Countdown to Rotterdam

All the Australian dressage contenders are over in Europe now, fine tuning their horses for the final selection trial.

LYNDAL OATLEY

Lyndal Oatley didn’t have the greatest start to her selection campaign, when her horse, Sandro Boy, was not fit to travel to Odense for the first of the qualifiers…

How is your road to Rotterdam, you are the only one who started off with a bit of a worry…

“Life is never boring, you take what you are given, but it was very bad timing! He is actually going very very well, and I haven’t missed much work at all – it is just a matter of managing it better, and so we are now in top form and I couldn’t be happier with the way he is going at this very moment.”

“I’m ready to get on and get on with it – bring on Rotterdam!”

You haven’t taken him to any competitions – just training at home with Patrik?

“Just training. Sandro Boy knows his job, we’ve been competing together for four years now. He’s very good in the arena, he has always been very reliable and very focused. The most important thing is to have him in top form so I can do the best job I can, and that means staying here, and then taking him to Rotterdam. I’ll take him to a show just to ride around, and prepare that way, but otherwise no, it is all focused on Rotterdam…”

With Sandro Boy, what is it that you work on to get your best score?

“My half passes are always a good thing, that’s something I can always rely on, but at the moment I am working on keeping the contact, the balance and keeping a lot of the power in the areas where I need it, but keeping the whole test very flowing – that’s where I’m aiming at the moment – so that means a lot of transitions, corners, halts. Coming out of the corners into the two tempis – things like that, making sure my centre line is very good for the preparation for the pirouette.”

“I did an analysis once with David Strickland which showed I lost nearly two and a half percent alone on transitions, and that is 2.5% which I’m not prepared to give away willingly, so we work a lot on that. Keeping the frame is essential for me, making sure he is balanced nicely and into a good contact so that I can really play with him through the test and keep him forward and positive and in the right frame of mind.”

This time at Rotterdam you are all competing in the same class – somewhere out in the middle of the forest?

“We are all together, but that will be fine, I feel I missed out a lot not being at Odense but I look forward to seeing them – so wherever we are, whatever we do, I am looking forward to getting on with it.”

From a long way away, it feels like a rather nice friendly selection round?

“All the people have been great, everyone is in a really good frame of mind and where they need to be, to make it work best for them. I think we can feel that with everybody, we are all very supportive of one another and making sure that whatever we do, it is the best possible team outcome we can get. And that means supporting one another, being there to do our job, but also being there to help the others. For me, that has been very obvious so far, and that’s a great thing for the Australian Team, it is a great experience to be part of it this year.”

BRETT PARBERY

Unlike Lyndal, Brett Parbery made it to Odense with Weltmieser, but the result was not pretty. Since then Brett had jetted home, and when we talked had only recently arrived back in Germany.

How is it going?

“So far so good. I’ve only been back five days, and I am still trying to get the shoeing issue right on my horse.”

Everyone seems to have shoeing issues – Sue Hearn’s farrier flew over to do Remmington for her…

“That was something else, he flew over just to do that, he and I were on the same flight, and both of our bags got lost on the way in.”

And for those foul trolls who were bleating on the cyberhorse forum about Sue Hearn spending money from the Fund, Rob and Mary Hanna established (to which I am sure none of them contributed a cent!), to bring her farrier to Europe, read this and find a rock to crawl under, curl up and die…

“Sue’s farrier paid his own way, and he is not even charging her for the shoeing. Not only did Perry donate the whole thing – the travel cost and the shoeing – but the German farrier who brought him down, because Perry’s gear got stuck with my bags in Abu Dhabi, he donated not only his gear, but his whole day as well.”

Still Brett is battling on:

“I’m using some Dutch farriers and hopefully I’ve got it right now so I can start training a bit better.”

What went wrong at Odense?

“I just put it down to the fact that I hadn’t done any shows. I didn’t do Dressage with the Stars, and I didn’t do Sydney, I hadn’t been able to train at full capacity because the horse just wasn’t feeling completely right. Whilst he was sound, he just wasn’t feeling himself. I’m not sure if he didn’t travel that well, or what the reason is. Which is why I am still trying to work out the shoeing on him.”

“It’s no real excuse, because we warmed up quite well. That was really good, and he felt really good in the Freestyle, but I think it was just lack of match practice for the Grand Prix. Two very costly mistakes and it was too hard to get back to the score I needed. To be honest with the selection policy the way it is, it would have been better if I didn’t compete.”

