When we heard James Alliston was starting his own business, we asked him to blog about the challenges, highs and lows, and rewarding moments he encounters along the way. Today James blogs about bringing his youngsters through the levels. James is also leaving today for Kentucky with his three Rolex mounts: Tivoli, Jumbo’s Jake and Parker. Best of luck at Rolex, James!
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Rolex 2018? Photo courtesy of James Alliston.
From James:
The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity juggling growing the new business and preparing for Rolex. I eventually gave in and hired a stall cleaner, which is great and enables me more time to focus on the riding and training. This freedom has allowed for regular trips over the bay to the beautiful Woodside Horse Park. This is a fantastic facility that hosts shows up to the 3* level, and I am able to meet up with students from further afield, as well as giving my local clients and horses some cross country schooling. Moving forward, I am going to put great emphasis on building a riding school to compliment my training and competition barn.
I think building a clientele at the grassroots level is important and is certainly something the hunter/jumper barns are very strong at here in California. In this way, the idea is that you always have a constant stream of new riders coming through. Obviously I am biased, but eventing is probably one of the most exciting horse sports, and introducing beginners to the sport of eventing and getting them hooked early on should be easy — such is the fun and varied nature of what we do. Moreover, I believe that the education to a new rider in dressage, show jumping, cross country, fitness and horsemanship makes for very well-rounded riders and horsemen.
Building up my horses from the grassroots level is also a focus. To go out and buy several of the finished product would be very expensive, so starting them early is the approach I am taking. Also, by bringing them along myself, I know the horse’s history very well and there aren’t the surprises — both in performance and soundness — which sometimes surface with horses with mileage. I have been very fortunate to be supported by Reveler’s Ranch breeding farm, which has a large breeding operation and has sent me a number of promising youngsters to produce. This has been very timely both financially and in terms of a source of my next generation of horses. I am fortunate enough to have multiple Advanced horses right now, but am aware that it is important to keep an eye on the future and keep producing the horses to fill their shoes.
As such, I intend to be a big supporter of the YEH program over the next few years. In England, the equivalent program with its final held at Burghley seems to be very indicative of future champions, with the likes of Primmore’s Pride and Miner’s Frolic having been successful. Whilst I don’t think the U.S. version has been as well supported, I am excited about the new grant for the 5-year-old champion to go to the 7-year-old championships at Lion D’Angers. This is a fantastic incentive that is generating a lot of interest, and my only concern is that as a Brit I am still eligible for this generous prize! Either way, it is my belief that there are some fantastic horses being bred here in the U.S., and it will be fun to see how they perform against their European contemporaries.
One clear disadvantage here in the U.S. is the increased cost of producing horses through the levels as compared to Europe. Here the entry fees are higher, and there are more travel and gas bills to get your youngsters exposed. In England, most shows you do in one day, whereas here in California this is unheard of and you have to pay stabling for three nights on top of your entry. You end up racking up quite a bill to get the babies out and about. As such, I try to take mine to a lot of schooling shows and cheaper alternatives to give them mileage as much as I can to keep the costs down whilst still giving them competition experience.
I know this is not a problem that is exclusive to eventing, as it is even moreso in the hunter/jumpers where the show fees and registration fees make it almost non-cost effective to produce your own horses as opposed to buying the finished article from abroad. I depart for Kentucky today, so the babies are in the very capable hands of my girls at home, and I have high hopes that some of them will be on the trailer making the trip in the years to come.
