Story and photos by Rebecca Ashton
Eventer Gabby Pither smiles… a lot. And she has good cause to. With a win at Melbourne two star this year, second at Sydney International two star and now a member of the Australian eventing squad, what’s not to smile about?
Prior to her making the trek home in Albany, WA, I was lucky enough to catch up with the 20-year-old in Wilberforce, west of Sydney where she had been based since April at Redleaf Lodge, which is part of the Hargreaves’ Copabella facilities and home to Australian showjumping champion David Cameron and eventer Tallara Barwick.
Television interviews, magazine covers. You’ve been well-and-truly thrust into the limelight this year. How does it feel?
I don’t know whether it’s sunk in really. I went and bought my copy of The Horse Magazine a few months back and there I was on the cover! I got a shock! Back home, everybody commented on it. Sonja (Johnson) sent me a little message saying “I went to buy The Horse Magazine in the newsagency but they were all sold out. Anyone would think we were all proud of you!”
I came over here to Sydney with Sonja in her truck before the Sydney three-day, brought my horse over and thought, we’ll see how we go compared to the eventers over here, not really expecting to go that well, not expecting to even come close to winning.
And you’re on the eventing squad now as well?
It’s all happened so quickly. Everybody came and congratulated me after Melbourne and it’s a special win, but it didn’t feel like I’d done anything special. I tried to do my best and it just so happened that we did better than everybody else that weekend.
Who has been coaching you?
Dave has been fantastic since and I’ve had a few lessons with Tallara, who’s an eventer as well and she’s been really, really helpful with my flat work. I had a training session with her and she helped me with my dressage before Melbourne. My regular dressage coach back at home is Louise Hillman. She’s known me for a long time and has seen me all the way through.
With my jumping training at home, it’s really been whoever I’ve been able to get to. Philippa Collier was really great in my early jumping stages.
Sonja is more of a mentor than a coach. I’ve had maybe three lessons with her but she’s been fantastic since I’ve come over here. Any questions I’ve had or anything I’ve wanted to know, she’s been there, full of advice and really supportive.
Tell us more about your current star Max Almighty.
We found him through some family friends. They knew Jeanette Hatch who owns Cethana Stud and Max was the first horse she had bred. He was two at the time and we saw him go around in the paddock. He looked nice enough and she wasn’t asking a ridiculous amount for him so we thought, what have we got to lose?
He was never the sort of horse you’d get on and think, “Wow”. There wasn’t an extravagant movement but he just kept stepping up every single time we’d take him out and he just kept getting better, and the dressage just kept getting flasher and flasher.
He’ll be 10 in October. Someone asked me the other day what his weakest phase was. He doesn’t really have a weakest phase, I’d say cross country is his highpoint because he’s so rideable and so bold and so you always have a lot of fun. I’m enjoying my dressage more and more as I learn more, and the showjumping has really been coming along as well, especially with Dave.
You were going to start him three-star this year?
Yes but he’s had a lot of allergies and things and I thought, there’s no rush with him because he’s such a good horse. He’s got plenty of time and I don’t want to do something silly with him if we’re both not going at 100% and whack him out there just for the sake of doing three-star. So we’ll look to start him next year.
I’m not sure whether I’ll head back over here yet. I’ll stay in WA for the beginning of the year and re-evaluate everything.
Is your whole family horsey?
My family farmed 10,000 acres in a place called Ongerup. We had sheep and crop. It’s a town with a post office, general store, a pub, a roadhouse and a small primary school.
When I was 13, we moved to Albany. We had an array of different horses. My first pony probably bucked me off more times than not, so I guess Mum and Dad were trying to figure out whether I was keen or not! I kept getting back on though.
Mum has always loved horses but both of her parents weren’t horsey at all. She rode at a riding school and was then given an old Thoroughbred that she kept down the road. Then she went to work on a farm, jilllaroo work and met my Dad.
Dad’s side of the family is very, very horsey. My grandmother, Hazel Pither, had a lot to do with the equestrian movement in WA. The entrance to the indoor at our state equestrian centre is named after her.
