Dressage rider Matt Hicks has paid tribute to the grand prix horse with a huge character who taught him “so much”.
Sheepcote Walnut, owned by Ali and Terry Hill, has died in retirement aged 23. He enjoyed a lengthy career with Matt, competing at national grand prix until he was 20, before spending his twilight years – firmly in charge – at the Happy Horse Retirement home.
“He was so much fun to ride,” Matt told H&H. “We didn’t win lots of rugs and sashes, but I learnt so much from him, about training horses and helping people with tricky horses.”
Matt had just moved to Alton and had not met Ali when he received a call from her, asking if he could help her with Walnut.
“She said: ‘I’ve got this really difficult horse – he goes along and every now and again, he just plants himself and won’t move. Do you want to have a go at riding him?” said Matt.
“I told her to bring him over, that he could stay for a few weeks and we would see how we got on.
“He was very tricky! He knew what he liked and if he didn’t understand something, he just used to down tools and wait until as a rider, you worked out a way of helping him to understand it.
“He was a big, chunky, really powerful horse. He had his issues – he had a locking stifle we had to manage, and he didn’t have a great hind leg. Every level I got to, I said to Ali, ’this is probably going to be it’. Then he got to grand prix. And actually, Inter II and grand prix were his most successful levels.”
Walnut contested his final season as a 20-year-old in 2021 and in his veteran years, gave his owner the joy of riding the high-level movements at home.
He was always a character. Matt recalled stories of Walnut’s antics – escaping while coming off the lorry at a show, ditching his rider out hacking and galloping home, seemingly putting ideas into his field companions’ heads about not being caught. But his connections loved him for who he was, treated him as an individual and worked with his quirks.
“Once we got to know him, he taught us so much,” said Matt. “I had to think about and analyse everything I did. And when he did slam the brakes on, you knew you had to ask him another way.
“He was really intelligent and completely ran the yard. He was a very, very special horse.”
Matt cited riding their grand prix freestyle test as among his favourite memories with Walnut, along with trips abroad, and trying to get inside the horse’s mind during training.
He added that Walnut “opened so many doors”, from introducing him to trainers, to the Hills, who are now great friends and own several others with him, and for what he taught him about training and management.
After Walnut retired from ridden work, Matt and the Hills decided that a retirement home would suit him best. He joined Happy Horse Retirement in the Brecon Beacons in July 2022, quickly settling into the herd and never losing his cheeky sense of humour.
“I just used to love riding him, every day,” said Matt. “We had great times with him. Everything we did was an experience, but always educational and always really great fun.
“I was very lucky that his owners really understood him. They really got him, I think it was because Ali used to ride him. There was never any pressure or disappointment, we were always just really pleased with what he achieved.
“There were things he shouldn’t have been able to have done, but he did them. Trainers weren’t wrong when they said he wouldn’t do them, but he really did learn and did them to the best of his ability. We just found a way.”
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