You would have been on the same score as Lyndal- because she didn’t go she received 66.066 per cent, the average of the three lowest Grand Prix scores from the first event in Odense…

“Both of us would have been slightly higher because it was my score that dragged us both down!!! It’s really ridiculous, I shouldn’t have competed and I would have been in much better contention going into Rotterdam. I find that absolutely ridiculous that a policy can be like that…”

Maybe you should not compete at all, and then get selected on an average if someone else’s horse goes sideways…

“Exactly.”

It is going to be pretty funny having our final selection event in a little arena out the back – not even the main arena – it’s going to be a bit like Werribee on a very cold winter’s day…

“So it is not in the main arena? I’ve been in the CDN there before, and that was held in the main arena, this time it’s not? That’s really strange, but I guess they have showjumping in the main arena. It’s very funny. We have a head-to-head in Denmark, which doesn’t end up being a head-to-head, and then we go to a show in Rotterdam and compete in the back arena.”

Has Ton (de Ridder) been helping you while you’ve been based with him?

“Not a lot, Ton has been quite busy with the Spanish girls. He’s been quite respectful of not interfering too much, but I am hoping now I’ll be able to get more help. I went back to Australia for ten days and I’ve only just now got back and I am still trying to get the horse’s feet right so I can train well enough to get to Rotterdam in good shape. I must say, with the way the selection is, with both selection events having equal weight, I do feel I am on the back marker and I am going to find it pretty hard to claw my way back to any sort of competitive position. It’s hard you come all this way, and you muck up one show and you are gone – that’s the sport I guess…”

MARY HANNA

For Mary Hanna, it’s back into the swing of another Games campaign:

“With the first qualifier at Odense done and dusted, it’s time for a bit of reflection and some analysis of how it’s going and how I can improve my performance for the next qualifier at Rotterdam.”

“At Odense, Umbro’s performance was not his best, as often happens when you come to about six weeks out from arrival in Europe. He had had a very hard program with two really big shows in quick succession. My plan for him was to give him a bit of easy time and then gradually build him up again for his next outing. He knows his work, but I felt in the last few weeks I had pushed him a bit hard.”

“Boogie Woogie – except for still some problems in the changes – had made some good progress in training. He is such a bright character, and seems to love to work. I was also happy with the way he handled the arena conditions in Odense and especially in the Special he pleased me with his concentration in difficult circumstances. The steps of progress are sometimes small, but I feel we are definitely heading in the right direction.”

“My newcomer Calanta has made huge progress since we arrived and I am loving my lessons on her. I think she is a really exciting Grand Prix prospect, and my trainer Patrik Kittel seems to agree.”

“Three very different horses, with very different strengths and weaknesses are keeping me fit and on my toes. Every day provides new challenges, and that’s what makes the wonderful sport of dressage so interesting.”

MAREE TOMKINSON

Maree Tomkinson is her usual upbeat self as she looks forward to the final selection test in Rotterdam:

“It looks pretty good for us. We had a couple of problems at Odense. The warmup was really difficult with all the ponies and what-have-you, and I know that has to happen at competitions, but it was really difficult. There would have been twenty horses in the warmup, plus ponies, trains and whatever. It’s not so easy for my horse, but she has to get used to it. And she did. And she went in there and she did her job, but the real problem for me was that the bridle broke in the warmup and I had to make some very fast alterations, and then we had a little bit of a mouth problem – that all the judges noticed. Her mouth was just a bit busier than usual and that cost us a few percent. Now hopefully the bridle is repaired and it doesn’t break again.”

You’ve been to Rotterdam, it is not the quietest show in the world…

“It’s not, but as far as I am aware the three-star is in the small arena out the back. I would prefer it was in the big arena, that’s definitely better for my horse. Not so much the big arena, but having the space around her, she likes a much more open space. The three-star is in the forest out the back… I haven’t competed in that arena, but I have watched horses competing there and it is a fairly small quiet arena.”

“This time all the Australian horses are in the three-star, all seven riders in the small arena out the back.”

That is going to be a really good test of how the horses react in a pressure situation – three spectators and a Belgian Barge dog watching…

“Yep.”

Is she going well at home with you?

