In case you hadn’t heard, one of GB’s top eventers, and ERA chairman Francis Whittington is returning to the US next week to give a clinic before his Badminton preparations, and the sixteen-odd competition horses on his yard in England mean travelling is out of the question. Seeing as he’ll be in Ocala, it almost seemed rude not to give the Eventing Nation another live blog, and who better to pair him with this time than with one of the US’s top eventers and PHC chairman Jon Holling.
In an interesting dynamic, both men are startlingly similar, living almost parallel lives on different sides of the world. Both supremely talented, hard-working, both active within the eventing community, both poised on the verge of long and brilliant careers, both family men and fathers of young children…
Start thinking about everything you want to ask them – about their respective organisations, competing in the UK/US, finding those lovely horses, preparing for the big events, teaching philosophy, balancing family and a professional life?
The time – 6pm
The date – Next Tuesday 17th January
The Place – Eventing Nation (you can take it anywhere!)
Do join us if you can, no dress code and BYOB. See you next week, and go eventing!
I was so pleased to catch up with Lara Borson Knight who’d travelled up from Nashville to Cincinnati for the Area 8 annual meeting, because after admiring her horse Shooby Do at the Hagyard Midsouth Team Challenge when he won the Preliminary 3 Day division last autumn I’d made a mental note to talk to her for EN, and then, typically, promptly forgotten all about it! While watching the DVD’s as part of the Mary King “virtual clinic” I discovered that Leah Snowden and her husband bred and raced Lara’s horse, and having thought what a long way Lara had travelled to the AGM, I then discovered she now makes almost that same journey every week as head trainer at the Makers Mark Secretariat Center at the Kentucky Horse Park – the eventing world is a small world indeed!
You can find more information on the Makers Mark Secretariat Center here. To steal a quote from Dorothy Crowell, who adopted two horses from them last year and proudly calls herself a Thoroughbred snob, “Nothing reaches so profoundly into my soul as the gleam in that exceptional Thoroughbred’s eye. The MMSC provides unique access to some of the best athletes in the equine industry, and does an amazing job both in preparing horses for their second careers and in matchmaking. I am truly pleased with the two horses I adopted (from Darley Stud originally) and I look forward to future partnerships”. I can’t say enough nice things about the thoroughbred, and I’ve got lots more stories to bring you about OTTB success stories, so depending on your taste, that’s either something you can look forward to, or alternatively you can consider that fair warning! Go OTTB’s, all TB adoptions, and Go Eventing!
There’s a reason Lexington, Kentucky is known as the Horse Capital of the World. Where else would you go for a walk in the park one afternoon, and find a man grazing his mini horse? Jack DuArte, who is also an accomplished author and wine aficionado let Lily graze Darleigh for a while so we could chat.
Jack told me his Darleigh goes barefoot, and her farrier lives a couple of doors down from him, and it takes him a couple of minutes to keep her hooves trimmed regularly, for which he doesn’t charge. You can read the Herald Leader article about Darleigh here, and do check out her facebook page too. Do you think she IS the most famous horse in Lexington, Kentucky?
Many thanks to Jack for stopping to chat, it was a pleasure to meet you and Darleigh.
Lily and Harry consider trading Leo in – traitors!
Neuf Des Coeurs, ridden by William Fox-Pitt into fourth place at Rolex CCI**** last spring, and into 18th place at Burghley CCI**** later that year.
Well done everyone who got it right, I completely underestimated the Eventing Nation, at my peril, and it won’t happen again. If you have a picture that you think could keep everyone scratching their heads for a couple of days and would like to submit it for the Quiz Question, (as long as it has no copyright issues), please feel free to send it to me at [email protected]. Thanks again for joining in, and go eventing!
Leah Snowden listens to Mary’s comments on the DVD of her ride on Ivy League
If they took the endurance out of Eventing, someone forgot to send Mary King the memo this weekend. Nonetheless, she was up bright and early for another long session of dispensing her words of wisdom, and for everyone listening the morning flew by.
“Virtual Clinic” (brainwave!)
What a brainwave to have a “virtual clinic” in January, and to spend a Sunday morning in a (somewhat!) cosy, meeting room with coffee and doughnuts, watching horsey DVD’s with likeminded people! We watched Beginner Novice up to solid Preliminary level, and the general consensus among those who’d submitted their rides to be critiqued was that they were getting the opportunity of a lifetime. Many of them took notes, and asked questions afterwards.
Mary had told us yesterday that after having her children she’d stopped teaching individual lessons so as to be able to spend more time with them; she also admitted that she much preferred training horses to teaching people, which honestly she found slightly repetitive, “I found myself saying the same things over and over again, ‘kick on, get on with it, lower leg!” Mary does still devote some time to clinics each year, and enjoys those, and we all seemed to be having fun at the virtual one on Sunday!
Rider Position and Fitness
If there was a common theme, it was perhaps the position and stability of the lower leg, Mary thinks this is probably the most important thing, followed by keeping the shoulders and upper body back. A couple of the riders we watched tended to get forward with their upper bodies, which meant they then “stuck their bums out”, and Mary encouraged them to think instead about bringing the pelvis forward. Another nice tip she passed on from Carl Hester, instead of just thinking sit up straight, he told her to “try and make the front of your body longer”. One of the ladies was slightly older, and Mary, who has featured quite extensively already in the Olympic media build up in England as one of GB’s ‘mature’ athletes, encouraged her to do whatever she needed to stay flexible, whether that be yoga, and she used Mark Todd (Badminton winner at 55 years young!) as an example, or stretching, whatever it takes. Also, the day before on weight Mary had commented, “A bigger rider on top of the horse is going to be harder on the horse, and may not be as quick to react. Try and be strict with yourself, and if you need to, go on a diet.”
On the flat several of the riders were told they needed to work on keeping their lower leg more parallel to the side of the horse, not sticking their toes out and constantly bumping the side of the horse with their heels, ( “Your horse shouldn’t need a constant aid to go forward, it is NOT a bicycle and doesn’t need pedaling to maintain motion!”) and that jumping they could have shortened their stirrups by a few holes. Lower leg should be rock solid cross country and forward, and when asked how to achieve it, “constant nagging”, and keep practicing, almost overdoing it, jamming it forward, and don’t grip with the knees, “you should be able to see your toes when you look down as you’re galloping.” Mary is a great advocate of watching yourself on video to learn from, not only your mistakes, but just what you look like. If you can’t get a video, sometimes it’s a matter of something as simple as telling someone to LOOK at their hands while they’re actually riding, yes, they are in their lap, not in front of them, or yes, they are holding one a lot higher than the other, and until they make that brain/eye connection they honestly don’t realise!
Riding Cross-country
On watching one combination stop twice at the same jump, Mary reminded us about carrying a whip, and swapping it from hand to hand during the cross country depending on the next jump, although she said she much prefers the “invaluable pony club kick” to a slap down the shoulder if your feel your horse might be faltering in front of a fence. Mary reminded us to get in the habit, even at the lower levels, of moving away from a fence immediately upon landing, if you save a second at each fence, that’s about half a minute on an advanced course.
Schooling your horse
When assessing the horses on the flat, she immediately looked for straightness, and correct bends through the corners,and was very strict about this with each one. One horse seemed to be slightly bridle lame and Mary recommended lots of strengthening work at home, very forward rising trot, sometimes on the “other” diagaonal, and addressed again that rather than call in a chiropractor or physio, if she feels a horse is beginning to get stiff, or favour one side in particular, she likes to work through it at home in her riding – lots of working through and into the contact, forward work, suppling work; she feels that as a professional rider it’s her job to help her horse as much as possible first via her riding. Interestingly, she also told us she likes to travel away for lessons, and often goes to William Fox-Pitt’s yard in neighbouring county, Dorset, when GB squad Dressage Trainer Tracie Robinson, or Jumping Trainer, Peter Murphy is visiting to share lessons. She feels this gives her a more accurate feel of how the horses will behave at shows, and is another opportunity to get them a little out of their comfort zone, and besides, she told us, William has an amazing arena!
Hitting the Deck
Once we’d been through all the DVD’s submitted by Area 8 riders, we watched some of Mary’s rides with a running commentary, which was a real treat and absolutely fascinating. The first one she picked was her hard fall on Imperial Cavalier at the European Championships last year, and although I found it hard to watch, especially when she’s on the ground, Mary had no such discomfort, happily rewinding it again and again, pointing out the lip of grass coming out of the water, telling us how she’d do it again if she had the chance – “much more condensed canter, I came in too free. The narrower a fence the less a horse will want to stand off it”, and singing the praises of her Point 2 Air Vest!
