This article was originally published on Eventing Nation
As I think we all know by now, Steph and the lovely Port Authority (aka Ollie), proves that EN karma, along with hard work, talent, a smidgin of luck, all work. 2010 saw them the highest placed Canadian at Rolex in 5th place & also winning the Best Conditioned Prize. They went on to finish 9th individually at the WEG in the autumn, and Steph will once again be blogging for EventingNation this spring. – “if it ain’t broke…?”
I asked her a few basic questions recently so we could get to know her a bit better…
How it all began
Q: How did you start eventing?
Steph: I actually got into eventing thanks to my dear friend, Rebecca Howard. She was part of our family circle from a very young age, mother and her mother worked together at the Hospital, and so my younger brother and I would spend quite a lot of time with all three of the Howard girls, and their idea of babysitting us was to put us on the ponies and lead us around the fields, so they were actually probably the biggest influence on me starting to event as a very young child, and it just sort of went from there.
Q: And now it almost seems like a fairytale that you should both be doing so well, and with a chance of representing Canada?
Steph: Yes, it really is quite special. I worked for Rebecca in 2007 and 2008 at The Fork Stables, so just to have her be such a big part of my eventing career and a big part of my education throughout my whole life, it is definitely really special for me, and I hope for her too that we’re getting to do all this sort of stuff together too now at this point later in our lives.
Training with David O’Connor
Q: The Canadians had such a fantastic year last year, and you now train almost exclusively with team coach David O’Connor?
Steph: Yes, David came out to Vancouver, British Columbia, which is a few hours away from my hometown of Summerland, in January of 2007, which is the first time we met, and it was the first time he saw Ollie. I had been put into a coach’s clinic with him, as a demo rider. It was only a couple of months before I moved to The Fork to train with Rebecca, but I’ve sort of been on and off with him since early 2007 as a supplement to my program with Rebecca, and I’ve been with him pretty much full time since January of 2009.
Q: You’re down in Ocala now, and I presume you’ll continue to train with David through the London 2012 Olympics?
Steph: I make it a point to be pretty near to David throughout the whole year. In the summer I keep my horse at a neighbouring farm and I take lessons from him on a week to week basis. He’s been such a huge help to me, and I definitely try and take advantage of his knowledge as much as I can.
Port Authority/Ollie
Q: Let’s talk about wonderful Ollie! Where did you find him?
Steph: He was not bred in Maple Ridge, but he was in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, which is sort of on the outlying areas of Vancouver. He was bred by the aunt of a man called Jack Polo who runs the Maple Ridge Equestrian Center, and he does a very good job of keeping that Center active for the riders in BC. My understanding is that he was bred for the grand-daughter, there was him and then his full sister who was a year older, I believe, and it just so happened that the girl who Ollie was bred for lost interest in riding, so he came up for sale as a 5 year old and hadn’t done a whole heck of a lot when we got him.
So we got to start right back from scratch with my trainer at the time, Eric Ferrier, who trained at Saumur, in France, and I was lucky enough to have him be a really big part of my riding when I was a teenager, so that was something that was fun to have someone who was such a well-educated trainer at a very young age, and he found Ollie and convinced us that it would be good for him to take him on and ride him for a couple of years, and then I moved onto him after we’d owned him for almost two years, so he had a very good education early on in life.
Q: What sort of breeding is Ollie?
Steph: He is a Galoubet grandson on his father’s side, so he’s half Selle-Francais, and then his mother was a thoroughbred. I don’t think she had any really impressive bloodlines, I just think she was a well put-together, sweet-tempered mare that they decided to breed, and I think that was helpful because the Galoubet line is known for difficult dispositions and I think his mother tempered him out just enough, he’s an intense kind of a character but I think we manage to keep the naughty side of the Galoubet out of him.
Q: Tell us a little bit more about Ollie’s personality..
