Story by Chris Hector & Roslyn Neave
As someone who has been known to straighten picture frames in restaurants, I can relate to Tim Boland’s brand of obsessive compulsive. As he is showing us his new eventing stable block, he points to the door latches:
“Look at that, no writing on the first two, then they have a brand on the third one but it is upside down! I told the builder he would drive me mad every time I walked down the breezeway…”
Okay Tim, I’m just not in your league of obsessives: “If I walk past my staff house, and one of their left boots is on the wrong side of the right boot, I have to swap them. They go, ‘who is that weirdo going around at 8 o’clock at night swapping boots around?’ Every good barn I have ever been to, everything has been organized, and to me it just feels wrong to see the boots like that.”
There is a serious point to this. Great riders tend to be sticklers for detail. I remember walking down the breezeway at Ludger Beerbaum’s stables, when Ludger spotted a stable bolt, just a couple of centimetres off flush. He stopped talking, walked quickly over, pushed the bolt home, and resumed our conversation. When Tim was in the recent pre-Trans Tasman camp, the squad members were required to come up with their own motto, this was Tim’s:
“I was very proud of myself coming up with this – There are lots of good riders and lots of good horses, but to win, you leave nothing to chance and have absolute attention to detail, that is of course, if you want to win.”
Tell me a little about coming back with Billy – you were within a whisker of being in the Eventing Team at the London Games, but since then, he was out with injury, and then he came back, was selected to go to Taupo, had to scratch with an injury – then missed out on Melbourne too…
“Straight after London, I went to Blenheim, and he was ninth there, end of a long preparation. He came home in 2013, started the season off well, then had a succession of injuries, which he has now fully recovered from. He had the best part of 12 months off. I took him to Europe in June 2014, because there was a better run of events. I could easily have stayed at home and taken him to Adelaide four-star, but he is quite a hard horse to get fit and I just felt that there is a better succession of events over there – of course don’t get me wrong, I love competing in Europe. I treat him like a sound horse, I’m not managing any issues, but it was just wonderful to be able run him on consistently good ground, at high profile events, and just get him back into action. We successfully did that. He ended up running at Ballindenisk in Ireland, CCI*** and was third. We flew him home and he started 2015 in great shape.”
“I’m all about Rio next year. As it turns out, WEG would have been a disaster for Billy, that going would never have suited him with his extravagant action, and his over-exuberant jump, those conditions would have been horrible for him – a 14 minute, four-star. An Olympic Games is what he is made for, that should be his go, and I am just going to cross every T and dot every I to try and make sure it is very hard for them to ignore me come Rio.”
Tim and Billy Elliott
How do you see the run up to Rio shaping?
“The road will not be straight for many of us in the lead to Rio. With horses and particularly eventers there are so many variables. Billy has recently succumbed to a minor injury which ruled him out of Taupo and then Melbourne which was only two weeks later. He is now in the paddock and I have decided to rest him properly and let everything settle and do some one-day events and showjumping in the later part of the season. History shows that selectors are only really interested in very current form. So 2015 form will quickly be discarded. He will then kick off 2016 at Sydney One Day in February and then go to England in early March and prepare for all the major CICs before running at a CCI probably Saumur, Tattersalls or Badminton. I know I have the right horse. I just need to present a compelling case to the selectors so I can’t be overlooked again as I was in London…. Prior to London 2012 Olympics I had run 2nd at Sydney CCI 3 star and won Melbourne CCI 3 star on a score of 41. That still wasn’t good enough for selection!”
“Australian based riders are told it is fine to make a bid for selection from Australia but I am once bitten and twice shy. I am eager to prove I can match it with the big guns in the lead up to the Olympics in Europe. Everywhere Billy goes, Napoleon will go as his understudy.”
So a European campaign in the warmup?
“I think so. There are just more events over there. A lot of people are cagey and like to keep their cards hidden, but I like to run. Mind you, I will only run when the conditions are good. I want to run as often as I can, but on good ground.”
You told me you feel that one of the reasons we are not producing so many three-star horses now, is partly that the number of events is decreasing, but also that there are a number of events where the going destroys the horses…
“I think that is right. I think we ignore it, but we are ignoring it at our peril. Everywhere else in the world, they are so on to it. It is not just something to dream about, it’s something we can do something about. We’ve got some good course designers here, and it is wonderful having Mike Etherington Smith who is more passionate about the ground than anybody, coming over here. He’s really aware of it. As a producer of horses I find it very sad that often we are forced to run on less than good ground, and it is a horrible drive home when you know you have broken a horse down somewhere you really really shouldn’t have run.”
Tim and Billy Elliott
Vicki Roycroft has been campaigning for decent warm-up and competition arenas for the showjumpers, and it is starting to happen, do you think eventers need to try and operate like Vicki and establish a sequence of events with guaranteed good going?