Both of my aunties are quite good showjumpers. They are both coaches and Kate rode in Europe with Albert Voorn. Becky Jenkins (nee Allen) is my Aunty Sarah’s daughter and she’s quite a well known showjumper. I’m the first one who’s really gone eventing.
My Dad dabbled in a few different things. He did of polo, eventing. He hacked at the Perth Royal Show and got champion hack one year. He went up to medium dressage and even did some breakers on a station up north. He gave it up for a while but Mum begged him to have horses so he begrudgingly got some. But now you couldn’t drag him away from it. He’s always on the phone to me saying, “Ok Gab, what are we going to do now? I think we should do this and this and this.” Both my parents are always there and are so, so supportive. Mum’s always helping me plait and do the horses. She’ll even jump on once in a while. She used to love cooling Max off while Dad was out riding a young one. They’re doing a lot of handling with the young ones back at home and they’re always sending me little video clips. I couldn’t have done it without their support.
Why eventing?
I really liked the idea that you had to be good at all three disciplines. I mean the flat work is vital no matter what you’re doing. I guess most eventers would say the cross country. My first real cross country was on Janelle Madigan’s three-star eventer Skywalker when I was 15. We got offered him on free lease. He was a cross country machine and he really gave me the taste for it. You’d be in the start box thinking, “Why am I here? Why do I do this to myself!?” with lots of nerves and butterflies, but then you’d finish the course and think, “Ah. THAT’S why I do it!”
He he taught me a lot. He was always unpredictable in a dressage test. He could be working beautifully and half way through he’d think, “I don’t want to be here anymore.”
Gabby and Skywalker / Photo: Red McQueen (RedFoto)
Is Max the only horse you have now?
No, I’ve had a Thoroughbred mare for a year now, and she raced. She’s looking really flashy so I’m quite excited about her. She’s very different to Max which I think is nice in a way because you get to work on different aspects of your riding and get to deal with different issues. I was riding some ex-racehorses for a trainer down in Albany and doing a little bit of re-educating so he could sell them on and she was one of them. I fell in love with her so went to Mum and Dad and said, “I think we need to buy this one.” She’ll be seven or eight this year so she’s quite a bit older which is not ideal but because I liked her so much, we put that aside.
We’ve also got a couple of three-year-olds, one of which is from Sharon Haddock’s Alexander Park Trakehners. His name is Alexander Park Southern Cross (Kevin).
What type of horse do you like?
I like a little bit of a challenge, but not too much. Max is very level-headed and very quiet and a tiny bit on the lazy side if anything. I’ve always had a quiet seat so I’ve got along with the hotter ones as well. It’s nice riding the forward going ones.
Are you doing horses full time now?
Yes. Well, I’m still enrolled at Uni, but technically I’m not studying at the moment. I’m at Charles Sturt doing a Business Degree via distance learning. I’m only a semester in though! Things just sort of kept coming up and Max started to hit his peak so I thought I’d come over to Sydney and see what we could do. But I’d like to continue riding full time for a while and see how far I can get with it because I’m loving it. I’d love to get my Level 1 at some point because I’ve given a few lessons here and there and enjoy doing that.
We were also sort of thinking that after my brother gets married in January, that I might head over to Europe and do some riding over there.
Where would you go in Europe do you think?
I’m not entirely sure yet. I’ve had a few suggestions and offers. I think once you’re over there and you’ve met a few people it’s easier to work out where you want to go.
Gabby and Max
Would you take Max?
Potentially. Probably not at the beginning. I think if I could get myself established, then it’s a possibility. I think we’d have to get some funding though.
Do you have any habits or rituals that are really key to your success?
Your dressage is definitely your foundation for the rest of your training and I’m a big believer in getting the horses really nice and established on the flat before I’ll point them at too many fences. I’ll always have a flat work session beforehand, I’ll never just go out and straight away start jumping. I like to make sure all my buttons are in place.
I’ll set up lots of poles and cavaletti and grids. I love the cross country schooling for all horses, even dressage horses and showjumpers, just over the lower ones as it’s really good for getting horses straight and forward and I think they get a lot of enjoyment out of it. We have a pony club cross country course about 10 minutes down the road from us so I’ll ride down there and show them logs and ditches and ride them around. I think that variety is really important so they realise that they don’t just go out there every day and get hammered.