“She is really good, she’s definitely starting to stay more balanced on her hind legs and I am finding she is a lot more underneath me, not shooting out the front door all the time. She’ll be really really good by the time she is sixteen or seventeen…!”

Will Christoph Koschel be there to help you?

“I think so, I think he’ll be there for the Grand Prix. Their training is very classical, and sometimes I feel the horse needs a bit more energy or whatever, but the training is very correct and I can feel Diamantina coming more and more connected, and that is what is important. Sometimes my support people say she needs more energy, and maybe she does, but what is important is that it is correct.”

KRISTY OATLEY

I picked the right time to ask Kristy Oatley about her run up to Rotterdam with Du Soleil:

“I’m sitting on him walking him as we speak. After Odense, he had a week off, just pottered around a bit at home, and now he is back in work and going to Holland in one week to start training with Sjef (Janssen) before Rotterdam. That’s our plan at the moment, I’ll be staying at Sjef’s for two-and-a-half weeks.”

He’ll be at Rotterdam to help you?

“I hope so.”

What are you trying to show to the judges with Du Soleil?

“My perfect test at the moment would be fault free – normally Du Soleil is a horse that always wants to please and do his best. The last two shows were not my best competitions with him. I had quite a few mistakes in Mannheim and Odense. That’s not typical for him. So basically we have gone back a little more to the basics, and what I want at the moment is an accurate, fault free test, probably with a little bit of the hand brake on at the moment just to get his confidence back again. Once we’ve got that, we can ask for more power, which is very easily shown with him.”

Was Odense a difficult environment?

“I don’t know if it was the environment. We haven’t had many starts outside, we’ve had two shows outdoors – I don’t know if it was that, because indoors he is very relaxed. I don’t know. I haven’t competed on him that much, we are still learning together, still trying to find the right buttons outside. He is a fantastic, unbelievable horse and we just have to sync a little more outside.”

“I’ve never been to Rotterdam, it’s new territory for us.”

SUE HEARN

For Sue Hearn, it has been an amazing response from friends and supporters who saw her, and Remmington, put up the best score in the three star Grand Prix at Odense, and the second best score of the Aussie contingent. So what is she doing now with Rotterdam just down the road:

“Just normal training, trying to improve things obviously. My farrier came all the way from Australia, to shoe him yesterday – unbelievable – Perry Lethorne.”

It’s been a fantastic response to your fund raiser…

“It has surprised me, it was just amazing. We put the feelers out when we were thinking about coming, because he did nicely at Sydney and I thought, maybe we should think about this, but it really wasn’t on the agenda much before that. We thought, well we’ll just see if we can get some funds together, and if we can we’ll give it a shot, but if we can’t then, we won’t do it because we can’t afford it, huge expense. The feeling we got from everybody was, you just have to do it, and we’ll back you. And I thought, oh wow, and when we started fund raising, it was incredible. Lots of support from home, so many messages – I think the guys at home just want Australian horses to go over there and give it a shot. Not just stay at home, saying, we can’t do it.”

The other extraordinary thing is the fund that Mary and Rob Hanna set up, I’ve been watching equestrian for thirty years, and there have been lots of attempts at fund raising but nothing like this…

“It’s fantastic. I think the Aussie dressage riders want to think that they can do it, not think, we are stuck in Australia and if we don’t have the funds we can’t go overseas to compete. It really is opening the door for the rest of the guys that are training at home, it’s giving everyone a bit of inspiration that they can do it, and people will be behind them. I would definitely help someone come over here. It’s just one of those things, we are so remote, and it takes a big effort to get here, but it shows that it can be done.”

Odense must have been a real shot in the arm for you…

“Yes, yes, he did a nice job, a couple of mistakes. You always think when you finish that things can be better, but I was pretty happy with him, to get a score that was not too bad, and I think I can do better, hopefully at the next one. Who knows?”

You are based with Ton de Ridder right now?

“It’s really good, he’s very good. He’s trying to help things, he’s not trying to change a lot. I think that really works, and it is working for Brett as well. He’s not coming and trying to change your whole system of training, he’s just trying to get things a little better, that works really well for me.”

Have you talked to his wife, Alexandra? She was a real superstar herself at an Olympic level…

“Yes, she helped me a little bit yesterday. Ton is away in Spain, and she was in the arena, and she gave me a hand. Very very good, a tiny bit different to Ton but I think that’s a good thing. She really knows what she is talking about.”