Another thought provoking THM exclusive

Rebecca Ashton asked the questions…

 I see it a lot with the best trainers. Good training and riding, is boring. Would you agree?

100%. Yes. The more simple it is, the more boring it gets. At the end of the day, that is the case. The more exciting it gets, the more fragile it gets, and that is more exciting. For us to ride so that it looks very easy to those watching, and very soft, that’s the beauty of riding and that then is the excitement of it.

It’s any sport really. That’s when it becomes art.

Yes. That’s the nice thing about it.

You’ve been coming over to Australia for a few years now. How are we going? Are you seeing improvements?

Compared to the rest of the world, everybody rides pretty good. The only difference with this country is the quantity of the quality; small countries that don’t have as many horses, but they still have good riders, but they are just a handful. In other countries they may have two handfuls. But if you compare to everywhere else, they ride pretty well here. They can only ride the way they know, at the end of the day.

Are you into copy learning or is it better to train, read books etc?

For a very long time now I have been doing what I do, but I still keep watching. Does there exist something that is better and easier than what I do? If I find it, then I will use what I find out directly, but it’s a long time since I found something that improves from what I have always done.

For people who want to get better by watching, who should they be watching on YouTube?

I think in a week’s time my instruction videos come out so they can watch those! Hahaha.

Problem solved!

In the videos I ride myself, I explain, I show all the exercises, talk about all the aspects more or less in the saddle. Then I will see how it’s received. If it’s ok, I’ll extend it and put more on it, like lunging and other details, but for now it’s about me in the saddle riding two different horses doing the exercises, explaining why, what and how. If there is no interest, I’ll leave it at that. It will be albertvoornclinics.com and people can pay for what they see and they can watch it over and over.

It’s taken a long time because I wasn’t ready for it, but this winter, in December I rented a 20×40 indoor arena and it’s being put together now.

I saw the video that went viral recently – where you comment on the anger of some young, female riders. It would be nice to expand on that. How do we address it? You talked about Federations stepping up.

What happens these days is that everybody is allowed to do what they want. Everybody is allowed to ride how they want to ride, so there is no limit on what people can do, so people won’t invest time anymore to ride properly before they start jumping. At the moment everything is free and easy and everybody can go to a show when they want….in the past for example, we had to qualify by riding two or three dressage tests and you had to score 60%. Very simple, very basic. And we had the Prix Caprilli level and then after that you could go and jump. After you got a clear round you got two points and there was a minimum number of clear rounds before you could upgrade to Grand Prix, but that doesn’t happen now because people don’t want to be limited.

Albert Voorn and Lando at the Sydney Olympics – been there, done that…

Should jumping judges do more than add up how many faults someone gets?

We had a system, when you got a lot of faults you got minus points. When you fell off you got minus points, when you had an error of course you got minus points. Before you were allowed to go in a level higher, you had to have so many points.

But even watching, I mean those first two rounds at WEG can be not so nice to watch. But the horses get through, not because of good riding.

The thing is, the moment that there is a certain basic, for example, if you watch Roger Bost ride, you have people who like it and are great fans of him, and you have people that don’t.

Like it? Don’t like it?

I was working with Samantha McIntosh at the beginning of January, I was helping her with the horse. I said when you can copy me, then you can do it. And her comment was, “Wouldn’t that be so boring for the people that everybody is riding the same?”

My opinion, no, but for her yes.

Should there be a character test before you’re allowed on a team?

What really matters for the team is that you pull a double clear round.

But should it be?

In my opinion, not. But who is knowledgeable and what is right and what is wrong? That is what is such a problem. The biggest disappointment is that the professionals disagree so much at the top level. That for me is a bit of a shame.

Should you have to train a horse from a certain level before you’re allowed to jump Grand Prix? There’s a lot of people just buying Grand Prix horses.

We had a system, when somebody would buy my Grand Prix horse and the person himself was jumping 1.20m, he had to go all the way from 1.20m up to that level by clear rounds. Now they can more or less just buy a Grand Prix horse and ride it.

Too much money?

It has always been a sport of too much money, but now it goes a bit in a different direction. Always it has been a sport where you needed a lot of money to go to a high level, but it was still sport. Now you can buy yourself a VIP table at the highest level and you can compete even if you are not capable of doing it. So the sport side of it has gone.

Money can’t explain people’s attitude though….or can it?

For example, if I get $1M a year and just I have to train one single person for my $1M, if I don’t like the person, I wouldn’t do it. Not everybody is for sale, you can’t buy everybody. You can’t buy me.

But the anger issue.

