SARAH CHEETHAM
(formerly Sarah Bigg)

Grand Prix Dressage Rider & Trainer

Sarah Cheetham has been riding, competing and producing dressage horses up to Grand Prix level for over 20 years. She has trained extensively in Europe with some of the most eminent trainers, including Johann Riegler (Chief Rider, Spanish Riding School Vienna), Johann Hinnemann (Westfalen Auction) Bert Rutten and Conrad Schumacher.  Selected by British Dressage for their British Young Trainers Scheme in 1996, she then enjoyed further training at top establishments throughout Europe. 

She is a BD list 4 judge and is currently based at The Glebe E.C. near Exeter.

Sarah was privately and quite independently using and recommending WINNINGEDGE in respect of her own horses and those of her students for over a year, before being invited by Equifeast to offer an account of her experience with it.

"Spinny (Provender Galant) has to be, quite simply, the most difficult horse that I have ever had to train! Not only is he a real challenge to sit well on, but he also has an explosive temperament that can manifest at the most unpredictable moments.

This is tiresome enough when you are trying to bring him in from turnout, and he suddenly decides to whip around and charge off down the paddock for a further 20 minutes, when you have just got a lead rope on him. But it has also meant that he was always far too dangerous to hack out (even walking 50 yards down the lane to the school at a previous yard was an issue).

Competing him has been a similar challenge. He has the potential to do extremely well – such as winning the Novice Championships in 2002 and placing 3^rd in the Elementary Music in 2005. But the task of getting consistent tests out of him has been a lot of hard work, more often than not hampered by that shadow, patch of light or pot plant by the arena. Frankly, it becomes frustrating getting regular qualifications through to the Regionals, only to have stupid problems preventing him from then either qualifying or performing to his best at the Nationals.

WINNINGEDGE Gold has helped enormously in a whole variety of ways.

First off, he is a safer horse to ride. As a result of the greater steadiness he has shown when he has been on WINNINGEDGE, I have actually been able to enjoy hacking him out on a few occasions. This may not seem like a big deal – but when we met a hedge cutter in a narrow lane a couple of months ago, and the driver didn't stop until he was right on top of the whole ride, as he was so busy concentrating on the hedge he was trimming, the effect of the WINNINGEDGE Gold was all that stood between me and a genuinely terrifying bolt. Spinny is one of those horses that, when he does lose it, he really loses it and bolts uncontrollably. The driver finally stopped and we all managed to walk (well, jog sideways!) past intact.

Less charging around also means less time off injured and less money spent on the physio. I like to turn out as much as possible, but I hate to see horses running around, bucking (and farting) and sliding around in the mud. Again, I have lost count of the times that I have got to an important test, like a Regional, only to realise halfway through the working in, that Spinny has clearly managed to put himself wrong in the field the day before. I am not saying that WINNINGEDGE has entirely stopped his pastoral frolics, but they are considerably less manic than they used to be.

The biggest improvement is in his attitude to daily schooling, both indoors and out. There is no loss of energy – he is not subdued – but he does concentrate and pay attention so much better. The silly distractions of "that corner of the school where someone has moved a chair" or some "little shadow" half way down the long side have improved immensely.  It is a real bonus to be able to get on with the schooling that needs to be done – I can often (not always!) accomplish in twenty minutes in a good, sensible session, what used to take me an hour. And that extra forty minutes of riding is exhausting, when you have a further five or six horses to do.

Competition riding is also a lot easier. There is always quite enough to deal with at any show, without having to worry about not being able to ride your horse into the corners of the arena because of something he doesn't like. However maddening it is, there are always going to be strange setups around the arena – threatening tables, banners, plants – you name it, it will happen. With WINNINGEDGE I can at least get him to consistently concentrate on my aids and focus on riding a decent test, rather than a frustrating eight minutes of damage limitation.

Which is why I only have myself to blame, when in the run up to a recent important competition, I found I had run out a week beforehand. No problem, as a couple of days without (if you understand the loading principle) does no great harm.  But then there was the fact that I had moved, so that Equifeast did not have my latest details, and a query on the order and suddenly it was the weekend, and there was no way it was going to arrive in time.

Let me just say, that I never intend to get in that position again. The show was not a washout, but immensely disappointing in comparison to the work we had been achieving. And dressage is all about months of work being distilled into a couple of eight minute slots. And if you don't prepare properly for those precious few minutes – and that means feeding correctly (because I regard WINNINGEDGE as food for the brain and nervous system, amongst other things), you don't get your results.

The last thing I should mention is cost and ease of use. I use the WINNINGEDGE Gold because of the joint support it contains along with everything else. I am a firm believer in using joint supplements with my competition horses as four year olds onwards. There is no point in throwing in tons of joint support when problems have manifested once they are nine or ten – to me that is a short-sighted strategy. Joint supplements are expensive and once you add in a few other things, like digestive support, or immune support and maybe a hoof product and a calmer, then the bills really do go through the roof. Also it takes a feed chart that covers half the wall and a whole lot of extra time to get the feeds made up every day. The beauty of WINNINGEDGE Gold is that it is a one stop shop. Quick and easy to use and ultimately cost effective if you have the usual gaggle of tubs, bottles and jugs of other stuff on the feed room shelves.

There, I've said a lot – but there is a lot to say about the benefits of this really excellent product."