WInning Rolex
Next we watched her winning cross country round at Rolex last spring on Kings Temptress, and Mary, ever the perfectionist, told us, “no matter how old and experienced you get (wry smile!) you’ll never have a flawless round”, and began to pick out the tiny mistakes she’d made, although to us it looked pretty darn good! Mary knows ‘Tess’ so well, and the mare was so experienced by this event, she told us, that she could afford to cut some corners, take some very tight lines, and really save time on her that way. Mary pointed out that she jumped the trakhener before the pond on the left so that she could put in nine strides to the water, whereas most people got at least eleven. Tess, the mare she bred, broke and has produced herself, goes cross country in a snaffle.
The Difference in riding a CCI****
Mary is still annoyed at herself for taking a long one at the hedge heading for home, pecking on landing and losing a stirrup, and said she gave herself a mental talking-to after that, “For heavens’ sake, Mary, sharpen up, that was really bad riding!” but also addressed how a horse changes during the course of a four star cross country,
“Although they may still have plenty of run left in them towards the end of the course, they just feel very different in their bodies; somehow looser, their reactions are slower, and they can be a bit dull in the body sometimes. Galloping along in straight lines may be okay, but if you have to take a long route, and do twisting and turning near the end that can be much harder work for them.”
Mary used her second placed horse at Rolex last year, Fernhill Urco, as an example of this, explaining that as he was doing his first four star she wasn’t even sure if he’d get the distance and had told Yogi if he got too tired out on course she intended to pull him up. Urco, Mary told us, wouldn’t have been her ideal horse when she first saw him, but won her over with his big movement, lovely jump and presence, but being a mixture of Portugese, Warmblood and TB, he lacks a bit more of the TB blood she prefers, “they’re built to gallop for long distances at speed.” Fernhill Urco is on enforced holiday until the autumn with a minor tendon strain, but Mary expects him to come back in 2013.
The Rolex and Badminton Courses
Mary was full of praise for Derek Di Grazia’s Rolex CCI**** cross country course last year, his debut at Lexington, and at this level,
“I was really impressed with the course in Kentucky. It was quite a tough track, I was surprised; in comparison to Badminton even, it was as technical. There were a lot of questions and I thought it was a fantastic course. It made Badminton seem rather plain. Badminton is not the biggest, boldest, most rider-frightener event it used to be, I think it needs a new course-designer to come in and shake things up a bit.”
Coping with Nerves
Mary spoke about nerves, saying she still suffered from them, and to some extent all the top riders do as much as anyone, but that it’s a matter of learning to cope with them. Everyone is nervous, but everyone deals with it differently, and you need to find a way to stay strong so you can help your horse, and not let nerves get the better of you so that you become weak and loose in the saddle. Mary told us she prefers things quiet before a big cross country, she likes to go to her horsebox and focus and get organised without many people around her. Before a high pressure show-jumping round, for example at Badminton, she’ll try and block everything out of her mind except cantering from one jump to the next, concentrate on getting a really good canter, and to pretend she’s jumping at home, even though she admitted it’s easier said than done!
Once out on the cross-country, Mary said she wasn’t really aware of the crowds or the commentary, except for occasionally on landing after an especially difficult jump, she might hear cheers and the odd, “Go, Mary!” incentive to shout louder as she flies by, hugging those turns, Go Mary, and Go Eventing!
Thank you as always for reading, thank you to Mary for sharing her wonderful stories, knowledge and expertise, and thank you to Area 8 for bringing us all together!
Ireland are currently in the unenviable position of having to qualify a team for the Olympic Games next year based on individual rankings. Their Eventing High Performance Manager Ginny Elliot has named a provisional squad, and training has already begun in earnest so that they can compete at Ballindenisk CIC/CCI*** in February. As the youngest member named to the squad, Camilla Speirs boosted the Irish chances last autumn with a 2nd place finish at Boekelo CCCI*** in Holland on the diminutive but wonderful Portersize Just a Jiff, and she kindly took some time out of her busy schedule of training to answer some questions.
Portersize Just a Jiff at home
Camilla: His stable name is Jif. We bought him from Richard and Deirdre Bourns as a four year old, and he’s now twelve. He is such a softy, and always up for a cuddle in the stable. His one little quirk is when I’m taking the bridle off he loves to scratch his head…on me! He’s the only horse on the yard allowed to do so!
He’s pretty easy-going, and we put our working pupil, Rosin, on him to hack, and Mum also rides him sometimes when we have a number of horses to hack or gallop. He doesn’t get nervous at a competition, but he anticipates the cross-country as he shakes and gets quite wound up.
Fitness and Training Work
Camilla: At home we do a lot of fitness work with him, and he gallops two or three times a week at the gallops with a hill that’s about ten minutes down the road, then he’ll also do a bit of fast cantering at ours at home to keep him blown out .
I train with both Ferdi Eilberg (Irish Eventing Team Dressage Trainer) and Ian Woodhead with him on the flat quite a lot, and their training techniques really complement each other tremendously and I feel that I am getting the best of both worlds as I am very lucky to have such great, professional trainers – it’s trying to fund it all that is difficult, although very worth it!
He is very good at home on the flat and is beginning to get a lot more consistent in this phase at events also; he used to try and use flower pots as an excuse to spook at the big events but thankfully I have managed to anchor the little brat so he doesn’t do do that as much anymore!
It varies on how often I compete him depending on the events coming up, but before a big event I tend not to do a big course on him, but rather a smaller but well-presented course just to get his confidence up. I feel that it’s important for him being so small (15hh) that we big up his ego!
Personally, in my spare time I try and get to the gym three times a week, and I enjoy hanging out with pals or watching tv.
Trying to manage everything!
Camilla: I’m at University in Dublin but I’ve currently put it on hold to focus on my eventing career. I really struggled juggling it last year, and compromising my horses was not an option for me. It’s all or nothing, although I can be a multi-tasker when it comes to doing things I enjoy!
Living in Ireland, traveling to England
Camilla: I usually base my travels to the UK on what events there are, for example, going before Badminton, and usually before a Championship for some training. I used to base myself there each summer at a time but that became too expensive, and also I had too many horses at home. I’m very lucky that I have a good back up structure at home for when I do go away. At the moment I have about seven horses in, and then a few young ones out in the field. We’re sometimes allowed to bring other horses with us to Team Training, but only if they are around three star level and if there’s a spare slot for them.
The Irish Team
Camilla: The Irish morale is fantastic, and we all support each other a lot. Being the youngest on the squad means I do get a lot of teasing but I take it on the chin, this lot don’t let you get too full of it! It’s great though that everybody gets on so well. At the moment we are pulling to get a team qualified by individual rankings, and I think they’ll send the people with the best form, not necessarily by who qualified; we’ll probably find out after Badminton who got selected.
Camilla: I think I almost compete better under pressure! Boekolo was such a great experience, even though it wasn’t on the original agenda! It was fantastic to get out there under such pressure and pull out a good result. Jif really pulled out all the stops and we had a lot of support out there which we really appreciated. I’d love to repeat that result at London!
Camilla’s Backgroud
Camilla: I’ve always ridden. Mum used to leave me on a horse in the stable for about five hours a day when I was about three years old and I never got bored! I started eventing when I was eight years old, and never really thought about doing anything else. Although I come from a very horsey family I have two brothers who don’t ride. My father was Master of our local Hunt, and my mother worked in Leicestershire in a big hunting yard. I would absolutely love to event professionally, it’s whether I can afford to keep it up that will determine it. At the moment it’s all I really have my sights set on. I am sponsored by Tipperary Crystal, Antares Sellier, and Perfect Movement Solutions, and they offer such invaluable support to my career. I am truly grateful to them. Its such an expensive sport and to recieve their support is second to none. Especially this year with the Olympics it is so important to have that financial support, and to be able to concentrate on producing my best results.
Photo supplied by Camilla
Kentucky
Camilla: I’ve been to America once and that was for the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games – what a fantastic place! I would definitely go back if had the horse and it suited, it’s such a great event and very friendly.
Dream Destination
Camilla: A place I would love to go? LONDON!!! Fingers crossed!!
Dream Horse
Camilla: My Jiffy!
Many thanks to Camilla for her time, and wishing her, and indeed the entire Irish squad the best of luck this Spring. Crossing fingers to see Camilla and Jif in London this summer – go eventing!
Photo by Nico Morgan, see more pictures like this at his website
Neuf Des Coeurs, ridden by William Fox-Pitt into fourth place at Rolex CCI**** last spring, and into 18th place at Burghley CCI**** later that year.
Well done everyone who got it right, I completely underestimated the Eventing Nation, at my peril, and it won’t happen again. If you have a picture that you think could keep everyone scratching their heads for a couple of days and would like to submit it for the Quiz Question, (as long as it has no copyright issues), please feel free to send it to me at [email protected]. Thanks again for joining in, and go eventing!
Leah Snowden listens to Mary’s comments on the DVD of her ride on Ivy League
If they took the endurance out of Eventing, someone forgot to send Mary King the memo this weekend. Nonetheless, she was up bright and early for another long session of dispensing her words of wisdom, and for everyone listening the morning flew by.