Let’s say the younger people of today, they get things pretty easily and they want it to be quick. They are a bit spoilt and the horse and the riding doesn’t give them what they want right straight away, that’s where the anger comes from. Where you have, let’s say the more wealthy people, they can have a bit more attitude because they want it now and they want it quick. Then the parents put pressure on the young people, and the parents want it now.

And you know, when I see things at the show ground that in my opinion are unacceptable, I stop them, when it should be the steward. The steward doesn’t because the person who is doing something unacceptable is invited the show committee, and maybe he has paid for a €10,000 table,  so that person is not going to be punished. The steward who is punishing that person is not going to be reinvited to that show, and very quickly that steward will have no work anymore.

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Like you said earlier, you were one of the first people to speak up about rolkur and you got shut down, and that still happens to people today, so where’s the line between when you keep fighting or you just give up and focus on promoting good riding?

You put an amount of energy into a case.You fight a case and then you get to a point where all that energy you put into that case doesn’t bring you anywhere, and doesn’t change anything. Then you have to question, do you keep fighting things that don’t change? Is it better to put all that energy into your own work and try to do better?

Is that where you’re at?

Yes. I will speak out, like that recent interview, I will speak out, but I’m not going onto the barricades to fight for it.

Where’s the line of speaking up, and not offending people?

I don’t think you offend people, when what you say is right. That they are offended, but if you are right, then that is their problem. Like with Anky (van Grunsven) and her husband (Sjef Janssen), I said in the Dutch papers, it is unbelievable when you have so little knowledge about horse riding that you can still win Gold Medals, and that was not taken very well. She said in response, I always thought you were a horseman, but in your reactions you turned out to be a frustrated person that has no success himself anymore.

So then I answered, yes I’m very, very frustrated, Anky. You cannot believe how frustrated I am that we cannot make you see how important you are for the sport. You are the queen of dressage, you are an example for everybody, and all these girls are going to do what you do, and they are going to copy you, and I do not think that the way that you ride is necessary to win gold medals because you have an eye for a very good horse, what you can do is so exceptional, that you do not need to do what you do to win your gold medal. You are an example, and you’re not making yourself a good example. In that matter, you are right, I am very frustrated.

next Rebecca asks if things are getting better

Is it getting better?

 No

What do we take from history, and what do we drop, in terms of approach and technique?

With horses, we do what we know. What I have experienced is that people who perform at a very high level, that get confronted with something that they don’t know, but it makes an unbelievable change in their horse and makes things easier, that the majority are so shocked about it that they don’t want to know about it.

For example, I asked for a meeting with the National School of Equitation at home, with all the trainers altogether, if we can come to a situation in which we have a universal way of riding at the school. Everybody coming from that school rides in a certain way. They said it was not possible and I said I’m going to prove that it is. Allow me the school from Monday to Friday, I will take four riders from jumping, and two from dressage, and then on Friday we all sit together as a whole school and we look if there is harmony, or no harmony, in what we do. On the last day I get my son to come and another international rider who trains with me. I had them all in the arena from low levels to top levels and it was all harmony. There was such a shock, and the school doesn’t want to know about it .

Why though? That doesn’t make sense.

Because I think lack of intelligence.

But if it’s all going smoothly….

I know, but not everybody has the intelligence to improve, or the will. But if you don’t have the will, but you capable, then you are not intelligent. An intelligent person would say, great, we do this.

What do you think stops people?

Pride. For example, if I have a Sunday morning, I go on You Tube and I type in “horsemanship” and I see all these videos. Then I find the ones I like, and I see things that I can use, I see things that go too far, and I don’t use them, but I don’t care where it comes from, as long as it helps me to improve certain things.

Yesterday evening a video came on Facebook. I think it was Schiller, some western guy and it was about working with spooky horses and I was like, “Holy McGroly. Fantastic.” It was about horses spooking at something up at the far end of where he’s working. He works them back at the other end, takes them to the spooky end, the horse doesn’t like it so he brings it back and works it some more and then takes it to the spooky end again. Three times and the horses didn’t even spook at the far end. If you don’t know how to do that, you can’t do it. So you see what he does, thank you very much, I add it to my knowledge.

Do people do that enough?

It’s all about how much knowledge do I want to have to do what I do? How good do I want to be? The more knowledge I have the better, so that when a problem occurs, I have a solution. If I can’t find a solution, then I want to know if somebody else can. For example, if a horse leaves my stable and jumps better with someone else than me, I find out straight away because it won’t happen again. How can they ride that horse better than me? What did I do wrong? What did I miss? I want to know. I get them to tell me how they fixed the problem .

You would still do that?

I still do.

And you touched on it again today…it’s better to respect your horse than love your horse.

