Carrie Adams - Centre Lines Dressage Stables

Watch out for our new course dates this year, including Introductory Workshops to IH (Inteligent Horsemanship) Techniques, Computerised Rider Analysis clinics and Dressage Test Riding training days

Biography

I can't remember a time when I've not been fascinated by horses and one of my earliest memories is of constantly nagging my completely non-horsey parents to let me go riding. So eventually they relented and took me to a local riding school at the age of four, where we were told that children couldn't normally start until the age of seven but because I was tall for my age they'd see how I got on ! Well that was it and I've been riding and involved with horses ever since. I rode there for a few years before eventually being lucky enough to have my own pony - Smokey, on whom I took part in all the usual Pony Club activities as well as hunting. In time I had a couple of ponies but Smokey was always special.

As a teenager my main interest was eventing, and when I was fifteen my parents bought me my horse of a lifetime - Tramore or Arnold to his friends. If you're really lucky you come across one such horse in your lifetime and indeed Arnie was mine, albeit when I was too young and inexperienced to do him justice. Originally he was bought to event, so after leaving school I went as a working pupil to John Marsdens yard in Lancashire, from where I competed in affiliated Horse Trials. John is an ex-jockey and very accomplished cross-country rider so the help he gave me has been invaluable, especially in learning stickability and how to deal with difficult horses and tricky situations.

Carrie eventing a young Arnie

Then in order to get some formal qualifications and take my BHS examinations, whilst continuing my eventing training at the same time, I went to Lisa Sheddon FBHS in Dorset with two horses. After passing my BHSAI and deciding that Arnie was much happier doing dressage rather than eventing, I sold my other horse and took Arnie to train with Stephen Clarke at his yard in Cheshire, as a working pupil / Head Girl. I had the time of my life and enjoyed every single minute of it. Arnold was fantastically talented at dressage and Stephen adored him as well, so the recipe was one for success and we certainly had our fair share of that. It was a magical combination and we were on the crest of a wave.

Carrie and Arnie competing at Goodwood CDAY

We had a lot of success in Young Riders with our best result being at the Goodwood CDAY in 1984, where we were the highest placed British combination in the Team Test and also the reserve British Champions. In that same year we also set an unbroken record by qualifying for four National Championship classes in the same year - Elementary, Medium, Advanced Medium and Prix St.Georges, being placed in all of them and coming second in the Advanced Medium.

Having already passed my Pony Club A Test, later on that same year I also passed my BHSII exam.

Then, shortly after being short-listed for the British Young Rider team, he had an accident rolling in his stable and fractured his off-hind pedal bone very badly, involving the articular surface, so that was it really, the bubble was well and truly burst. The prognosis was grim and on the day the vets were advising me that he was unlikely ever to return to ridden work again and therefore I should consider having him put down, I had to go and receive the Bianca Sergeant Scholarship, which is given for outstanding achievement in under 25 year-olds ! Life can be so ironic and painful. Anyway, I wasn't about to give up on my best friend so I changed vets, got fantastic help and support and Arnie made it. Although we managed to compete again at Advanced level, he was never quite the horse he'd been but that didn't matter he was always special and I finally lost him a couple of years ago at the ripe old age of 29.

Along the way, whilst being Chief Instructor at Wellow Park Riding School, I won the Lloyds Bank Young Instructor of the Year competition in 1986.

Soon after this I decided to go self-employed, combining competing my own horses with running a training, teaching and livery business. Having rented facilities in other peoples yards for a couple of years, a permanent base for this business was established in 1989 with the acquisition of a plot of land at Collingham near Newark in Nottinghamshire. There was very little there - no water, electricity, fencing or accommodation but Centre Lines Dressage Stables has continued to be developed on this site ever since. It's very much an ongoing process with future plans always on the agenda.

Following injury Arnie returns to Advanced competition after 2-year break

In this time I have trained horses up to Grand Prix and competed and won points with several horses at Intermediaire 1 level, including Prix St.Georges National Championships. I was invited by British Dressage to take part in a training trip to Holland in 1990 and have visited many international shows including Aachen, Brussells, the World Equestrian Games in Rome and of course both times the European championships have been held in Britain at Goodwood and Hickstead. For training my main influences have been Stephen Clarke, Ferdi Eilberg, Sandy Phillips and now currently Chris Bartle. I really enjoy the way Chris combines horse psychology and classical dressage training. Monty did one of his first demonstrations in the UK at Chris' base - the Yorkshire Riding Centre, back in 1989, and he makes reference to Monty in his recent book Training the Sport Horse published by J.A.Allen.

I am currently a British Dressage Group Two rider and one of their registered trainers.

Carrie with foals at home

Breeding several foals from a retired competition mare led to an interest in breeding sports horses 12 years ago. This has included showing warm-blood youngstock in-hand and producing and presenting mares and stallions for grading. During this time I trained and competed the Danish warm-blood stallion Fulton, on behalf of the Westpoint Stud. He had been Reserve Champion at the British Warm-Blood Society Stallion Grading in 1990, and in order for him to gain his Group 1 status he needed to have won points up to and including medium level, which we managed to achieve around his stud duties. Also, through an involvement with the BWBS I have written for, and sat-in with, various continental judges at both their mare and stallion gradings over the last 11 years and I have also been to Germany to visit various studs and breeding yards and to attend both their stallion gradings and mare and foal auctions in Verden and Neumunster.

Since 2003 I have been involved with the BEF Young Horse Evaluation series and I am currently one of their Young Horse Evaluators.

In 1998 I took a particularly difficult four year-old, Ascot Bewes, to Monty Roberts for help. He was used in one of his demonstrations as I was having great difficulty in backing him. The whole experience had a tremendous impact on us both and I have studied and incorporated Montys concepts into my training system ever since. To date Ascot is still the most difficult and challenging horse I have had to start, but I'm eternally grateful to him for taking me on this fascinating journey. From 2002 to date I have also been the External Examiner for the Monty Roberts Horsemanship courses in the UK that are run and organised by Kelly Marks of Intelligent Horsemanship. From 2007 I have also been one of their Recommended Associates.

Ascot Bewes returns to Solihull to surprise Monty with a freestyle to Mambo No.5 !

Horses are always our best teachers and I've been very lucky indeed to have shared my life with so many of them. I owe them all a huge debt of gratitude and hopefully the knowledge I've gained along the way, from making the inevitable mistakes, will continue to make me a better horsewoman and trainer.

centrelines@tiscali.co.uk