“Virtual Clinic” (brainwave!)
What a brainwave to have a “virtual clinic” in January, and to spend a sunday morning in a (somewhat!) cosy, meeting room with coffee and doughnuts, watching horsey DVD’s with likeminded people! We watched Beginner Novice up to solid Preliminary level, and the general consensus among those who’d submitted their rides to be critiqued was that they were getting the opportunity of a lifetime. Many of them took notes, and asked questions afterwards.
Mary had told us yesterday that after having her children she’d stopped teaching individual lessons so as to be able to spend more time with them; she also admitted that she much preferred training horses to teaching people, which honestly she found slightly repetitive, “I found myself saying the same things over and over again, ‘kick on, get on with it, lower leg!” Mary does still devote some time to clinics each year, and enjoys those, and we all seemed to be having fun at the virtual one on Sunday!
Rider Position and Fitness
If there was a common theme, it was perhaps the position and stability of the lower leg, Mary thinks this is probably the most important thing, followed by keeping the shoulders and upper body back. A couple of the riders we watched tended to get forward with their upper bodies, which meant they then “stuck their bums out”, and Mary encouraged them to think instead about bringing the pelvis forward. Another nice tip she passed on from Carl Hester, instead of just thinking sit up straight, he told her to “try and make the front of your body longer”. One of the ladies was slightly older, and Mary, who has featured quite extensively already in the Olympic media build up in England as one of GB’s ‘mature’ athletes, encouraged her to do whatever she needed to stay flexible, whether that be yoga, and she used Mark Todd (Badminton winner at 55 years young!) as an example, or stretching, whatever it takes. Also, the day before on weight Mary had commented, “A bigger rider on top of the horse is going to be harder on the horse, and may not be as quick to react. Try and be strict with yourself, and if you need to, go on a diet.”
On the flat several of the riders were told they needed to work on keeping their lower leg more parallel to the side of the horse, not sticking their toes out and constantly bumping the side of the horse with their heels, ( “Your horse shouldn’t need a constant aid to go forward, it is NOT a bicycle and doesn’t need pedaling to maintain motion!”) and that jumping they could have shortened their stirrups by a few holes. Lower leg should be rock solid cross country and forward, and when asked how to achieve it, “constant nagging”, and keep practicing, almost overdoing it, jamming it forward, and don’t grip with the knees, “you should be able to see your toes when you look down as you’re galloping”. Mary is a great advocate of watching yourself on video to learn from, not only your mistakes, but just what you look like. If you can’t get a video, sometimes it’s a matter of something as simple as telling someone to LOOK at their hands while they’re actually riding, yes, they are in their lap, not in front of them, or yes, they are holding one a lot higher than the other, and until they make that brain/eye connection they honestly don’t realise!
Riding Cross-country
On watching one combination stop twice at the same jump, Mary reminded us about carrying a whip, and swapping it from hand to hand during the cross country depending on the next jump, although she said she much prefers the “invaluable pony club kick” to a slap down the shoulder if your feel your horse might be faltering in front of a fence. Mary reminded us to get in the habit, even at the lower levels, of moving away from a fence immediately upon landing, if you save a second at each fence, that’s about half a minute on an advanced course.
Schooling your horse
When assessing the horses on the flat, she immediately looked for straightness, and correct bends through the corners,and was very strict about this with each one. One horse seemed to be slightly bridle lame and Mary recommended lots of strengthening work at home, very forward rising trot, sometimes on the “other” diagaonal, and addressed again that rather than call in a chiropractor or physio, if she feels a horse is beginning to get stiff, or favour one side in particular, she likes to work through it at home in her riding – lots of working through and into the contact, forward work, suppling work; she feels that as a professional rider it’s her job to help her horse as much as possible first via her riding. Interestingly, she also told us she likes to travel away for lessons, and often goes to William Fox-Pitt’s yard in neighbouring county, Dorset, when GB squad Dressage Trainer Tracie Robinson, or Jumping Trainer, Peter Murphy is visiting to share lessons. She feels this gives her a more accurate feel of how the horses will behave at shows, and is another opportunity to get them a little out of their comfort zone, and besides, she told us, William has an amazing arena!
Turning the Tables
Hitting the Deck
Once we’d been through all the DVD’s submitted by Area 8 riders, we watched some of Mary’s rides with a running commentary, which was a real treat and absolutely fascinating. The first one she picked was her hard fall on Imperial Cavalier at the European Championships last year, and although I found it hard to watch, especially when she’s on the ground, Mary had no such discomfort, happily rewinding it again and again, pointing out the lip of grass coming out of the water, telling us how she’d do it again if she had the chance – “much more condensed canter, I came in too free. The narrower a fence the less a horse will want to stand off it”, and singing the praises of her Point 2 Air Vest!
WInning Rolex
Next we watched her winning cross country round at Rolex last spring on Kings Temptress, and Mary, ever the perfectionist, told us, “no matter how old and experienced you get (wry smile!) you’ll never have a flawless round”, and began to pick out the tiny mistakes she’d made, although to us it looked pretty damn good! Mary knows ‘Tess’ so well, and the mare was so experienced by this event, she told us, that she could afford to cut some corners, take some very tight lines, and really save time on her that way. Mary pointed out that she jumped the trakhener before the pond on the left so that she could put in nine strides to the water, whereas most people got at least eleven. Tess, the mare she bred, broke and has produced herself, goes cross country in a snaffle.
The Difference in riding a CCI****
Mary is still annoyed at herself for taking a long one at the hedge heading for home, pecking on landing and losing a stirrup, and said she gave herself a mental talking-to after that, “For heavens’ sake, Mary, sharpen up, that was really bad riding!” but also addressed how a horse changes during the course of a four star cross country,
“Although they may still have plenty of run left in them towards the end of the course, they just feel very different in their bodies; somehow looser, their reactions are slower, and they can be a bit dull in the body sometimes. Galloping along in straight lines may be okay, but if you have to take a long route, and do twisting and turning near the end that can be much harder work for them”
Mary used her second placed horse at Rolex last year, Fernhill Urco, as an example of this, explaining that as he was doing his first four star she wasn’t even sure if he’d get the distance and had told Yogi if he got too tired out on course she intended to pull him up. Urco, Mary told us, wouldn’t have been her ideal horse when she first saw him, but won her over with his big movement, lovely jump and presence, but being a mixture of Portugese, Warmblood and TB, he lacks a bit more of the TB blood she prefers, “they’re built to gallop for long distances at speed”. Fernhill Urco is on enforced holiday until the autumn with a minor tendon strain, but Mary expects him to come back in 2013.
The Rolex and Badminton Courses
Mary was full of praise for Derek Di Grazia’s Rolex CCI**** cross country course last year, his debut at Lexington, and at this level,
“I was really impressed with the course in Kentucky. It was quite a tough track, I was surprised; in comparison to Badminton even, it was as technical. There were a lot of questions and I thought it was a fantastic course. It made Badminton seem rather plain. Badminton is not the biggest, boldest, most rider-frightener event it used to be, I think it needs a new course-designer to come in and shake things up a bit.”
Coping with Nerves
Mary spoke about nerves, saying she still suffered from them, and to some extent all the top riders do as much as anyone, but that it’s a matter of learning to cope with them. Everyone is nervous, but everyone deals with it differently, and you need to find a way to stay strong so you can help your horse, and not let nerves get the better of you so that you become weak and loose in the saddle. Mary told us she prefers things quiet before a big cross country, she likes to go to her horsebox and focus and get organised without many people around her. Before a high pressure show-jumping round, for example at Badminton, she’ll try and block everything out of her mind except cantering from one jump to the next, concentrate on getting a really good canter, and to pretend she’s jumping at home, even though she admitted it’s easier said than done!
Once out on the cross-country, Mary said she wasn’t really aware of the crowds or the commentary, except for occasionally on landing after an especially difficult jump, she might hear cheers and the odd, “Go, Mary!” Incentive to shout louder as she flies by, hugging those turns, Go Mary, and Go Eventing!
Thank you as always for reading, thank you to Mary for sharing her wonderful stories, knowledge and expertise, and thank you to Area 8 for bringing us all together!
Mary and Imperial Cavalier at the 2010 WEG in Lexington
Mary mentioned the Olympics several times during her talks over the weekend; having competed in five Games that’s hardly surprising. Each time she told us she’s gone home afterwards and wondered if she’d still be as keen and eager in four year’s time for the next Olympics. If there was any doubt about Mary’s drive for success at London, let me squash that right now!
