“If they’re happy standing still, let them stand still, although not for too long. As long as their feet are moving, they’re generally happy. Standing still can give them a chance to think too much and get overawed.”
Michael Dee, who hit the heights riding six Group 1 winners last season, also likes to keep his horse moving en route to the gates, but in a certain, disciplined, way.
“I try to trot a lot of horses,” he says “If you bowl off in a strong canter, when you pull up they can be a bit tense. If you make them come back to a trot, it helps them relax, stay focused, and they sort of acknowledge you’re the boss.”
As opposed to Nolen’s pre-race pat, a key for Dee is to “place myself down quietly and gently on their back” rather than risk a jolting jumping-on. He’ll also keep his feet out of the stirrups for prolonged periods, in the mounting yard and behind the barriers.
“I find they stay a lot calmer when your feet are out of the irons,” he says. “Then when you put them in, they sense it might be go-time.”
Jockeys will pat their mounts, and talk to them, as tension builds in the gates. Dee also has another way of respecting the fact the horse is a tactile animal.
"I’ll just use one finger, while holding the reins, to give them a little scratch on the neck. It helps keep them calm and remind them you’re there.”
In a race, our three riders said they’d mostly stay quiet while conveying messages to their mounts via the reins, and with heels and calves to squeeze them into action. That’s not a blanket rule, though.
“Some jockeys love talking during a race,” Nolen says. “Greg Hall never shut up: ‘I’m not gonna get stuck here’, or ‘What are you doing that for?’ You’d just listen to him, and in turn his horse would be listening to him too.
“You can hear Ollie screaming. A couple of others do it. I tend not to, but sometimes I will if I’m leading into the last furlong or so – just making noise. You’re trying to get every advantage you can.”
Finally, most jockeys will give a winning mount a pat to remind them they’ve done well. Meech goes a step further.
“They know when they’ve won a race, so it’s good to give them a good feeling about that,” she says. “But I’ll get off and give them a pat even if they get beat, especially if they’ve tried their guts out, and especially perhaps if it’s a little filly. It helps them feel good.”