Website summary: He is often referred to as a horse whisperer, others call him ‘the magic man’, but Gary Witheford, the man who breaks horses in less than half an hour, prefers to call himself a ‘horseman’. As the first man to break in zebras, Gary and his son, Craig, work with horses who present all sorts of problems. These range from refusing to load onto horseboxes, ridden issues such as bolting, bucking, rearing or napping, fear of traffic, farrier or vet phobias and many other challenges faced by horse owners from all disciplines, be it happy hackers or competition horses. In addition to this they specialise in working with racehorses who have a range of issues, most notably those with issues when being loaded into starting stalls. He and his team also break in hundreds of horses each year – although he prefers the term ‘start’ as ‘breaking-in’ is a very negative term. The most notable of his racing successes to date was Sea The Stars for Irish trainer John Oxx and the mighty Kingman for John Gosden. Gary’s expertise in dealing with horses spans over 30 years and he has dealt with many eventers and competition horses. As Gary explains, horses don’t really want to get into a fight and by working them using pressure and release, they quickly learn to look at you as a leader. “The less pressure there is the more the horse will follow you. It’s the herd instinct. Horses are flight animals, whether they are thoroughbreds, ponies or shire horses so you’ve got to go through their thoughts and go back to basics.’ 1 552