“I don’t know why I’m still so keen, I feel very lucky that I’ve still got this real drive in me to get to the Olympics and be successful, but I have, I really have. There may be a few reasons: mainly because I still love the sport, I just love competing, I love producing these horses, starting off with these young horses who have no idea what life’s all about, who have no idea what they can possibly do with their bodies, what their future holds, and seeing how they change from event to event, how they progress – I find that fascinating. The fact that I’m also still fortunate enough to have success at the top level really keeps me going. As far as the Olympics, I’ve been very lucky and done five already so I’d better try and beat Mike Plumb’s record (laughing!), that’s one reason for trying to get to my sixth, but also I’ve been very fortunate and I’ve won a bronze and a silver medal but there’s one missing….!”
Mary focussed on Greenwich on Saturday night, comparing it hopefully to Barcelona, her favourite Games so far because the Equestrians will really be in the midst of the action, staying, sleeping and eating in the Olympic Village with all the athletes, and immersed in the Olympic culture. Mary quickly debunked the rumours that being on home soil will give Team GB an edge,
“I’m thrilled to bits it’s in Greenwich, but it’s of no advantage to the British riders, none at all. It’s going to be very different to what we’re used to. I suppose we’re so lucky in England, we have these amazing venues like Badminton and Burghley, these open, galloping estates with plenty of space, not unlike the wonderful Kentucky Horse Park here for Rolex, but Greenwich will be totally different. It’s a park, in the City; it’s extraordinarily undulating, you wouldn’t believe how hilly it is, and in an enclosed area so it will be quite a unique course to ride, for all nations, I don’t think anyone will ever have ridden around a cross country course on such undulating ground in quite such a compressed area.”
Although Mary has four horses qualified, realistically her hopes for London rest on Imperial Cavalier and King’s Temptress, and I caught up with her briefly before her voice ran out to ask about her plans for a spring campaign,
“The main stadium at Greenwich is down in the dip at Greenwich, and the last ten minute warm-up area is very small, and very close to the stadium, so those last ten minutes before you ride your test you’re going to be in a very small area next to the big, high stadium and it is high with all the seating for so many people, while the previous rider does their test, and if you’re unfortunate enough to follow, let’s say, Michael Jung or somebody, then the applause will be massive, and that next rider, you, is going to be on their horse right under that grandstand and will have to go in right as the crowds are cheering, so there’s a lot of possibilities for horses to become very tense, so that’s my main concern.”
Although competitive to her core, Mary is realistic,
“Whatever level you’re competing at, all you can do is prepare what you feel is your absolute best, and go to that event as prepared as you can be, and at the end of the day, whatever happens happens. If you end up winning that’s wonderful, but if you do the best you feel you can, and if your horse performs his best in each phase then that’s all you can ask for, and you just have to hope that that your best is good enough to win it.”
Mary was up bright and early on Sunday and spent the entire morning critique-ing riders’ videos in a “virtual clinic” before she catches her plane back home to England in the afternoon. Her event horses are back in work, and her sixth Olympic campaign will begin in earnest. As she signed many books, and as she told us before finally calling it a night on Saturday, “Horses are great levelers, but you have to focus on the positive and follow your dreams!”
Thank you again to Mary, to Area 8, to you for reading, and Go Eventing!
With all the excitement of attending the Area 8 AGM with Mary King as the guest speaker, I very nearly forgot about the Weekend Quiz Question, but just in the nick of time…! Which four star eventer is THIS?! Each week I’m positive I have you stumped and that has yet to happen. Once again, I feel quite sure absolutely no-one could possibly have a clue who this could be, but….we’ll see. No prizes, bragging rights only. Answer on monday probably. Go Eventing!
Mary and Imperial Cavalier at the 2010 WEG in Lexington
Mary mentioned the Olympics several times during her talks over the weekend; having competed in five Games that’s hardly surprising. Each time she told us she’s gone home afterwards and wondered if she’d still be as keen and eager in four year’s time for the next Olympics. If there was any doubt about Mary’s drive for success at London, let me squash that right now!
“I don’t know why I’m still so keen, I feel very lucky that I’ve still got this real drive in me to get to the Olympics and be successful, but I have, I really have. There may be a few reasons: mainly because I still love the sport, I just love competing, I love producing these horses, starting off with these young horses who have no idea what life’s all about, who have no idea what they can possibly do with their bodies, what their future holds, and seeing how they change from event to event, how they progress – I find that fascinating. The fact that I’m also still fortunate enough to have success at the top level really keeps me going. As far as the Olympics, I’ve been very lucky and done five already so I’d better try and beat Mike Plumb’s record (laughing!), that’s one reason for trying to get to my sixth, but also I’ve been very fortunate and I’ve won a bronze and a silver medal but there’s one missing….!”
Mary focussed on Greenwich on Saturday night, comparing it hopefully to Barcelona, her favourite Games so far because the Equestrians will really be in the midst of the action, staying, sleeping and eating in the Olympic Village with all the athletes, and immersed in the Olympic culture. Mary quickly debunked the rumours that being on home soil will give Team GB an edge,
“I’m thrilled to bits it’s in Greenwich, but it’s of no advantage to the British riders, none at all. It’s going to be very different to what we’re used to. I suppose we’re so lucky in England, we have these amazing venues like Badminton and Burghley, these open, galloping estates with plenty of space, not unlike the wonderful Kentucky Horse Park here for Rolex, but Greenwich will be totally different. It’s a park, in the City; it’s extraordinarily undulating, you wouldn’t believe how hilly it is, and in an enclosed area so it will be quite a unique course to ride, for all nations, I don’t think anyone will ever have ridden around a cross country course on such undulating ground in quite such a compressed area.”
Although Mary has four horses qualified, realistically her hopes for London rest on Imperial Cavalier and King’s Temptress, and I caught up with her briefly before her voice ran out to ask about her plans for a spring campaign,
“The main stadium at Greenwich is down in the dip at Greenwich, and the last ten minute warm-up area is very small, and very close to the stadium, so those last ten minutes before you ride your test you’re going to be in a very small area next to the big, high stadium and it is high with all the seating for so many people, while the previous rider does their test, and if you’re unfortunate enough to follow, let’s say, Michael Jung or somebody, then the applause will be massive, and that next rider, you, is going to be on their horse right under that grandstand and will have to go in right as the crowds are cheering, so there’s a lot of possibilities for horses to become very tense, so that’s my main concern.”
Although competitive to her core, Mary is realistic,
“Whatever level you’re competing at, all you can do is prepare what you feel is your absolute best, and go to that event as prepared as you can be, and at the end of the day, whatever happens happens. If you end up winning that’s wonderful, but if you do the best you feel you can, and if your horses to perform his best in each phase then that’s all you can ask for, and you just have to hope that that best is good enough to win it.”
Mary will be up bright and early on Sunday and spend the entire morning critique-ing riders’ videos in a “virtual clinic” before catching her plane back home to England in the afternoon. Her event horses are back in work, and her sixth Olympic campaign will begin in earnest. As she signed many books, and as she told us before finally calling it a night on Saturday, “Horses are great levelers, but you have to focus on the positive and follow your dreams!”
Thank you again to Mary, to Area 8, to you for reading, and Go Eventing!
It will be a miracle if Mary King has any voice left after a marathon speaking engagement this weekend – a full morning and afternoon session on Saturday, the keynote speaker after dinner, then the “virtual clinician” on Sunday before catching her flight back home. However Area 8 members are lapping up the information, and seem overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Saturday afternoon’s session was primarily about Mary’s training, fitness and breeding programme, and the longer she spoke, the more she surprised most people in the room with just how old-fashioned and down-to-earth she still is, “I like to keep things as natural as possible”. Many times she would stress keeping the horse happy, whether as an aid to keeping weight on, or to improve performance, but just because in general it’s all supposed to be fun too.
Training
It was quite nice too to see a slightly tougher side emerge. Of course we all know it’s there; you don’t garner six top ten CCI**** placings in a year purely by being nice, there’s a steely competitive drive there, and it showed a few times. Mary described to us how she raises her babies – very patiently and methodically, “Be strict with yourself about the way you do everything with them from the very beginning”. They stay out in the field until their 3 year old year, and then she uses the few months down time in the off season to break them to tack and back them herself. Once the event horses come back into work in January, they get turned back out until the following year. Mary likes to lead the youngsters off an older horse a lot to get them used to traffic and see things, rather than long reining, and her horses often don’t start jumping until their 5 year old year.(“Not to blow my own trumpet but I do believe that the more you press them as young horses, the less long they’ll last as older horses”. Case in point: King William did FIFTEEN long format CCI****’s and never went lame). She likes to use a neck strap early on with all her youngsters, and then side reins with elastic bungies to encourage a rounder outline. Even at the very basic level, straightness is important, a round outline, even long and low, going forward to the contact and accepting the rein, proper bend through the corners.