“I think so. I remember Vicki talking about this 20-plus years ago, and she is absolutely right. The trick is that it is far easier to cultivate a showjumping paddock than it is a six-kilometre cross-country course, and across all the levels. It is about making the big-time horses, and all the big-time horses start off as prelim horses, novice, one-star, two-star, three-star. Look at Adelaide four-star, Melbourne and Sydney three-star, there are very few horses.”
“I asked to Sonja Johnson, ‘how do you go about this in Western Australia?’ And she said, our Western Australian eventing community have come up with a program where they’ve got a watering system, an aggravating system, and it just goes from event to event to event. How sensible is that? And that’s on the other side of the world where they have everything against them. It’s hard enough to produce top horses here in the epicenter of Australian eventing, and those guys over there have got off their backsides, and good on them.”
Do you find it odd that you have just on 200 horses on your property right now, the overwhelming majority of them Thoroughbreds, yet your two top-liners are a couple of Warmbloods?
“I think about it all the time. I think the honest truth is that all of us, when it comes to that last two or three minutes of cross country, and we are sailing over a hill, wish we were riding Thoroughbreds, it’s like going over the front lines at Gallipoli, it would be lovely to think you had that V-8 horse power of a Thoroughbred. It just means we’ve got to get these Warmbloods exceptionally fit. I used to spend a lot more time schooling than I do now, now I spend so much of my time getting the horses fit, I’ll often work them twice a day.”
“Sometimes we look back at what we did with the Thoroughbreds and we got away with murder. They weren’t fit enough, but they made us look clever. Now with these fancy jumpers and fancy movers, it is really important to have them super fit. So yes, it does feel weird to be riding Warmbloods. It feels really great on day one, feels really great on day three, but day two you always have your doubts because different situations are going to pull these horses up, whether it be the mud or the hills or the length – you’ve just got to have them absolutely super fit.”
Sophie tries out a young Thoroughbred
How do you do that?
“I’m lucky, I’ve got my own gallop track. What I don’t have, and what I would love, is an uphill gallop. The guys in Europe always have access to an uphill gallop, and when I’ve been there, I’ve had access to one and I think that is a serious tool. But what I have as well as my flat gallops, is a water walker, and that is another great tool for getting them fit, it’s not concussive, and it works on cooling their legs, just a fantastic machine.”
Are you a heart rate meter man?
“Yes, only recently I have decided, when you want to go to the next level, and you are my age, and heading towards Rio, and my two best horses are good on the flat and good jumpers – and I would never ignore that – but now I think they have to run down that time and so I’ve started incorporating heart rate monitors this year and it has been very interesting. I’ve done a lot of research into interval training, and while I am far from an expert, I am putting a lot more thought into it now.”
You were saying it is difficult running a really big business like this, and taking out a couple of months to go and playing eventing in Europe…
“Eventing is Europe is just such great fun, and I plan on running this business for a long time, it’s a business that I love and eventing is something that I love, so I just need to make it work. I’ve now got a core group of owners and trainers who I deal with, who are understanding, but I need to have really good systems in place to make it work. Last year when I was in Europe, I flew home for a couple of days every few weeks. It is also very important to have good staff at home, which I do have.”
Is it possible to go to Brazil from Australia – I thought that transport was not on from here?
“We need to be told that, I am more than happy to leave him in Europe over the English winter, I’ve got facilities in place if that is what I have to do. But we need strong leadership to be told exactly what is happening, at the moment it is impossible. I’ve been told that it is probably going to be too hard, but just tell us. I’m going to be in Europe, and I don’t want to pay to bring him home, when I can easily leave him there. He may well not have to do another CCI.”
“It’s interesting, the Olympics are a rung down from the World Championships. It’s not going to be a tough Badminton or Burghley, or what happened in Normandy, if it is anything like what happened in London, you have to perform a really fantastic dressage test, be a serious jumper, and go over a three-and-a-half star course. That suits me perfectly.”
“I pride myself on being upfront and honest, and that is Billy’s go. He is a small, high-actioned jumper.”
Tim and Napoleon
There is still a long time to Rio, is the other horse – Napoleon capable of making the step up?
“Very much so. He’s going to Europe as well. He went to Melbourne and won the two-star there – I’ll have to do another CCI*** in Europe, not sure where, but I am really fond of Blenheim. He’s very fancy on the flat, and he can jump. He’s just a very exciting young horse. He’s only had two runs this year, and he stormed around at Sydney, as I expected him to, but he is still relatively green. I’ve got tremendous confidence in him.”
How would you advise young riders coming into the sport?
“I think it is seriously important to align yourself with a coach, and put utter trust in whoever is helping you. Find someone you want to trust, and even if you see them do something ridiculous or crazy, just support them 110%. Of course it’s always good to get ideas from all over, but some people are going here, and there, and everywhere, and they never amount to anything – ever. I look at some people that I don’t actually respect as trainers, but they have produced people because while they might not be great riders themselves, they are insightful, and their riders listen to them, and they achieve quite spectacular results. I always say, it doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me, just do it. Trust me, I’ve done it a few times before.”
