Andrew and Rutherglen left out of the WEG team
Interview by Christopher Hector and Photos supplied by Stefanie Strobl & Julia Rau
Despite having competed in seven Olympic Games, Andrew Hoy is showing no signs of slowing down, and with his partner Stefanie Strobl, has recently set up a new base, Somerby Stables in Leicestershire, and has his eyes set on yet another trip to the Games….
Chris Hector conducted this interview with Andrew during his recent trip home to Australia.
Tell me about your new set up?
It is very exciting, I am really happy with the new facilities. I have actually done quite a lot of work since moving there and put my own stamp on it. There’s a lot of options, not only for the schooling of my own horses, but also for the schooling of students. There’s going to be good accommodation for students, a new house is being built on site.
There’s also an indoor arena and an outdoor arena. Now in the UK this is very expensive, you pay a lot of taxes, but it’s essential and I am prepared to pay for it because I need to be able to work in all weather conditions.
Then there is also the local Riding for the Disabled group who keep five horses there and that is something that I enjoy doing. I have been very fortunate throughout my riding career and my life that nothing went wrong… There are some really special stories that have come out of the Riding for the Disabled efforts; I am enjoying working with the riders, they are inspirational.
Is this part of a step back from active competition to more of a mentoring role?
At this stage I believe that I have some very good horses. Rutherglen is a very, very good horse, although it didn’t work for me at Burghley this year because he had a virus going into it. I pulled him up on the cross-country course, but I was only two points off the lead after the dressage. And when I pulled him up I was as quick as anyone had been to that point at the seven-and-a-half minute marker, so he is a very good horse, and there is a lot more to come.
But that was most un-Andrew Hoy-ish, because in the past you have had this absolutely uncanny ability to nurse horses, peak them exactly at the right time. This time you couldn’t get it right for Normandy?
I wasn’t selected for the WEG.
I thought you weren’t qualified with Rutherglen?
Yes, I was. I had a four-star qualification with Rutherglen.
But within the twelve months?
Within the twelve months, at Luhmühlen in June. The horse was definitely qualified. I wasn’t selected. I completed Luhmühlen and I finished eleventh, on a 64.7, which is a better score than many of the horses that were going into the WEG.
I wasn’t selected and why I wasn’t selected, I don’t know. But Rutherglen definitely had the qualifications; he had the lowest score at four-star level of all the horses that went. There were lower scores at three-star level, but then there are different criteria for that level.
Looking at the WEG and the results and also the recent Adelaide event, are we in some sort of a system breakdown or is just that sometimes the right people have the right horses and at the moment they don’t? It seems to me that something has gone wrong, that Australia hasn’t really produced enough exciting talent since Christopher Burton and Christopher is hardly young talent any more…
I haven’t been involved in any of the decisions with EA. I am doing more coaching this time on this trip to Australia than in the past. Last year I came out twice to do some coaching. Because I have been so focused on what I’ve been doing, I am not in a position to comment as to why we haven’t got there. In the end it has to come from the rider, regardless of any coaching. The riders have to make sure that they have the desire to do it. I believe that, like in any sport, there are highs and there are lows. I think we have gone through a lower patch…
Andrew and a colourful new prospect, Jack Sparrow…
But this low is looking almost like a permanent condition at the moment?
Maybe I have to be part of changing that.
We still have this massive participation at the lower level. I suspect that on a whole they are riding better horses than have ever been available in the past. And they are still riding over some decent tracks at some decent events. And yet, they are not coming through to that three-star level, let alone on to a four-star. I can’t get quite a handle on why that is?
I feel that the sport has moved enormously from when we last won Gold in Sydney, which – for some people fourteen years is a long time – for me it is not so long ago. I know with where I am riding and with the training and program that I have with my horses, the attention to detail, all that is far greater than I ever had. My dressage has improved enormously.
The technicality on the cross-country is greater. I think the sport has taken a huge transition from the long format to the short format. And at the moment I feel that we don’t quite have the riders who are spending time on this attention to detail. And it takes time. It doesn’t happen just because an event is coming up and you say ‘okay I really need to focus now’.
Christopher Burton came to the UK two or three years ago. And I feel that he is now starting to become secure there and is getting owners. But going to the Northern Hemisphere from Australia is not easy, because there is a huge financial cost involved with that. And you have to make sure that you have things in place. When I did it I had already been in and out of the UK a couple of times and now I have been there for 21 years. But that was when I decided to take up the sport full-time. Prior to that it was a hobby for me. I was making my money outside of the industry.
It has change a lot in that time. I feel that the days are almost gone, when for example like last year at Badminton, you can be well off the pace and come to the top…
But Badminton 2014 was a one-off…
That’s what I feel.
We don’t want the sport back at the stage where poor, tired horses are flogged over the finish line at fifteen-minute intervals, do we?
No, if there were two events to miss this year, then I missed the right events – by not going to Badminton and not going to Normandy.
Normandy was again not acceptable, it was too much of an ask for the horses…
Look, I am not taking away anything from those who won, because if you look at the World Champion, she is definitely a World Champion and that horse is a fantastic horse. Sandra Auffarth is a very, very good rider. The German team are very strong in what they are doing. It is not just Christopher Bartle and Hans Melzer, you have riders out there who are just so hungry for success and they are very focused on producing good performances.
Their training system is a little different from the UK, where they do a lot of dressage and a lot of jumping shows as well. And if you take Michael Jung, well he is good at all three phases. I can remember when he was breaking all of his horses at two-star level, but he is now a rider who is definitely at the top end of the leader board, no matter which competition…