Mary on Kings Temptress at Burghley CCI**** 2011
Many people were surprised to learn that Mary only owns 3 acres, and relies on the kindness of farmers who’s fields she borrows for schooling. She doesn’t have an arena, or school in one; as so many events in England take place on grass, she feels it stands her in good stead to train in open spaces and not for her horses to get used to being on an artificial surface. That being said, she told us she would never dream of jumping her horses on grass without studs in; at any level they all wear studs, even if it’s just the babies wearing one on the outside of each shoe. Once they’ve upgraded to intermediate, they’re deemed worthy of two studs in each shoe, and a breastplate, but loosely attached! Tight breastplates – another bugbear of Mary’s; the saddle should fit correctly.
Spookiness in a horse she told us, is often in their nature, and is often not something you can train out of them, but something you have to put up with and adapt to, but most certainly NOT something that should be used as an excuse. “If a horse ducks out cross country I would really be quite cross! Stop them. Be quite strong. Turn back to the fence. Smack them! ALWAYS carry a jumping whip cross country” There’s that grit!
Another thing that Mary repeated over and over again was confidence: the horse’s confidence is of the utmost importance, and you want to do everything you can to avoid shaking that, no matter what the situation.
Rider Position
Mary told us she learned most of her cross country riding by copying – from watching videos of Lucinda, Ginny, and Mark Todd and trying to ride like them. She told us how Pat Manning had drilled into her the importance of maintaining a still lower leg position no matter what. Mary wants us to be soft in the rein, allowing the horse the freedom to use his head and neck over the jump, to sit quietly and softly cross-country, and stay out of the horse’s way, and yet be ready to be effective when needed and cited William Fox-Pitt and Mark Todd as perfect examples.
“Of course, there’s exceptions to every rule, and Andrew Nicholson is that – he basically just rides cross country standing up in his stirrups with his hands down, longish stirrups, he’s unique, you’d never teach anyone to ride like him, but he rarely falls off!”
Mary has developed a jumping saddle with Barnsby, close contact, forward cut and without a lot of knee roll,and uses it for both cross-country and show-jumping phases. To much amazement she shared that she jacks her stirrups up NINE holes for cross country from her dressage length. At Rolex last spring, she only had one jumping saddle for both horses, and seven horses between her two rides; she jumped four fences on Kings Temptress, none big, and when the warm up steward, present at the AGM remarked on it, Mary explained that at a 3 Day Event she would never jump more than six fences, that William Fox-Pitt and many others are similar, and that especially with Tess (Kings Temptress) who is not the best jumper but tries so hard, she feels it’s far more important for her to go into the ring having cleared a few practice jumps, albeit small, rather than having made an effort over some big fences, knocked them down and become demoralised – the confidence factor again.
General Stable Management
Moving onto feeding and stable management and this is where Mary really raised some eyebrows – no physio, no chiropractic, no joint injections. Her horses go out every day, the young ones live out, the five year olds event from the field. She feeds a coarse mix (sweet feed) in the morning, and a mix of pellets and chaff at lunch and dinner, but in small amounts. She starts all her horses in rubber bits, then eggbutt snaffles, but if they get strong cross country would prefer a stronger bit to fighting to keep control. The young horses go down to the river to play and splash, go the woods to clamber up and down banks, using natural features as much as possible. The event horses do all their galloping in a sloping grass field nearby unless the ground becomes very firm.
Breeding.
Despite the fact that the first three horses she bred, Kings Fancy, Kings Gem and Kings Temptress, all mares, have gone on to compete at four star level, and the third, Kings Temptress won Rolex CCI**** last year, Mary still insists she’s “not very knowledgeable” about breeding. Mary credits part of her success in her good fortune in being able to produce them herself, and said she also chose fashionable sires in the hope that she would be able to sell the offspring on easily if need be. Kings Gem and Kings Fancy, both by Rock King, have both since been sold as successful Young Rider horses, while Mary competes Kings Temptress for owner Derek Baden. As the highest placed British bred mare at Burghley three times Tess has won the British Breeding Award for Mary and two free embryo transfers each time, and “she’s been popping the embryos out, dear Tess, she’s got so good at it, she’s got it down to a fine art!” Tess now has 3 year olds,2 year olds and a yearling by embryo transfer, as well as an 8 year old gelding that she had naturally and that Mary’s daughter Emily competes at intermediate level. Mary says she still picks fashionable sires, most recently Nick Gauntlett’s CCI**** eventer Chili Morning and Grafenstolz.
Chili Morning and Nick Gauntlett at Burghley CCI**** 2011
Modest, patient and always ready with a quick laugh, or spontaneous remark, Mary has charmed Area 8 this weekend, and according to the treasurer at the Saturday night dinner, singlehandedly turned 2012 into a profit already, but don’t quote me on that because I have a terrible reputation as far as maths is concerned, and it had been a very long day of absorbing information! Massive thank you’s to Mary King of course – apparently tireless, definitely peerless. Thank you to Area 8, especially Cathy Weischoff for supreme organisation, and thank you for reading. Still more to come from poor Mary King tomorrow! Go and Rest, Mary, and Go Eventing!
With all the excitement of attending the Area 8 AGM with Mary King as the guest speaker, I very nearly forgot about the Weekend Quiz Question, but just in the nick of time…! Which four star eventer is THIS?! Each week I’m positive I have you stumped and that has yet to happen. Once again, I feel quite sure absolutely no-one could possibly have a clue who this could be, but….we’ll see. No prizes, bragging rights only. Answer on monday probably. Go Eventing!
It will be a miracle if Mary King has any voice left after a marathon speaking engagement this weekend – a full morning and afternoon session on saturday, the keynote speaker after dinner, then the “virtual clinician” on sunday before catching her flight back home. However Area 8 members are lapping up the information, and seem overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Saturday afternoon’s session was primarily about Mary’s training, fitness and breeding programme, and the longer she spoke, the more she surprised most people in the room with just how old-fashioned and down-to-earth she still is, “I like to keep things as natural as possible”. Many times she would stress keeping the horse happy, whether as an aid to keeping weight on, or to improve performance, but just because in general it’s all supposed to be fun too.
Training
It was quite nice too to see a slightly tougher side emerge. Of course we all know it’s there; you don’t garner six top ten CCI**** placings in a year purely by being nice, there’s a steely competitive drive there, and it showed a few times. Mary described to us how she raises her babies – very patiently and methodically, “Be strict with yourself about the way you do everything with them from the very beginning”. They stay out in the field until their 3 year old year, and then she uses the few months down time in the off season to break them to tack and back them herself. Once the event horses come back into work in January, they get turned back out until the following year. Mary likes to lead the youngsters off an older horse a lot to get them used to traffic and see things, rather than long reining, and her horses often don’t start jumping until their 5 year old year.(“Not to blow my own trumpet but I do believe that the more you press them as young horses, the less long they’ll last as older horses”. Case in point: King William did FIFTEEN long format CCI****’s and never went lame). She likes to use a neck strap early on with all her youngsters, and then side reins with elastic bungies to encourage a rounder outline. Even at the very basic level, straightness is important, a round outline, even long and low, going forward to the contact and accepting the rein, proper bend through the corners.
Mary on Kings Temptress at Burghley CCI**** 2011
Many people were surprised to learn that Mary only owns 3 acres, and relies on the kindness of farmers whose fields she borrows for schooling. She doesn’t have an arena, or school in one; as so many events in England take place on grass, she feels it stands her in good stead to train in open spaces and not for her horses to get used to being on an artificial surface. That being said, she told us she would never dream of jumping her horses on grass without studs in; at any level they all wear studs, even if it’s just the babies wearing one on the outside of each shoe. Once they’ve upgraded to intermediate, they’re deemed worthy of two studs in each shoe, and a breastplate, but loosely attached! Tight breastplates – another bugbear of Mary’s; the saddle should fit correctly.
Spookiness in a horse she told us, is often in their nature, and is often not something you can train out of them, but something you have to put up with and adapt to, but most certainly NOT something that should be used as an excuse. “If a horse ducks out cross country I would really be quite cross! Stop them. Be quite strong. Turn back to the fence. Smack them! ALWAYS carry a jumping whip cross country” There’s that grit!
Another thing that Mary repeated over and over again was confidence: the horse’s confidence is of the utmost importance, and you want to do everything you can to avoid shaking that, no matter what the situation.
Rider Position
Mary told us she learned most of her cross country riding by copying – from watching videos of Lucinda (Prior-Palmer, now Green) Ginny (Holgate/Leng, now Eliot), and Mark Todd and trying to ride like them. She told us how Pat Manning had drilled into her the importance of maintaining a still lower leg position no matter what. Mary wants us to be soft in the rein, allowing the horse the freedom to use his head and neck over the jump, to sit quietly and softly cross-country, and stay out of the horse’s way, and yet be ready to be effective when needed and cited William Fox-Pitt and Mark Todd as perfect examples.
“Of course, there’s exceptions to every rule, and Andrew Nicholson is that – he basically just rides cross country standing up in his stirrups with his hands down, longish stirrups, he’s unique, you’d never teach anyone to ride like him, but he rarely falls off!”
