Allister Hood

The legendary showman on embracing the journey, his collecting ring assessments and why he’s always watching and learning

- Alex Robinson

WHAT I’ve learnt over the years is that you can’t run every horse in the same way. Each one is different and you must, therefore, adapt a routine to suit his quirks to get the very best out of him.

Some horses don’t like schooling and prefer to hack, and vice versa. We’ve had one or two who hardly stepped foot in the school as it wasn’t their idea of fun. Then there have been others who didn’t enjoy hacking and would happily train in an arena.

With this in mind, you can’t be frightened to divert offa parallel line. If something doesn’t work for one horse, you have to find an alternative route to achieve the end goal. You’ll learn as you go along; I’m still learning and picking things up now.