Racing: Higher and higher with Lower

Cheltenham Festival: Master horseman keeps Pipe stable a jump ahead of the rest

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Here's a remarkable fact. Of the nearly 800 runners sent to the races by Martin Pipe this season just 30 – yes, three-oh – have either fallen or blundered badly enough to dislodge their riders. It's a failure rate of 3.7 per cent, a figure which, even factoring in the high standards associated with the Pipe operation, compares most favourably with the overall average of 5.3. And while it's perfectly possible to read anything into statistics, these would seem to suggest that one thing the Nicholashayne horses can do extremely well is jump.

Despite the agility, power, grace and even enthusiasm evinced by the best chasers and hurdlers, jumping is not a natural activity for a horse. Left to themselves they will choose to go around an obstacle rather than over it. At play they gallop and compete from sheer exuberance, but they rarely jump for fun.

And here's another fact, which will probably confirm all the dread suspicions of punters watching their banker sprawling on the floor. Horses jump blind. Well, no, that's not quite true. Of course they can see a fence as they approach it; they know perfectly well it is there. But because of the way their vision works, with eyes set laterally on the head, their point of binocular focus is a metre or so in front of them. As they go towards an obstacle they have to memorise its whereabouts because at the point of take-off they can see it only sideways, each eye working independently. Spooky.

Jumping for a horse is a bit like swimming for a child, an activity that has to be learnt. Some take to it easily and seemingly naturally but all, nevertheless, have to be taught how to do it. Time was when racehorse trainers would do the minimum at home, on the grounds that every time a horse left the ground it was another opportunity for injury. But times have, thankfully, changed. It is now accepted, among the top ranks at any rate, that racehorses should, as in other equestrian disciplines, learn and practise the basics from an early age and go over them regularly to maintain muscle development and hoof-eye co-ordination, much as a footballer will play keepy-uppy and a golfer hit shot after shot on the range.

Many yards import a guru – Yogi Breisner, from the eventing world, being the best-known; he has recently been casting his eye over Gold Cup candidate Bacchanal at Nicky Henderson's yard – but Pipe has his own. Jonothan Lower, once one of the stable jockeys, is now the professor of ballistics among the Pond House back-room boys.

It is 18 years since he arrived, straight from school, at the training stables just down the road from his home in Taunton. He progressed to be second-choice jockey to the star of the moment (Peter Scudamore, Richard Dunwoody, Tony McCoy) and rode 267 winners, but had always struggled with his weight, and the onset of diabetes magnified the problem. He famously took on, and beat, the Jockey Club when he was refused a licence because of his condition, but the practicalities of being unable to diet proved an insurmountable problem.

By 1998 riding in public was over, but not in private, and there was no question of leaving Pond House. "I always loved schooling horses," he said. "Perhaps it was my background in showjumping; when I was 10 my parents bought me a real good pony who would jump anything I put him at, which gave me a lot of confidence and taught me to think about technique.

"When I first came here, though, I have to say we didn't do much schooling. They either jumped or they didn't. But I can remember that we sent one away to be taught to jump indoors over poles by Captain Radclyffe, who did that sort of thing, and when it came back and I rode it into the line of hurdles it was brilliant, it knew what to do and was confident. So that was it, we got an indoor school and started doing it ourselves."

Lower, 34, starts his equine pupils off by teaching them to jump loose, without a rider. The indoor facility at Pond House is an oval enclosed by rails, with the option of two obstacles, built of well-padded poles up to about 2ft 9in in height, on each of the long sides. Here, the young horses jump, and jump, and jump until the technique of leaving the ground is so ingrained that it becomes second nature.

"We start them off over nothing, just a pole on the ground," said Lower, "and build it up gradually. The most important thing is to get them to enjoy jumping and the way to do that is never to frighten or overface them. Once they're enjoying it the battle's won, and to see a horse fire into the school looking forward to doing his job gives real satisfaction.

"The young ones will be in there twice a day, jumping 20 or 30 times each session. They learn so much jumping loose; far more than if they had a rider mauling them about, and if they do get it wrong they learn to sort themselves out. I'm not saying ours never make mistakes on the track, but if they do they very often find another leg. They have a good sense of self-preservation."

The configuration of the indoor arena, with the jumps off and into turns, means that the horses develop the innate balance so vital for any athlete. "Once they get confident in their own skill I start riding them over the pole jumps," said Lower, "and only then will they go outdoors. We've got probably the best teaching facilities in England here – I don't think anyone else has a line of five open ditches – and we've got the best riders too, ex-jockeys like Paul Leach, Martin Ayliffe and Philip Schofield who are proper horsemen as well."

Lower's name has been a recurring theme this season in the dishing out of praise by both Pipe and McCoy in their post-race analyses, notably in connection with their Gold Cup candidate, Shooting Light, who is an addition to the team.

"Obviously, he could already jump," said Lower, "but he was rushy and panicky, as if he just wanted to get it all over as quickly as possible. We started from scratch in the loose school and got him to relax. Now I take the bridle off him and let him go round one way, then the other, he loves it. He's got a brain, just needed it explaining that there was nothing to worry about.

"But the one I'm most pleased with this year is Seebald [a contender for the Irish Independent Arkle Trophy]. Over hurdles you'd hold your breath watching him; not that he was dopey, but he found it hard work to put himself right. Over fences he's so much better, we really concentrated on him in the school and in the end he came out like clockwork."

Lower admits to a pang or two come Cheltenham, scene of past glory days on Sondrio in the Supreme Novices Hurdle and Kissair in the Triumph Hurdle. "I don't miss the wasting, but when I see one of ours flying up that hill I have to swallow a bit," he said. "But then, I get a buzz from having made Tony's job that bit easier. When he gets on one, he knows he won't have to worry about whether it can jump or not."

It would seem that Martin Pipe is, after all, giving his horses something. A potent cocktail of skill, professionalism, attention to detail and expertise.