Mary has developed a jumping saddle with Barnsby, close contact, forward cut and without a lot of knee roll,and uses it for both cross-country and show-jumping phases. To much amazement she shared that she jacks her stirrups up NINE holes for cross country from her dressage length. At Rolex last spring, she only had one jumping saddle for both horses, and seven horses between her two rides; she jumped four fences on Kings Temptress, none big, and when the warm up steward, present at the AGM remarked on it, Mary explained that at a 3 Day Event she would never jump more than six fences, that William Fox-Pitt and many others are similar, and that especially with Tess (Kings Temptress) who is not the best jumper but tries so hard, she feels it’s far more important for her to go into the ring having cleared a few practice jumps, albeit small, rather than having made an effort over some big fences, knocked them down and become demoralised – the confidence factor again.
General Stable Management
Moving onto feeding and stable management and this is where Mary really raised some eyebrows – no physio, no chiropractic, no joint injections. Her horses go out every day, the young ones live out, the five year olds event from the field. She feeds a coarse mix (sweet feed) in the morning, and a mix of pellets and chaff at lunch and dinner, but in small amounts. She starts all her horses in rubber bits, then eggbutt snaffles, but if they get strong cross country would prefer a stronger bit to fighting to keep control. The young horses go down to the river to play and splash, go the woods to clamber up and down banks, using natural features as much as possible. The event horses do all their galloping in a sloping grass field nearby unless the ground becomes very firm.
Breeding.
Despite the fact that the first three horses she bred – Kings Fancy, Kings Gem and Kings Temptress, all mares, have gone on to compete at four star level, and the third, Kings Temptress won Rolex CCI**** last year, Mary still insists she’s “not very knowledgeable” about breeding. Mary credits part of her success in her good fortune in being able to produce them herself, and said she also chose fashionable sires in the hope that she would be able to sell the offspring on easily if need be. Kings Gem and Kings Fancy, both by Rock King, have both since been sold as successful Young Rider horses, while Mary competes Kings Temptress for owner Derek Baden. As the highest placed British bred mare at Burghley three times Tess has won the British Breeding Award for Mary and two free embryo transfers each time, and “she’s been popping the embryos out, dear Tess, she’s got so good at it, she’s got it down to a fine art!” Tess now has 3 year olds,2 year olds and a yearling by embryo transfer, as well as an 8 year old gelding that she had naturally and that Mary’s daughter Emily competes at intermediate level. Mary says she still picks fashionable sires, most recently Nick Gauntlett’s CCI**** eventer Chili Morning and Grafenstolz.
Chili Morning and Nick Gauntlett at Burghley CCI**** 2011
Modest, patient and always ready with a quick laugh, or spontaneous remark, Mary has charmed Area 8 this weekend, and according to the treasurer at the saturday night dinner, singlehandedly turned 2012 into a profit already, but don’t quote me on that because I have a terrible reputation as far as maths is concerned, and it had been a very long day of absorbing information! Massive thank you’s to Mary King of course – apparently tireless, definitely peerless. Thank you to Area 8, especially Cathy Weischoff for supreme organisation, and thank you for reading. Still more to come from poor Mary King tomorrow! Go and Rest, Mary, and Go Eventing!
Cathy Weischoff scored a home run, in fact hit the ball out of the state if that’s correct baseball terminology, when she booked Mary King as the guest speaker for the Area 8 AGM in Cincinnati. Saturday morning saw the convention area packed with eventers all looking somewhat awkward out of barn clothes, but easily recognisable nonetheless – there’s just something about horsey people, we can sniff each other out at a hundred paces!
In a short introduction, her Rolex first and second placing last year brought by far the biggest cheer, and Mary admitted that Kentucky does indeed harbour many happy memories for her because of that, and of course her Team Gold at the WEG the year before.
King’s Temptress and Fernhill Urco, 1st and 2nd at Rolex CCI**** 2011
Mary spent the morning chronicling her career, starting from riding on the vicar’s pony, and her first competition in the local gymkhana bending race (she finished second despite an unpromising start because her pony was having an untimely pee!) all the way to clinching the HSBC Classics series and becoming the No.1 rider in the world at Pau last October.
Absolutely frank, with a DVD to illustrate some of her rides at the greatest events, and always genuine and ready to have a giggle at herself, she kept everyone extremely well-entertained for almost three hours.
The buzz around the hotel is that she’s the best speaker ever, and I’ve heard guests comparing stories about various times they’ve met her before, and how wonderful/normal (!) /likeable she is, it’s all true! Beatlemania in Cincinnati; the suitcase of autobiographies that Mary brought with her sold out in minutes, and I imagine she might be almost as sore tonight as she was after her fall at the Europeans last autumn after she’s been hugged and squeezed in photos and signed countless books, pictures, programmes, pieces of paper, all with unfailing good humour and a smile of course.
That smile…she did tell us about coming out the Barcelona Olympic show-jumping arena after having “quite a few fences down” and seeing some of her old Pony Club members out to support her, so waving and smiling at them for which she was bollocked by the GB selectors who told her it made it appear as if she didn’t care. Mary told us her mother always told her to smile whether you win or lose, and her attitude is definitely that she feels incredibly fortunate just to be eventing, a sport she’s loved ever since she was a young pony mad girl.
However, she did touch briefly upon having to make a living; Mary tries not to own any horses herself anymore, and most of her horses except for three who are owned by one person are all owned by different people. Bills are sent out monthly, and owners will try and get different companies involved to raise cash. Mary herself works with many different sponsors, both for products and financial reward – she was beautifully outfitted by Joules, and is an HSBC ambassador.
Mary was at her most animated talking us through her cross country rides on DVD, “Good Boy” at the finish! She talked us through various mistakes she’d made, and interestingly pointed out that some of the fences “you’d never be allowed a drop into water that big nowadays” (the water at the European Championships in Ireland 1991), or whilst looking at the Beaufort Staircase at Badminton, “these days it’s not half as difficult now!”. Mary tries to procure videos of her falls and studies them, owns them and learns from them, turning them into a positive experience, and then says instead of dreading riding that same type of fence again, she looks forward to it and correcting that error. Mary also talked about fate, “you’ve got to have a bit of luck in this sport or it’s not meant to happen” and used both losing an individual Olympic medal in the show-jumping on Call Again Cavalier, (he hadn’t had a penalty for two years prior to those 8 faults) and King’s Temptress’ first ever show-jumping clear at CCI**** level at Rolex last spring as examples – you win some, you lose some, and sometimes there is no explanation!
Sadly Mary won’t be returning to Rolex this spring as her top two horses Imperial Cavalier and Kings Temptress won’t contest a CCI**** before the London Olympics. Imperial Cavalier will be going to plenty of County shows to try and get used to the atmosphere and hubbub in an effort to lessen his enthusiasm in the dressage, “he just enjoys it a little bit too much which can sometimes spoil his test”, and both horses will have a busy spring competing, including a CIC*** as per the wishes of the GB team selectors. Surprisingly, Mary’s been relatively unlucky in her Olympic endeavours thus far, and despite the national anomaly, I think that most people in this room today, and many, many more fans besides will be cheering Mary on in London this year. Go Mary King, and Go Eventing!
(A huge thank you to Area 8 for wonderful organising, and lots more coming from the later sessions)
Cathy Weischoff scored a home run, in fact hit the ball out of the state if that’s correct baseball terminology, when she booked Mary King as the guest speaker for the Area 8 AGM in Cincinnati. Saturday morning saw the convention area packed with eventers all looking somewhat awkward out of barn clothes, but easily recognisable nonetheless – there’s just something about horsey people, we can sniff each other out at a hundred paces!
In a short introduction, her Rolex first and second placing last year brought by far the biggest cheer, and Mary admitted that Kentucky does indeed harbour many happy memories for her because of that, and of course her Team Gold at the WEG the year before.
King’s Temptress and Fernhill Urco, 1st and 2nd at Rolex CCI**** 2011
Mary spent the morning chronicling her career, starting from riding on the vicar’s pony, and her first competition in the local gymkhana bending race (she finished second despite an unpromising start because her pony was having an untimely pee!) all the way to clinching the HSBC Classics series and becoming the No.1 rider in the world at Pau last October.
Absolutely frank, with a DVD to illustrate some of her rides at the greatest events, and always genuine and ready to have a giggle at herself, she kept everyone extremely well-entertained for almost three hours.
The buzz around the hotel is that she’s the best speaker ever, and I’ve heard guests comparing stories about various times they’ve met her before, and how wonderful/normal (!) /likeable she is, it’s all true! Beatlemania in Cincinnati; the suitcase of autobiographies that Mary brought with her sold out in minutes, and I imagine she might be almost as sore tonight as she was after her fall at the Europeans last autumn after she’s been hugged and squeezed in photos and signed countless books, pictures, programmes, pieces of paper, all with unfailing good humour and a smile of course.
