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)
