Sinead and Manoir de Carneville jumping clear at Barbury CIC***
There were many people who were shocked when the US London 2012 Olympic Eventing Team was announced and Sinead Halpin’s name was not one of the five on it. Last year, she and her horse Manoir De Carneville were US National Champions by dint of finishing 3rd at Rolex CCI**** behind Mary King in the spring, and performed impressively that fall at the Burghley CCI****. This year they were second at the Jersey Fresh CIC*** and the Advanced at The Fork, and won the Southern Pines OI, having been excused a four star run by the selectors, and although their dressage at Barbury CIC*** wasn’t as good as it has been, their jumping was, as usual, flawless. Now with the Games behind her, she’s back at Maizey Manor in Wiltshire preparing for Burghley once more, and kindly took some time out to talk to Eventing Nation.
Sinead told me that Maizey Manor is perfect for her and Manoir de Carneville/Tate right now, not only because of it’s outstanding facilities, but also because of the people there too, “Headed by Jax Green, who has had almost every country’s team members sitting at the dinner table, which gives her an interesting perspective and priceless, often hilarious insight when discussing success and failure in a sport – I think we’re a really resilient and great group. It’s really fun right now because Rebecca (Howard) is back here at Maizey, and Esib Power and Allison (Springer) and myself; all of us have known each other for so long and have actually not just known each other, but we’ve all been pretty close friends so we’re comfortable asking for advice. Everybody knows each other’s programmes well enough to let something sit, and I think we have a really open-minded group, especially after the last month of team training when you just had so much information and so much knowledge being given to you from all different directions. I think now is a nice time because as a group we’re having more conversations around the table about our thought process and training programmes than we are in the ring, and I think that’s probably the healthy way to go. For me personally, now, I have so much to process, and it’s fun to sit around the table with all these guys , and sit in the barn aisle and chat about that, and when we’re actually in the arena we’re all pretty quiet and doing our own thing and I think that’s probably the right way to go. I think all of us are thrilled with the way the horses are going, I know Tate’s going ten times better now than he was even two weeks ago.”
–
Sinead and Tate jump clear xc at Barbury CIC***
Sinead and Allison are both planning to compete at Hartpury this weekend, which Sinead hopes will allay some of her fitness worries, having had Tate peak for the Games a few weeks ago, “It’s nice to be able to have a run like Hartpury so we’ll have plenty of time to judge where they’re at, and enough time between Burghley and Hartpury if we need to back off or pick up. I’m sitting on quite a fit, streamlined type of horse so I think I just have to have faith in that. Fitness to me has always been something that you have a plan for, but at the same time you’re always trying to read your horse and see where they’re at, and it’s much easier to know where they’re at when you’re galloping them often. I know Allison and I haven’t cantered since that last team gallop. That’s the hard thing to have faith that you can actually let them down for a little bit and then feel like you can pick them back up, so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping it’s okay that I gave him a couple of gallops down.”
Rebecca Howard is also aiming at Burghley after a disappointing Games, but her entry is not yet confirmed, “Rebecca is desperately trying to get into Burghley – we never have this problem in the States with balloting, but when the entry date closes here, it closes. Canada didn’t have an entry and again, it’s something that in North America we wouldn’t even think about but a lot of the Europeans had their entries in for Burghley just in case something went wrong, because it closed the Friday of the Olympics.” If Burghley doesn’t pan out, then Sinead said Rebecca’s looking at Blenheim or Pau instead.
Sinead and Tate Burghley CCI**** 2011
For Sinead, following the same pattern as last year – Hartpury to Burghley, gives her some confidence, although she admits that it’s true sometimes that ignorance can be bliss, “I think I should be competitive. I know the track and I know what I’m getting into a little bit more now, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing! Last year I was slightly naive and so I didn’t know how big the jumps were until the Wednesday, now I actually know so I’m freaking out already! Seriously though, I feel smarter and more mature as a competitor and as a rider this year, and I think I’m much more aware of my horse as well. I just hope to go and show the work and the improvement. Everything has just been so much better than last year; my horse on the flat is ten points more trained than he was last year, and now I just have to get ring savvy and figure out the best way to show that off. The same thing with the jumping phases, his show-jumping has just come on miles, and he’s always been a good cross country horse but I’ve been working on his fitness, and making sure that at that four star track I have a horse left at the end of the course, whereas at Burghley and at Rolex I felt like that last minute he was really at max. I think at both of those tracks I was a little nervous and I ran him quite quick at the beginning instead of saving him, so it’s just basically I’ve matured somewhat in my competitive knowledge, and hopefully that will show through, and hopefully it will go well.”
