the development of their jumping technique.” The coach is unequivocal in his praise of the standard of racehorse training in Britain and
Ireland and is keen to portray himself, modestly, as a support worker. He says: “It’s worth pointing out that the National Hunt trainers have a very good way of training their horses and getting them to jump very well. Lots of them have a large number of horses and because of the time pressure they are under, with training in the morning and racing in the afternoon, when there is a horse who might need a little bit more time that’s often when I come in. “I’m not necessarily the expert who is going to do the job better than the trainers but I have the time to do it. If I need to spend an hour or more training a horse to jump, I can do it but the professionalism of the training here and in Ireland is really high.” The helping hand can be given at the trainer’s stables, while those horses needing a more intensive schooling period can be stabled at the Berkshire yard used by eventers Chris King and Laura Collett, the latter now being the regular rider of Kauto Star. “The yard I use near Lambourn is run by two event riders and more often than not Chris will ride the racehorses. Because of my job and travelling around it doesn’t suit me to have my own place but I know that when a horse comes in Chris and Laura will take extremely good care of them. “The basics are the same between eventing and racing. In racing you have much more forgiving fences but the horses are travelling
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