Horse Whisperer

Witheford Equine Ltd provides specialist equine services to the horseracing industry.  Gary Witheford works with some of the best known trainers in the industry and his expertise in dealing with racehorses spans over 30 years.

His expertise and accessibility has earned him an excellent reputation in the industry and many trainers count on him as an essential part of their team. Gary's ability to get the best from the most difficult and sometimes most dangerous of horses was identified at an early stage.  Gary soon built up a reputation as the lad who would tackle any horse.  Eventually, he decided to concentrate on bringing on these difficult youngsters.

Ignoring the horse’s past history he would start from scratch, building up its confidence until it was safe and ready for racing.

Over 30 years, Gary has developed a unique insight into the psychology of the horse, he is passionate about the work he does with horses and has created his own unique techniques to deal with equine traits and behaviour in a shorter period of time than it usually takes using more ‘traditional’ methods.  His training methods are based on observation of horses in the wild.

He does not resort to beating, shouting or abuse, but uses calmer, straightforward methods that allow the horse to quickly learn and respond in the light of their own natural behavioural patterns.  In this way they learn to accept human control as quickly as possible and are ready for race training in a much shorter space of time.

Witheford Junior

Craig Witheford is as dedicated to his work as his father and is just as in demand.  With the combined skills and availability of both Withefords we are able to offer more support than ever for horses undergoing remedial work at Westcourt, at trainers’ yards and at the races.

Craig’s jockey skills are held in high regard and are invaluable for the trickier cases and for stalls tests.  He covers race meetings all over the country with and independently of Gary and has proved time after time that he has inherited the same talent as ‘the old man’!

We welcome Gary to the Cotwold Show again this year and look forward to his entertaining and highly informative demonstrations throughout the weekend.