Steph: Well, I’ve had him for seven years now, so he’s gotten used to a very small group of people working with him and he does get along very, very well with the people that are in his life regularly, such as Dr Ober and our farrier Randy Pawlak, and he does get along very well with David which is nice because David asks a lot of him, but he definitely is a bit stand-offish with strangers. For instance, he met the massage therapist at training camp before the World Games and I think it took him a couple of days to warm up to her, but he is just very smart about people, and will definitely keep a watchful eye on anybody he doesn’t know, he’s just very observant and takes everything in. Once you know him though, he’s completely relaxed with you.
Dr Ober always keeps such a good eye on the horses throughout the competitive season, and I think she gets so used to all these thoroughbred types that get really stressed out, and get ulcers, and go off their feed when they’re really fit and so she regularly asked me, “How’s he feeling, is he eating properly, how do you think his stomach is?” and I always laughed whenever she asked me that, because honestly, this horse would have to be on his deathbed to turn down anything edible! He is the hugest pig! At the World Games he was only getting about three-quarters of a scoop of low-fat grain twice a day, and he’s permanently on a diet. His life is very stressful but he takes his eating very seriously!
Q: It sounds like traveling & competitions aren’t a problem then?
Steph: Oh no! We travelled out from British Columbia to North Carolina in 2007, and that is about a five day trek, and I think after that traveling just doesn’t really phase him. He eats and drinks, and settles in very quickly wherever he goes, so it’s very nice to know that that dynamic of it isn’t stressful, because there’s so much of his life that really is stressful, so to know that he doesn’t care about traveling is a relief.
Maintaining Focus & Composure at Competitions
Q: You both have such a tight bond, which was evident especially at Rolex last year when you were somewhat under the microscope as one of the youngest riders, at just 21 years old, and your first time there. How did you stay so cool and calm, and maintain your composure?
Steph: I do try really hard to keep a solid head on my shoulders. I did work with a sports psychologist when I was in the Young Riders Program. His name was Dave Freeze and he was based in British Columbia so I worked with him a fair amount. He went to the World Games in two different sports and he had an incredible outlook on things: that we as athletes should be very thankful for the opportunity to compete at the upper level, and he impressed upon me that the worst thing in the world would be to find yourself in an opportunity where you could do the sport you love at the highest level and what a shame it would be to waste that opportunity for something so unnecessary as being nervous. I’d never heard anybody talk about it that way before and that really stuck with me. You’re going to get that competitive edge. People say that being a little nervous can help you have a competitive edge, but you’re going to get that no matter what, so if you can try and keep yourself as relaxed, and treat a competition as normally as you can..I think that’s been one of the biggest things for me: to get comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.
Since I’ve stopped working with Dave, because of the distance etc, David is also very good at helping us to stay in a good mental space. It was him who told me at a competition to just, in the morning, put on your sunglasses, put on your ipod, and that way no-one will even try to talk to you if you’re so visibly shutting yourself off and he puts a really big emphasis on using the time in the morning to get into a good mental space, and your mental ability being the gateway to being able to get anything done.
Q: Was it very different riding as an individual with “no pressure or expectations” at Rolex, to riding at WEG as a team member with support and backing?
Steph: Well, for me they were two completely different beasts. Rolex was my first four star. I never really expected to be competing at this level, so Rolex for me was a completely surreal experience. It took me until about three weeks AFTER Rolex to wrap my head around the fact that I was actually doing it! By the time I got to the WEG, I think I was in a completely different head space than I was leading up to Rolex. There were so many things about the two that were different. I absolutely loved the team atmosphere that we had at the WEG, and that group of Canadians was just an incredible support network, and everyone involved from our vet and our farrier, and I think actually only one of our grooms was Canadian, the rest were american, but we all sort of rallied together and supported the Canadian team, so that was a huge difference to have the support system, but as far as the competition goes, they were just two completely different experiences for me.
Spring Plans
Q: And you’re headed to England later this spring. What does your rough plan for the lead-up to Badminton look like?
Steph: February 11th/12th we’re doing our first intermediate of the season at the Florida Horse Park, and then two weeks later we’ll do the advanced at Pine Top, and then probably one or two more advanced before we do the CIC at The Fork in North Carolina, and then the plan is off to Badminton shortly after that…
We wish Steph all the very best of luck, and will be following her avidly. Thanks for sharing with us, thank you for reading, and GO Canucks!
