Anthony Patch and Laine Ashker get a feel of the Bluegrass beneath their feet once again; Laine told me she’s spent the last couple of days in Georgia, at Chattahoochee Hills, finessing her dressage with Bettina Hoy, and it’s been a sultry 90 degrees there, so the blustery wind and temperatures barely reaching the fifties here in Lexington must have come as quite a shock!
Also making the trip up from Georgia, Becky Holder and her two lovely grey Thorougbreds, Courageous Comet and Can’t Fire Me, going for a wander around the Park.
I bumped into Boyd grazing both his horses, Remington and Otis, and we watched the Kiwis for a little while. We both agreed that getting to watch all the best riders in the world, and observe their different methods of doing things is one of the best things about an international competition, and endlessly fascinating.
Otis agrees! Checking out the competition! Fair warning, the kiwis could well be in the reckoning. I was sorry to miss Jock Paget working Clifton Promise, I just saw the very tail end of his session but the horse is outstanding form, if anything Erik, and I, think he’s wintered fantastically and looks even better again now than he did at Burghley last autumn.
I was lucky enough to be able to chat to Lucy Jackson, above ,who rides Kilcoltrim Ambassador, after she finished riding him. I had already fallen in love with him, he’s very athletic, very quiet on his feet, and then when I stood up to him to talk to Lucy, surprisingly small! Lucy told me he’s only just 16hands, and he’s by an American Thoroughbred called Porter Rhodes who stands in Ireland, “and probably out of a pony mare because he’s so hairy!” Lucy and ‘Sprout’, as he’s known, were supposed to do the Test Event in Greenwich last year but Lucy broke her leg falling off a youngster, “but I was really lucky, they pinned it and plated it and I had six weeks doing nothing and then I hopped back on and he went to Blenheim and did the CIC***, and then he went to Pau CCI**** and he was really unlucky, he tipped up three from home, through no fault of his own, he just had so much engine and jumped HUGE into a double, where everyone else was tired! He was going beautifully.”
The Kiwis: Jock Paget and Lucy Jackson watching Andrew Nicholson
Lucy is deceptively tall – she’s 6’1”! English by birth, and kiwi by marriage she couldn’t sing the praises of the New Zealand programme high enough, describing how she gets to train with legends like Mark Todd and Andrew Nicholson, and the support of the whole system she said, is just incredible, going on course walks with Erik and the rest of the team, it would be hard to match the advice they can give you based on the experience they have amassed between them.
Lucy and Sprout worked first for a while with placing poles to a very low vertical, four or five strides both before and after. Sprout is quite keen, but Lucy still makes him look very soft and adjustable, and even when they added the oxer, the jumps never got much over 3″, they just worked on calmness and relaxation, with Lucy talking lots of mini-breaks and lots of pats and reassurance in between. Jock had finished riding and came straight back up to watch, and stayed to watch Andrew on both his horses, despite the wind which was pretty cold, and getting stronger. The Kiwis are a great tight-knit bunch, always very friendly to everyone else, and super supportive of each other.
Just ten years old, Lucy adores Sprout, and I can see why. “It would be so much fun if they were all like this, he’s just so cool”. She told me his dressage is still a bit of a work in progress, “he’s quite hot on the flat, he still finds that really hard, I think the discipline doesn’t come easily to him, he’s such a natural extrovert that doing what he’s told at all times can be tricky!” As proof of Lucy’s beautiful, tactful riding, she has also been tasked with hacking out Parklane Hawk a couple of times before William arrives later tonight, and although she said everything went very smoothly, she also laughed and said she was extremely relieved to be able to hand the reins back to Jackie in one piece!
Kiwi Team High Performance Team Leader Erik Duvander has a word with Lucy. During all the rides, Erik spoke quietly, sometimes cracked a joke, sometimes made comments or suggestions, listened and watched carefully. All the riders rode separately, none for very long, maybe about fifteen or twenty minutes, and each had a very different exercise for their horse. Andrew Nicholson brought Calico Joe out before I had to leave and jumped him. Compared to Lucy, he got the jumps up a bit bigger a bit quicker and the horse seemed to improve as they got higher, but the jumps still never got much bigger than about 3’6″.
Erik and Jock watch Andrew pop Calico Joe over a few fences. Lucy thinks this is in Irish horse off the track from former eventer Ramon Beca, and Andrew rode him forward and strong in the blustery wind.
After about ten jumps Andrew called it a day and went to swap Calico Joe for his lovely mare Qwanza, who I told him I’d admired grazing on her arrival here, and he agreed with me, and said that she’s a hard worker too, never stops trying. I wish I could have stayed to watch but will be out at the Park all day tomorrow to bring you lots more. Erik and Jock put lots of poles on the ground for her, spread out almost evenly on the points of a large circle, and Lucy shared that that was another perk, all the great exercises they get from their Team Show Jumping Coach Luis Alvares Cervera . I will share that I was very happy to see James Alliston pulling in with his big Graceland rig just as I was driving out, what a marathon journey that has been, more power to him, and give that man a Yorkie bar or two! I’ll leave you with a few more photos from this afternoon to whet your appetite for what’s going to be an amazing week! At this point, Rolex is wide open, anyone could win, the field really is that good! Go Rolex, Go Kentucky, Go Eventing!
Boyd, Remington and Otis head back to the stables.
Andrew and Calico Joe
Erik watches