That smile…she did tell us about coming out the Barcelona Olympic show-jumping arena after having “quite a few fences down” and seeing some of her old Pony Club members out to support her, so waving and smiling at them for which she was bollocked by the GB selectors who told her it made it appear as if she didn’t care. Mary told us her mother always told her to smile whether you win or lose, and her attitude is definitely that she feels incredibly fortunate just to be eventing, a sport she’s loved ever since she was a young pony mad girl.
However, she did touch briefly upon having to make a living; Mary tries not to own any horses herself anymore, and most of her horses except for three who are owned by one person are all owned by different people. Bills are sent out monthly, and owners will try and get different companies involved to raise cash. Mary herself works with many different sponsors, both for products and financial reward – she was beautifully outfitted by Joules, and is an HSBC ambassador.
Mary was at her most animated talking us through her cross country rides on DVD, “Good Boy” at the finish! She talked us through various mistakes she’d made, and interestingly pointed out that some of the fences “you’d never be allowed a drop into water that big nowadays” (the water at the European Championships in Ireland 1991), or whilst looking at the Beaufort Staircase at Badminton, “these days it’s not half as difficult now!”. Mary tries to procure videos of her falls and studies them, owns them and learns from them, turning them into a positive experience, and then says instead of dreading riding that same type of fence again, she looks forward to it and correcting that error. Mary also talked about fate, “you’ve got to have a bit of luck in this sport or it’s not meant to happen” and used both losing an individual Olympic medal in the show-jumping on Call Again Cavalier, (he hadn’t had a penalty for two years prior to those 8 faults) and King’s Temptress’ first ever show-jumping clear at CCI**** level at Rolex last spring as examples – you win some, you lose some, and sometimes there is no explanation!
Sadly Mary won’t be returning to Rolex this spring as her top two horses Imperial Cavalier and Kings Temptress won’t contest a CCI**** before the London Olympics. Imperial Cavalier will be going to plenty of County shows to try and get used to the atmosphere and hubbub in an effort to lessen his enthusiasm in the dressage, “he just enjoys it a little bit too much which can sometimes spoil his test”, and both horses will have a busy spring competing, including a CIC*** as per the wishes of the GB team selectors. Surprisingly, Mary’s been relatively unlucky in her Olympic endeavours thus far, and despite the national anomaly, I think that most people in this room today, and many, many more fans besides will be cheering Mary on in London this year. Go Mary King, and Go Eventing!
(A huge thank you to Area 8 for wonderful organising, and lots more coming from the later sessions)
2012, the year of the London Olympics is upon us, and Sinead Halpin chatted to Eventing Nation as she made the drive from The Fork, North Carolina to her winter base in Ocala, courtesy of one of her Christmas presents, a new iPhone! The other present, a new dressage ring from her mother, was packed in the back of the truck ready to be put to good use this winter on arrival!
Although I doubt Sinead needs any introduction, let me try and sum it up in one sentence: 2011 was a banner year for Sinead and her flying chestnut Manoir de Carneville as they confirmed their potential, finishing 3rd at the Rolex CCI**** as the top placed US pair, and then went on to the Burghley CCI**** Horse Trials in September, jumping clear cross country again, this time around a massive track, to finish 15th.
Having wrapped up a successful clinic just before the New Year with Rebecca Howard and Lynn Symansky, she was free to enjoy her traditional Dec 31st party, but was very discreet about the celebrations,
“I learned how to play croquet, which I didn’t realise could be quite so competitive; it’s not a high class sport anymore, the way we played it!”
and that was about all I got! There will of course, be croquet in England, but I’m not sure if she’ll have time to play. I asked Sinead what the wonderful Manoir de Carneville aka Tate has done since storming round Burghley last September, and how she plans to campaign him this spring?
“Tate’s done nothing! He came back into work on December 1st so he’s walking, and once we get to Florida I will start to add some five minute trots, and add two minutes to that gradually, but he’s just starting to break back into the land of the working! Reflecting on last year, I’m in a pretty awesome place because I have enough experience now, and good experiences, but for a few small glitches, with this horse at the four star level to really be able to fine tune and improve the small things here and there that I think will actually make quite a big difference. I feel the same amount of pressure as everyone else trying for that ultimate goal, but I feel pretty good, I’m excited! I think I need to get both Tate and myself in the competition ring more, and it’s not necessarily at more events because I actually only ran him at five or six events last year, but I want to work on the competitive side. I am going to go down to Wellington, I will take some lessons, but the goal is to get into the ring, I want to show-jump him a bit.”
Sinead won’t only be working on perfecting the physical demands of eventing, but also concentrating on handling nerves,
“I had an interesting conversation with Sean McCann, our USOC sports psychologist about the whole mental aspect of the game. He told me that this whole year will be about pressure, and that I should actually be hoping for the most amount of pressure that I’ve ever dealt with in my life. I want to be hoping that come the summer I’m walking into the show-jumping ring in a medal position, and that’s going to be more pressure than I’ve dealt with. He advised me that the time to start dealing with that is now, to start putting myself in those situations so I can figure out how best to deal with it. I think that’s an interesting piece of advice, and I certainly want to get into a competitive environment more often than I did last year.”
After a discussion with the US Selectors and Captain Mark Phillips, Sinead and Tate will not contest Rolex in the spring, although he will be there as a “guinea pig” to perform the test ride for the dressage judges.
“I’m not going to run him there; I just think it’s a lot and he proved himself quite well on the cross-country last year. He’ll do an intermediate at Southern Pines, and then I’ll run him at the CIC at The Fork, and then he’ll get a little bit of downtime, and now I’m trying to decide whether I go to Europe a little early and I would do the CIC at Luhmuhlen and then hopefully Barbury Castle, but if that’s something that’s not going to happen then I would do Bromont and fly to Europe from there and do Barbury.”
In the meantime, Sinead and her team, headed up of course by the multi-talented, uber-head girl Meg have a busy winter, and the first, and one of the most important things on Sinead’s calendar is the PRO Derby Cross. Sinead explained why it means so much to her,
“First of all, I love the idea of Derby Cross; when we started it years ago it was really a sport to showcase eventing, because I feel that amongst the disciplines we probably get the least amount of exposure, or good publicity. Also, it’s a great way to integrate the sports and get conversations going. I know from personal experience now, that last year I met a lot of show-jumpers and polo players and those communication lines stay open throughout the year, and many of the riders on the other teams did the same thing, and we all really started to connect with people outside of our own disciplines which promotes everything from good riding and training, to sales. I really love the idea of it, I believe in it and I believe we can bring eventing to a new group of spectators who maybe aren’t going to hoof around a several-mile cross country course; I think we can highlight what we do in a really fun way.”
With two eventers on each team, one who’s represented their country internationally, a show-jumper and a polo player, and first class commentary from John Kyle, last year’s Derby Cross at Wellington was certainly wonderful entertainment, and this year the teams already look stacked with talent – you may well be watching this summer’s Olympic riders in action early. Look out for Sinead on Unbelievable, a 10 year old KWPN mare owned by Kim Harrar and evented by Jill Lukens up to Prelim level, but as Sinead explained, with a jumping history in her background (she spent time in Ann Kursinski’s barn but wasn’t quite Grand Prix standard) Sinead’s hoping she may have the dark horse!
“She’s a wicked jumper and really cool. I’m pretty excited because she’s a horse that’s done the jumpers at Wellington but also gone out and competed cross country”
All the proceeds from the Derby Cross go to Operation Homefront, a charity that PRO has supported for the last year, and was able to donate about $11,000 to as a result of it’s efforts.
VIP tickets are still available, but you can wander in and watch for free if you’re in the neighbourhood, and if not, the USEF will be live video streaming it this year.
I’d like to thank Sinead for her time, and wish her a fabulous 2012. You can read her wise and insightful blogs on COTH, and then you can get the real scoop from Meg right here on EN! Smart, witty, fun, talented and kind – to know Sinead is to love her, how can you not? I imagine to have her on your team must be awesome. Go USA and Go Eventing!
2012, the year of the London Olympics is upon us, and Sinead Halpin chatted to Eventing Nation as she made the drive from The Fork, North Carolina to her winter base in Ocala, courtesy of one of her Christmas presents, a new iphone! The other present, a new dressage ring from her mother, was packed in the back of the truck ready to be put to good use this winter on arrival!
Although I doubt Sinead needs any introduction, let me try and sum it up in one sentence: 2011 was a banner year for Sinead and her flying chestnut Manoir de Carneville as they confirmed their potential, finishing 3rd at the Rolex CCI**** as the top placed US pair, and then went on to the Burghley CCI**** Horse Trials in September, jumping clear cross country again, this time around a massive track, to finish 15th.
