Over the stable door: My new recruits are set for jumping challenge

I still have various orders to fill but I am satisfied with the recent purchase, who has already proved her worth winning races over an extended trip on the flat. She will try her hand at hurdling later this winter before a dual campaign next summer. Her schedule for the coming months, after settling in to her new home, will be flatwork and a steady introduction to jumping when ready. Another new arrival is a two-year-old sprinter. The owner wants him prepared for juvenile hurdle races next year (juveniles are three-year- olds). Each animal needs different types of work to arrive at the same outcome eventually. Already they have different muscle structures established, due to the nature of the races they have run and their degrees of maturity. The older horse is athletic and light, having plenty of stamina muscle fibres allowing her to be successful over a distance whilst the sprinter has densely packed muscle fibres for explosive speed. The fastest speed a horse has recorded on the track is 55mph – a record held by US Triple Crown Champion "Secretariat" in the 1973 Belmont Stakes. He won the 12-furlong race by 31 lengths. Generally racehorses travel between 30-35 mph on the flat and slower over jumps.

I teach a mature student studying for her Equine degree who is basing her thesis on the various training methods of racehorses. For the purpose of her study I gave the new recruits nicknames in order to liken them to human equivalents. The older horse was called Paula and the sprinter Daley. My pupil looked perplexed, she had heard of Paula Radcliffe but who was Daley? The 80s is obviously too distant a memory even for a mature student.

My initial goal is to develop balance and suppleness in the horses' general outline so they learn to listen to the riders' aids. Up until now they have only needed the basic – go, go faster and stop. Then I work on making them use their hindquarters, invaluable for the jumping muscles to build up. Two-year-olds have little in the way of stamina. Generally, they are bred for speed or have yet to develop the necessary strength to cope with distance so I will be limited with how much Daley can cope with before he needs to be turned away to mature.

Once the basics are learnt, I introduce the jumping. The hurdler must learn about stride, distance and rhythm without relying on a rider to judge it for him, as a show jumper would. This should be second nature, as mistakes can be costly.

I am fortunate to have a sand pit at the yard, built to reduce the risk of accidents when breaking horses in. It has proved invaluable for introducing horses to jumping, allowing youngsters to loose school over fences. It will be interesting to see how well the recruits take to their new job.

Yorkshire-based Paul Hanagan, our newly-crowned Champion flat jockey, has proved himself a worthy hero. He has generously donated his last two weeks' earnings to the Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool. Bearing in mind he has ridden in 100 races and won 74,000 in prize money during that time, it equates to a whopping sum of almost 20,000.

Jo Foster trains horses at Brookleigh Farm, Menston.