Yes because I see people who love the horse that goes the best, so the love depends on how well he performs. It’s not the love of the horse, because we use or abuse an animal for our ego, for our performance. Like the rider whose horse knocks four rails says, ‘Son of a bitch, you bastard. Donkey’.

So I say, I don’t love horses. For me the horse is a tool to make my living, but I think we owe the horse the maximum respect possible to do as good as we can, to make him suffer the less, because he has to suffer for what we want him to do. It’s the same as today they say, “Horses shouldn’t be in the sport.” In days gone by, we ploughed the field, you have one farmer who respects his horse more than the other because he wants his horse to last and work when it’s 18 years old. He doesn’t want to have to replace him in two years because he wrecked him.

But you can also say I have an animal and I want to respect him as much as I can, so I want to train him to have so much knowledge, and because of the knowledge I can use and respect him the most.

You don’t need to respect them when you can just go and buy another though. (I’m playing devil’s advocate here if it wasn’t obvious!)

That is when you use them as tools only. I use him as a tool, but I want my tool to last as long as possible.

Some people don’t care if their tool doesn’t last.

Exactly. And then there is something wrong. It’s an easy sport. People can have the finances to do it. But that’s a personal mentality. If you see in the world how we treat each other, it’s a very human thing, disrespect for nature, for each other.

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You eventually lived your dream of travelling around in a truck with two horses since last time I saw you.

I loved it. I loved travelling, my wife, my two dogs, my two horses. But at the end of the day you have to pay your bills and if the horses are not good enough to pay the expenses that they cost, then you have to stop it if you are a professional.

That is another thing I think is totally wrong. We have a big circuit in Europe that is two-star shows, 1.45m Grand Prix. My horse is a two-star horse. It can jump a 1.50 jump off, but that’s it. On that level he can be competitive. Now they have 60 starters at the show and they say, so many good horses, they build a 1.50m track first round. At the two-star show my horse is not good enough for that particular track, so I can’t be competitive anymore so I can’t pay the bills. It should be forbidden that course builders build higher than the 1.45m. The judges want it built higher because they don’t want to wait for 25 clear rounds and a jump off because they don’t want to sit around all afternoon and be bored. So the welfare of the horse is not respected, neither by judges or course builders. What is the problem?

I wanted to attend the last show of the year, the Grand Prix was 1.40m. That was for me the class to step up my horse. I go to the course builder and ask if the course will be 1.40m and he said no it’s bigger. So I can’t upgrade my horse because it’s going to be too much. So I don’t ride.

Stick to your carriage driving now?

 And enjoy it. I am not able to change the situation. I get a lot of enjoyment out of what I do.

Twenty one year old Maverick Miles from Emcee Equestrian is a big admirer of Albert and took a number of lessons. This is what he had to say about his sessions…..

“Last year I came with my good mare that I had just got. That was my first session of riding her properly and jumping. Albert was really good, because he’s so calm, he just set us off on our journey and really got her in the right mentality because she wasn’t very confident when I got her. Slowly and surely and with Albert being so gentle, I feel that set us up really well. So, with the young one I rode earlier, Hitchcock, he’s the most anxious by far of anything we’ve bred. I thought he’d go really well with Albert’s gentle, calm mantra.

“It was great to see Albert get on him. You really want that at a clinic. I mean you don’t want to be the person that the coach says they need to get on your horse because it’s not going well for him, but you want someone of Albert’s calibre to get on and see what your horse looks like when someone who seriously knows what they’re doing gets on. I thought that was fantastic. When I got back on him, he felt really calm. He just dropped down a couple of gears. Because when I got him, I had to naturally push him forward to stop him spooking. But now his natural reaction is to go forward which is good, but not as good as going clear!

“You see horses before the clinic that you think have limited potential because of certain habits, but then when Albert teaches people not to put so much pressure on them, they aren’t as limited at all. There were a couple of junior horses last year that grew as soon as the kids just calmed down. It’s not putting pressure on yourself. It’s so good for riders’ heads; good for your mentality. And he’s modern, he’s not old school. A lot of coaches can be all about holding the horse together and shaping the horse and keeping them contained and he just abandons that completely. He’s all about the horse being comfortable and happy, and in that way they become comfortable and then they can perform at their best. Every horse that has come here, that I have seen afterwards in regular competition, has just looked really confident.

“It’s a little counter intuitive and if you go to other instructors in between clinics it can be a bit hard because they’ll say things like, “Use your outside rein because you’re letting him do this or that” but then Albert is saying let him do that. He’s got to learn to hold himself up. They’ve got to be accountable for themselves.”

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