–
Sinead and Tate show-jump clear at The Fork Advanced earlier this year
Lauren Hough will hopefully be at Maizey Manor for a couple of days next week to give Sinead and Allison a jump, as well as at Burghley, and Bettina Hoy will be based at Maizey after Hartpury to prepare for Blenheim, and also to help with their dressage. Contrary to some of the riders that I’ve spoken to who have told me that a good result at a big autumn event will be personal vindication for them for being left off various teams, Sinead understands the emotion, but doesn’t share it, “I don’t run on that kind of thing, some people do, but I just need to be calm and confident, and work on what I’m doing. That’s what some people need to take to the ring but I just need to take confidence to the ring. I felt confident in my horse the whole way through this whole process. I don’t feel that if they had put me on the team they would have won a medal, no way, but I think my horse would have been very competitive, and he would have jumped around the cross country, and I hope he would have jumped some clean show-jumping rounds. I think Tate would have been wonderful at that venue, he is a very light, fast horse and I think he would have come out of it wonderfully. I think there were a lot of horses that probably didn’t, that are different makes and models and have different mileage – I can’t speak for any of them, but I think it would have been an excellent track for my horse. Hopefully he would have finished on a high forties mark and that would have been of value to the team I’m sure, but they made their choice. I still feel as confident about where we’re at, if not more confident with all the education we’ve received. A great result at Burghley is always a great result at Burghley, so that would be great! I’m very excited to go to Burghley. “
–
Sinead and Tate jumping clear xc to finish 3rd at Rolex CCI**** and US National Champion 2011
Sinead wasn’t at the Olympics; unlike some other nations, the US alternates weren’t given tickets to support their team members or watch the competition, and so not knowing how she’d feel about being there, Sinead booked a trip home to New Jersey to do “a whirlwind three days of teaching” but on reflection thinks perhaps she was too hasty in her decision, ” when I was driving out the venue I knew I would have been fine, I’d let it go.” Sinead was the only reserve required to drive her horse up to the venue at Greenwich, go through the staging process and wait while the rest of the US team trotted up for the First Veterinary Inspection, which she admits was tough, “I was only there for an hour on the hill before I left. The worst bit of the whole thing was probably the first week after finding out, that whole digesting period. It was rough going into the venue but I knew our horses were good. It was sometimes frustrating realising that the reasons the horses went and sat on that hill was not really about the horses, it was more about politically covering all the bases, so for me mentally I was 99% sure when we were driving in there that nothing was changing as far as the team went, so I had plenty of time to wrap my head around that. Turning around and leaving I honestly just felt huge relief, that I was able to make it through that, and that my horse was good, I’m good, we’re both better because of it, and now I get my life back a little bit and get to do with it what I want.”
Since then, Sinead has been kept herself busy traveling around Europe looking at horses, “I went to Ireland, France, Yorkshire, Wales, all over England….I have no idea how many horses I sat on in total! The France and Ireland trips I did in one day and I probably looked at twenty plus horses each day; you get pretty good at saying yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, yes..and in a couple of different languages!”
At home in the US Outfoxed will be for sale as a Young Riders horse, he’s joined by a few youngsters and the Classical King horse, “he’s one we’re toying with; he’s been show-jumping and he’s actually been winning all summer. We decided to send him jumping with Amanda Flint while I was gone because he was quite good at it and it seemed like something fun for him to do while I was out of town, but we might end up selling him down that road just because he’s so good at it! We’ve got a handful of youngsters and then we’re restocking at the preliminary level. It’s just such an education to be around all these top athletes and top horses; it really does narrow down your eye to, number one, what kind of horse it takes to tackle these tracks, which is all shapes and sizes, but also, number two, the kind of horse that’s going to work with you. I think I’m getting better at narrowing down the type of horse that’s the right match for me. It’s been fun watching all the riders and the horses and the matches, what makes them tick for them, what maybe wouldn’t be a good match for me, and then going and trying a bunch of horses so it’s all a good education.”
The trips have ben successful too – “I found a really nice horse up in Yorkshire, a nice mare, and I found another really nice horse in Wales.” Both are at the preliminary level, and the mare will be available for syndication. Sinead also had an emotional reunion of sorts in France, “I saw Tate’s two sisters and his mum which was so cool, it was really, really neat. His sister is actually identical, the mum is 26. Tate’s name plaque was still on his door so there were a lot of memories. It was a quick trip when I went and saw him four years ago, but I remembered his stall even before I got up to it, it was pretty sentimental. The whole family came out, they were all happy, it was really cute.”
–
Sinead and Tate jump clear xc The Fork Advanced 2012
Speaking of emotional re-unions I had to ask Sinead if her fiancee Tik would be at Burghley supporting her, “We’re playing things by ear because he would only be able to come over for a couple of days so we’re going to see how desperate we are. His poor boss has been so patient and let him off so many times, so I’m not sure,” and if they’ve set a date for their wedding yet, “I don’t know! We’re trying to figure it out! We have to find a venue before we come up with a date, but I have a feeling it’s going to end up somewhere warm and in a month that’s handy for event riders, so that will probably be in January but I don’t think it will be this year, because Lord knows we have to base all our decisions around the event calendar!”
Sinead’s mother Bernadette, however, has already booked her ticket and Sinead stressed how much her support and that of Jim Cogdell, both part owners of Tate, has meant, “I owe them a huge thanks; my mom and Jim Cogdell probably had a more difficult time digesting this summer’s decisions, and yet always stayed supportive and proud of both Tate and I.”
Sinead’s time will come, I feel sure of it, as do her many supporters and fans, and even deep down, Sinead herself, “This was not the right year for me to be on that Olympic team, I’ve felt that way as soon as the words came out at that meeting; it took me a little while to wrap my head around it, but then I just realised it’s not my time yet.”
Many, many thanks to Sinead for her time, and wishing her a very successful Fall season and beyond. Go SHE and Go Eventing!