Having wrapped up a successful clinic just before the New Year with Rebecca Howard and Lynn Symansky, she was free to enjoy her traditional Dec 31st party, but was very discreet about the celebrations,
“I learned how to play croquet, which I didn’t realise could be quite so competitive; it’s not a high class sport anymore, the way we played it!”
and that was about all I got! There will of course, be croquet in England, but I’m not sure if she’ll have time to play. I asked Sinead what the wonderful Manoir de Carneville aka Tate has done since storming round Burghley last September, and how she plans to campaign him this spring?
“Tate’s done nothing! He came back into work on December 1st so he’s walking, and once we get to Florida I will start to add some five minute trots, and add two minutes to that gradually, but he’s just starting to break back into the land of the working! Reflecting on last year, I’m in a pretty awesome place because I have enough experience now, and good experiences, but for a few small glitches, with this horse at the four star level to really be able to fine tune and improve the small things here and there that I think will actually make quite a big difference. I feel the same amount of pressure as everyone else trying for that ultimate goal, but I feel pretty good, I’m excited! I think I need to get both Tate and myself in the competition ring more, and it’s not necessarily at more events because I actually only ran him at five or six events last year, but I want to work on the competitive side. I am going to go down to Wellington, I will take some lessons, but the goal is to get into the ring, I want to show-jump him a bit.”
Sinead won’t only be working on perfecting the physical demands of eventing, but also concentrating on handling nerves,
“I had an interesting conversation with Sean McCann, our USOC sports psychologist about the whole mental aspect of the game. He told me that this whole year will be about pressure, and that I should actually be hoping for the most amount of pressure that I’ve ever dealt with in my life. I want to be hoping that come the summer I’m walking into the show-jumping ring in a medal position, and that’s going to be more pressure than I’ve dealt with. He advised me that the time to start dealing with that is now, to start putting myself in those situations so I can figure out how best to deal with it. I think that’s an interesting piece of advice, and I certainly want to get into a competitive environment more often than I did last year.”
After a discussion with the US Selectors and Captain Mark Phillips, Sinead and Tate will not contest Rolex in the spring, although he will be there as a “guinea pig” to perform the test ride for the dressage judges.
“I’m not going to run him there; I just think it’s a lot and he proved himself quite well on the cross-country last year. He’ll do an intermediate at Southern Pines, and then I’ll run him at the CIC at The Fork, and then he’ll get a little bit of downtime, and now I’m trying to decide whether I go to Europe a little early and I would do the CIC at Luhmuhlen and then hopefully Barbury Castle, but if that’s something that’s not going to happen then I would do Bromont and fly to Europe from there and do Barbury.”
In the meantime, Sinead and her team, headed up of course by the multi-talented, uber-head girl Meg have a busy winter, and the first, and one of the most important things on Sinead’s calendar is the PRO Derby Cross. Sinead explained why it means so much to her,
“First of all, I love the idea of Derby Cross; when we started it years ago it was really a sport to showcase eventing, because I feel that amongst the disciplines we probably get the least amount of exposure, or good publicity. Also, it’s a great way to integrate the sports and get conversations going. I know from personal experience now, that last year I met a lot of show-jumpers and polo players and those communication lines stay open throughout the year, and many of the riders on the other teams did the same thing, and we all really started to connect with people outside of our own disciplines which promotes everything from good riding and training, to sales. I really love the idea of it, I believe in it and I believe we can bring eventing to a new group of spectators who maybe aren’t going to hoof around a several-mile cross country course; I think we can highlight what we do in a really fun way.”
With two eventers on each team, one who’s represented their country internationally, a show-jumper and a polo player, and first class commentary from John Kyle, last year’s Derby Cross at Wellington was certainly wonderful entertainment, and this year the teams already look stacked with talent – you may well be watching this summer’s Olympic riders in action early. Look out for Sinead on Unbelievable, a 10 year old KWPN mare owned by Kim Harrar and evented by Jill Lukens up to Prelim level, but as Sinead explained, with a jumping history in her background (she spent time in Ann Kursinski’s barn but wasn’t quite Grand Prix standard) Sinead’s hoping she may have the dark horse!
“She’s a wicked jumper and really cool. I’m pretty excited because she’s a horse that’s done the jumpers at Wellington but also gone out and competed cross country”
All the proceeds from the Derby Cross go to Operation Homefront, a charity that PRO has supported for the last year, and was able to donate about $11,000 to as a result of it’s efforts.
VIP tickets are still available, but you can wander in and watch for free if you’re in the neighbourhood, and if not, the USEF will be live video streaming it this year.
I’d like to thank Sinead for her time, and wish her a fabulous 2012. You can read her wise and insightful blogs on COTH, and then you can get the real scoop from Meg right here on EN! Smart, witty, fun, talented and kind – to know Sinead is to love her, how can you not? I imagine to have her on your team must be awesome. Go USA and Go Eventing!
It is indeed none other than accomplished GB Event Team Vet Liz Brown. Congratulations to everyone who got it right, and thank you to everyone who had a go. I have yet to find a question that no-one can guess the answer to correctly, perhaps 2012 will be my year? However, it certainly swells my pride in the Eventing Nation, what a clever lot you are, and it keeps us on our toes to know we have such an informed and interactive readership, thank you, thank you always, and I look forward to another year with tremendous happiness and excitement. Go Eventing Nation!
That don’t include joining a gym, or giving anything up, but instead enriching your equestrian education! (along with your peers in a comfortable location, food and drinks provided – what’s not to like?)
Mary King at Burghley CCI****2011.
As well as taking the top two places at the Rolex CCI**** in Kentucky this spring, Mary also placed in the top ten at four other CCI****’s this year.
Area 8 is hitting the ground running in 2012 – Mary King is attending the Annual Meeting in Cincinnati for the weekend of the 6th and 7th January, non-members are welcome to attend her talk on the Saturday morning, the dinner and silent auction that evening, as well as the “virtual clinic” on Sunday morning. See the PDF form here for more details. If you’re from out of town, you may as well make plans to stay and explore the area, because the following weekend we’re hosting none other than William Micklem, of the insightful COTH columns and more, and of course his own bridle that bears his name, at the historical Spindletop Hall here in Lexington, Kentucky.
And if this just whets your appetite to get out there and put everything into practice in person, please send in your applications now for the Francis Whittington clinic presented by KER, at the fabulous Longwood Farm in Ocala, Florida, the week of the 18th and 19th January. Francis will be available for private lessons on the Monday and Tuesday 16th and 17th, and spots are already filling up fast at all levels. The clinic costs $300 including facility fee, and lunch both days will be generously provided by KER. We all had a lot of fun at the last clinic in Georgia, including a group dinner on Saturday night, which I wasn’t allowed to report on, and I don’t expect it to be any different this time, so please contact me ASAP if you’re interested in attending, we’d love to see you.
Usually about two or three weeks ahead is about as far as I can manage to organise myself, although I’m vaguely trying not to over-peak for Rolex, Badminton and of course the Olympics, must pace oneself, although moderation has always been difficult for me, sigh! Hope we all get through the winter safely, all tips for managing the cold much appreciated (except “move south!”) Bundle up, Hunker down, and Go Eventing!
It is indeed none other than accomplished GB Event Team Vet Liz Brown. Congratulations to everyone who got it right, and thank you to everyone who had a go. I have yet to find a question that no-one can guess the answer to correctly, perhaps 2012 will be my year? However, it certainly swells my pride in the Eventing Nation, what a clever lot you are, and it keeps us on our toes to know we have such an informed and interactive readership, thank you, thank you always, and I look forward to another year with tremendous happiness and excitement. Go Eventing Nation!
Something to look forward to in February – a rather special foal from a very special mummy!
I have January taken care of, although Chris Bailey’s weather forecast has put a real damper on my New Year’s Day, and I promise to post the answer to the Quiz later. If you haven’t read it yet, you might enjoy Zenyatta’s diary; as you can see, she looks glowing, serene and fabulous, and I think she’ll make a super mother. I can’t think of a horse that’s done more recently for US horse-racing, and I’m so glad that she’s not only retired sound and happy, and lives in the lap of luxury, but that her legacy will continue not only through her progeny, but in a smaller way her media.
This year promises to be an epic one – of course there are the London Olympics, but on a more personal scale friends will get married, have babies, perhaps both! There’s goals and disappointments, surely. Perhaps more exciting is the unknown quantity – regardless, I’m thrilled that you’re sharing the journey with us, and can’t wait to embark on more adventures. Thank you as always, for reading, Go Eventing, and Happy New Year, Eventing Nation!
Thank you for being a part of Eventing Nation in 2011, and please raise your glass to a fabulous 2012 – let us know what you want more and less of, and we’ll do our best to oblige. In the meantime, which invaluable member of the GB World Class Equestrian Team is this?
Have a Happy, Safe and Fabulous New Year, I look forward to sharing it with you!
