Dogs, Horses & Children Provide The Perfect Ingredients For A Dream Team
Bordon Herald , 10 March 2006

SPRING is traditionally the time of new life and rebirth, and for one Oakhanger family spring will herald the arrival of a very special, new arrival of their own.

Kuchina Johnson and her family are famous in the village and in the equestrian world for their horse and dog training, and their mare, Mercedes, is due to have a foal any day now. The new foal is expected this week and Kuchina has already picked out the name, Versace, which will be suitable for either a filly or a colt.

Kuchina and her husband Sam have three children, Frank, 19. Kuchina junior, 11. and Phoebe, 7. They also have six horses and four dogs. Kuchina is the daughter of Brassy Searle, a well-known horse and dog trainer, who is also based in Oakhanger.

She has been training animals all her life and specialises in giving displays at shows. She has also provided specially trained animals for television and has even made several appearances herself. This love of animals has been handed down from her father not only to Kuchina but to her brothers and sisters as well. She is one of 10 children and each one of her siblings has horses.

She said: "My ambition is still to be riding at 77, just as my father does and, as well as that, to have one of my horses or dogs on the front cover of Vogue."

Kuchina rides for a minimum of four hours a day and her daughters ride five times a week. The first animal that she trained was a goat and she has never looked back. "I haven't come across any horse that I couldn't train. My daughters like trying to train the cats," she said.

Kuchina's daughters, Kuchina junior, 11, and Phoebe, 7, both take an active part in the demonstrations which the family gives at shows. They girls are confining a long family tradition, becoming the fifth generation of horse trainers in the fair'y and they even have their own sponsor, the horse feed company, Equilibra. Nicknamed the "dream team" by villagers, the family has become accustomed to being in the limelight. Kuchina and her horses have appeared in many publications including The Sunday People, Horse and Hound, and Woman's Own.

Mrs Johnson said: "I was once told that to appear in a national paper, without having done anything illegal or immoral, was quite rare, which was quite flattering."

Her horses can dance to anything from the highland fling, to Johnny Cash and Madonna.
"I think the only thing we have not done is goth," she said. "The hardest thing to train a horse to do is to get it to burst a balloon with its hoof," she said.

This is something the horses have to learn to do for the show of The Legend of Bodicea. The horse is trained to stamp on a balloon filled with fake blood, which represents a Roman's head. "The little boys love it," she said. But despite Kuchina's strong passion for horses and performing, she does not say yes to every job mat is offered to her. She recently turned down the Trisha show, and a national newspaper who wanted a picture of one of her horses between Jordon and Jodie Marsh.

"It's not the sort of thing we want to be known for. We will do anything from school events to major shows, and if we can attend. we will attend."

One of the things the horses have to overcome in training is becoming accustomed to performing when there are various distractions. Kuchina said: "As the horses cornpete outdoors, with all sorts of distractions, they have to be introduced to different types of noises."

She explained that she is often found collecting up burger boxes and wrappers to lay out in the field to get the horses used to performing with rubbish blowing about. She even went as far as hiring a helicopter for the day and have it land in the horses' field in a bid to accustom them to the sorts of sounds and noises they may have to deal with when performing.

She said the secret of training the horses is time: "The best thing you can have is time; it's the only thing you need to get across what you want. All the horses have their own little treats. One horse likes chocolate, another likes doughnuts. Each horse has its own personality."

Kuchina said she usually, waits until the horses are at least three years old before beginning training. She calls the first training "Nelson's voyage": "Because you only have one arm as you are holding on so tightly, and the whole thing makes you feel quite seasick" She continued: "It's hard work, I must admit. I don't get a chance to see my own reflection most of the time. I will never make a million pounds out of it, but if you measure success by being happy and healthy then I am very successful. I think I have got the best job in the world."

The dream team already has a diary packed with bookings for the coming months. The family also has a "busman's holiday" planned for next month, when they will fly to Barcelona to scout around for horses, and buy special dress tack for the horses and new costumes for the girls.

Next month, they are booked to open a London complex and will be giving a demonstration at a show in Canterbury.