We continue the second and final part of our interview with Bruce Davidson today. Click here for part 1. We resume the conversation as Bruce talks about Buck, his legacy, and the future.
So what advice did Bruce give his son before he left for Badminton this spring, where incidentally he finished 21st after a clear round cross country, and the best of the North American contingent,
“I didn’t have to say a thing! I said, ‘Good Luck, and, Show ’em how to do it!’ He knows I have all the faith in the world in him, and he’s been there since he was a kid. I can remember the English saying to me when Nancy (Buck’s sister ) was about four, and Buck was about five, ‘Bruce, exactly what do you expect them to get out of this experience?’, because you know the English children should be seen and not heard (!), and in that case probably not even seen!
“Here I was at Badminton with my two little kids in the owners’ tent and the riders’ tent, and Buck telling everybody whether they were hitting the right spot or not at the first fence! As we walked the course I’ll never forget him saying, ‘Well, Dad, Harry could jump this one!’ and there we go, so let’s go and look at the second one then, and by the time we’d got round he’d decided he probably could have jumped about three of the ones that were at Badminton that year. They came home and they built a Vicarage Vee and a Normandy Bank and things like that in our back yard so that he and his sister could race around on foot and practice jumping, and when they got ponies they could do it, and there he is, now he’s doing it, and I expected him to do it. He’s a good guy, he’s a good athlete, a good horseman, a good competitor. I couldn’t be prouder, he’s an exemplary young man and a very kind person.”
Buck of course progressed from jumping on foot at home, to representing the US last year on home ground at the WEG in Kentucky. I asked Bruce if, looking back, team medals or for example, a Badminton or Burghley title, gave him more satisfaction,
“Each is a different thing entirely. I thing being on a team and representing your country, being in that group, particularly in my day, in the old format and back in the ’70’s, team strategy was way different for the first rider as opposed to the last rider depending on how the team was panning out; that was all part of winning a medal, being part of a team, representing your country and doing what you needed to do to get the highest placing all together. Today to win a medal, you want four individuals that all have a chance of winning the individual medal, let them all have a crack at it, and if your cards come up right then your nation will get the medals as well. There’s less team strategy now on the teams that are strong than there ever used to be, because before we would have good team horses, but not necessarily the good individual horses. Now, the teams that win – each of their horses could also win an individual medal.”
“Winning the team medal at Burghley meant as much or more to me than winning the individual on that occasion, and yet it’s a whole lot to throw both at any young person because you don’t even know what either one means at that moment, and there’s just so many emotions that run through your head. As time settles down, I think that anyone who wants to ride on the team obviously wants a team medal more than the individual, and I hope I always rode that way when I was on a team.”
Now of course the Kentucky Horse Park has a constant reminder to Bruce of his legacy, the marvelous statue of him and Eagle Lion. I have to ask him about it,
“It’s a wonderful feeling – it is a funny feeling because I suppose in most cases the statues are supposed to be there after you’re dead, and I guess people are trying to tell me it’s time for me to give up, or die, or I don’t know what! No, it’s very flattering. From my point of view, I always look at it and say hello to Eagle Lion, and that’s the way I look at it.”
Has anyone recognised him at the statue?
“That happens in Kentucky, of course it does, but actually that happens a lot more in Europe than it does here. You have a certain amount of that, but I’m not someone who has a sign on my car, or advertising on my trailer, I play that down as much as I can.”
With his litany of successes, common sense approach, popularity within the sport and vast knowledge, did it even cross Bruce’s mind to apply for the position of US team chef/technical advisor?
“I’m not very political”, he laughs, “I don’t really play that game very well. In my world the coaching position is one that should be selected by the riders that are going. To me, we need a chef d’equipe once in a while to chef d’equipe, but when you’re going to an Olympics or World Championships, let the riders who are going select who goes with them to do the dressage, the show-jumping and the cross country. If you’re not going to have one person that does all three things, and who commands the respect of everyone of their ability to do all three things, then to me you need a temporary person that steps in for the Olympics/Worlds/Pan Ams. Chris Bartle has it right the way he does it, but here we’re not it doing it like that, it seems everyone is going to specialists, I don’t agree with that, I don’t think it works for a three day result and that it has it’s advantages only if they know what they’re doing in the first place. It’s no good touching an event horse up for the show-jumping too soon because maybe he’ll not make a four star horse if you make him too careful too soon; I don’t think the show-jumper understands that side of it so much because they’ve never experienced that, just as I don’t think the dressage person possibly understands that this horse has to be fit enough and do other aspects apart from just dressage. So, no I’m not very inclined to want to be a coach or any position like that.”
So what does make Bruce happy on a day to day basis?
“I like living on the farm, breeding horses, riding horses. I stay busy all day, don’t worry! To relax I swim, garden, I farm, watch more horses do stuff, I like to watch horses do anything! We have a couple of young horses, one that we’ve run on the flat, and the other one’s ready to go. One of them we bred and one of them we got as a yearling. All winter long we went to the training center with our two youngsters and they galloped every morning in the sunrise, and if I could come up with a very fancy racehorse, of course I’d love to do that. I’ve always had an interest and I still enjoy the racing, in fact my young event horse is pretty nice and I think I could probably win a race myself on her! I haven’t give up the dream! If I was lucky enough to have my hands on a good flat horse I’d be very interested.”
If we’re lucky enough it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Bruce in some capacity or another, whether it be following in neighbour Michael Matz’ footsteps and transitioning from winning Olympic medals to training Kentucky Derby winners, or perhaps competing at Rolex again, galloping across country at the Kentuck Horse Park at an event that he’s practically made his own. Either way I can’t wait. I’d like to extend my thanks to Bruce for his time, thank you for reading, and Go Eventing!
