‘Don’t overlook them’: amateur owner of multi-talented thoroughbred sings ex-racehorses’ praises

The owner of a former racehorse who was “a bit useless” on the track but has completed Badminton grassroots three times and excelled in showjumping, dressage and showing has urged others not to discount thoroughbreds.

Claire Lewis told H&H she had only had “what I’d call normal riding club horses” before Master Wickham came into her life eight years ago. She said “Darsi” has shattered her previous perceptions of former racehorses, and that he is a “shining example” of what they can achieve with amateur riders.

Claire’s uncle was in a syndicate that owned Darsi during his racing career.

“But he was a bit useless!” she said. “Ironically, he didn’t have a competitive edge then, and didn’t want to win a race. They retired him and wanted him to have a second career and I said I’d have him. I took him on and I’ve had him ever since.”

Claire had not retrained a racehorse before, and there were challenges.

“He was described as ‘quite sharp’ by the trainer,” she said. “He’s quite opinionated and knows what he likes, and they couldn’t keep a jockey on him! But he really enjoys jumping; that seems to be his happy place. I spent 18 months doing things like poles and gridwork, and that seemed to turn him around.”

Claire and Darsi won 21 British Showjumping (BS) classes last year as well as achieving enough placings to net them 497 points. This meant they topped the BS/British Riding Clubs bronze league for the year. They have BS winnings in speed classes, topscores, accumulators and derby classes, and have also had a competitive eventing career. They have competed in the Badminton BE100 final three times, jumping double clear twice and just notching up four showjumping faults on one occasion, and have competed at one-star level.

“I’d say he’s now a real professional horse,” Claire said. “He doesn’t waste energy or get worked up; he’s really calm in the warm-up – once someone crashed into him and he did nothing – but as soon as he gets in the ring, he’s on it. He’s a real show-off and he loves a crowd. I can go as fast as I want, or jump round Badminton, and when we finish, he just switches off.”

Claire added that the versatility of the thoroughbred is well known, but Darsi is excelling across disciplines, not just taking part.

“He’s won nearly £5,000 affiliated showjumping, and there’s the riding clubs stuff,” she said. “And dressage; he qualified for the riding club dressage to music finals and won a national novice final. I’d been trying to qualify for Badminton for 20 years and now he’s done it three times, and he went to the Royal International Horse Show and jumped one of only three clears in the workers.

“The way I looked at ex-racehorses before him; I’d never have thought a thoroughbred would ever do all this. I think people overlook them. The number of ads you see, from people wanting to do all this, that say ‘Absolutely no thoroughbreds’, but they can do everything you want.

“This horse is a shining example of what an ex-racehorse can achieve with an amateur – don’t overlook them.”

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