That’s the nice thing about living where we do in Albany, we can do different things everyday. I’ll school on the arena maybe three or four times a week and then I’ll just ride out once a week and they always get one day to themselves.
Do you have any idols? Any shrines at home to anyone!?
I’ve never watched a lot of eventing on TV. I did when I could because you can learn so much that way, but I was out-of-tune with what was happening. I’d heard of the big names but didn’t necessarily get to see them. But recently watching WEG, I thought Michael Jung was a bit of a freak. He is crazy good. I was reading the article that you guys did on him in June and just everything he was saying made sense. It was good because I was thinking, “Oh I do that, and I do that!”
Michael Jung is stealing your ideas!!
Ha ha. It was just really interesting and I really admire the way he rides. He’s just fantastic.
Is there any one piece of advice you’ve been given that’s really resonated with you?
There was something that Sonja said to me before I went cross country at Sydney. She said, “ Take no prisoners; gallop like hell; ride both sides of him and trust yourself.” I always think of that and it gives me the motivation to really go for it cross country.
As soon as I’m out of that start box, I’ve got a plan in my head. Beforehand I go over it, and over it and over it. If I can’t visualise a fence, I go out and walk it again so I know how it looks and I have little landmarks for my minute markers and I make sure I know them so that I don’t really have to think about them, because you don’t really want to be thinking where your markers are when you’re coming into a combination and things like that.
I always go over my stridings and any little tricky bits a thousand times just so I know exactly what I have to do. I have a very clear plan in my mind. On course, I don’t want to have to think about where I’m going: It’s more that I know I have to get four strides down that line, I’ve got to be straight, I’m going to take this angle onto this apex or into the water, I’ve got to sit him up here.
I just kept going over it and over it. Any doubt in my mind I just go back out on the course and look at it.
Do you video the course or certain jumps as you walk the course?
Sometimes I’ll take a photo if I have a question or want to ask someone about it or if I’m struggling to visualise it. Most times though I just have my map and I’ll write all over that. That helps me visualise my lines and my strides. I know some people have cross country apps on their phones now, but I don’t use that. I have my wheel, and my map, and my pen.
I’m a big believer in plans! Also with the dressage, before a competition, I’ll ride the test again and again just so that I don’t have to think where I’m going. I’m thinking about what I am doing and how the horse is going.
Max and I know each other inside out. You don’t always have that luxury with all horses, but with him I do so I make the most of it.
Apart from the big wins this year, have you had any other defining moments? Even small ones?
I still remember my first ever eventing rug that I won. It was the junior pre novice at Moora Horse Trials. I still have that rug. It’s blue and has a yellow trim! I couldn’t believe it. I’d finally won this official eventing rug! It was a very high point!
What do you do when you’re not riding horses?
I used to play a variety of sports when I was at school; hockey, basketball; I liked to dabble in a few things and give anything a go. School always had to come before the riding, I could ride as long as all my homework and assignments were done. I still like to keep my social life happening, going out with friends on the weekends I’m not competing, which are few-and-far between!
Also family time. Christmas is real family time when we all try to be together. I have two older brothers. Ashby is actually allergic to horses! It doesn’t stop him watching me compete though. Lauchie knows how to ride and really enjoys the horses and comes and watches me compete. Lauchie worked out very quickly that he didn’t necessarily have to ride, but if he still came along to the shows, there were lots of girls!
What’s on for you in the near term?
I think Mum and Dad want me home for a bit and I can work on the young horses and get my mare up-and-running and give my parents a hand with the business as well.
And you have Rio in your sights?
I’m definitely going to aim for it. It’s a long time between now and then but that’s definitely an aim with Max. I was ticking him over and I thought he was a good horse, but Melbourne was the point when I thought, “Hang on, I actually really think I can do this.” It’s always in the back of your mind, maybe one day, but then I thought this really could happen.
Gabby’s star is on the rise. With her good humour and determined attitude, there’s no doubt she’ll be a regular on the international circuit in the very near future.
This article first appeared in the January 2015 issue of THM.