Peter Gray has competed at countless international competitions including three Olympics, Badminton, Burghley, and three World Equestrian Games. Peter is using his considerable experience to coach the Venezuelan eventing team for the Pan American Games. Peter was kind enough to write to Eventing Nation from their training sessions today in Caracas. Thank you for writing this Peter and thank you for reading.
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Training while the big boss watches over
From Peter:
Good afternoon Eventing Nation from beautiful Caracas, Venezuela, home to the majority of this oil rich country’s 7 million inhabitants, seemingly year round 80 degree weather, rugged mountains, spectacular beaches, lovely people, and the most incredible traffic jams. I am here on my second of three trips conducting pre-Pan Am Games training camps for the Venezuelan eventing team!!
Firstly, I am learning what an impressive feat of determination it has been to get these South American countries qualified without traveling to the US — an incredible effort has gone into organizing FEI competitions for a handful of competitors and I gather they have been well directed by TD’s such as Roger Haller who have gone “beyond” to make these qualifying events happen.
I have a fantastic group of riders! With every training session, I am inspired by their excitement surrounding the imminent Pan Am trip; these guys are all about a good time but during training hours, it is all work and they are astute students.
Team strategy meetings
Our training happens in the middle of the city at a military compound where the team horses are stabled — it was also the site for equestrian competitions in a previous Pan American Games. The footing is superb, however there is a lack of space for conditioning work and our attempts to train at a nearby race track have failed because of risky going.
Our team members are diverse but talented; Pico is a vet and business entrepreneur and also competes in grand prix show jumping, Novis is a high ranking major in the military and the most experienced competitor, Carlos is a horseman extraordinaire and a superb technician, and my assistant, Antonio, is also a major who is the “in-house” trainer. Antonio diligently takes notes and videos on all of my lessons, and follows up with the appropriate homework and supervises the team’s daily training schedule during my absence. Our fourth rider, Elena, has spent a day with us, but she is based at Kyle Carter’s Five Ring Stables in Ocala, FL, and will meet us in Guadalajara with Kyle.
The horses are thoroughbreds or sport horses with warmblood crosses, influenced by some of the top European blood lines. They have been produced slowly and should be very confident at the 2* level. I reckon they all have 4-star ability!
We have been practicing technical skills for the questions John Williams’ course may produce. As for the bravery and confidence for bold cross country riding…well they practice that daily just driving their cars through the streets of Caracas, home to the most incredibly aggressive and chaotice drivers that I have experience. I can’t wait to meet up with my friends on the Canadian and American teams in Mexico, but be warned, we will be fighting for a spot on the podium!!
See you there!
-PSG
