Australian eventing star, Christopher Burton working with an exciting young horse, Under Discussion – by the Hanoverian stallion, Lanthan out of a Thoroughbred mare. In 2010, Roz and I were lucky enough to see Christopher schooling the two-star gelding over the beautiful cross country fences at Alex Townsend’s mind-boggling equestrian training centre, Wallaby Hill. The horse went on to win the CIC at Aachen in 2012.
After the cross country session, I had time to ask Christopher what he was trying to achieve…
With a new horse, like your black horse, is there a bonding process that goes on at the beginning?
“I guess that’s what I’m faced with at the moment. I’m very lucky to have this lovely horse, Under Discussion – thanks very much to my fabulous owners, Marianne Litchwark and Andrew McPherson who helped me purchase this horse – he’s beautifully schooled. I haven’t purchased many horses that were already going, this one had done Advanced dressage and he has already done a two-star event. It’s taking a bit of getting to know him and finding where his buttons are – and that is what I am doing, I’m trying to run him at low level competitions for a while and take him out schooling and to see everything, until we get to know each other inside and out, but I hope the combination will be quite dynamic in the end.”
The trot looks amazing what does it feel like?
“It feels incredible, he’s quite a unique horse. He is so beautiful into your hand, he accepts your hand so you can ride him into the bridle, you can let him go soft and let him reach. He looks a little Thoroughbred in type, but when you engage him, he just tries hard, he is beautiful.”
next we look at the canter
He hasn’t just got a fancy trot, he canters very nicely…
“Beautiful athletic canter – he’s part Hanoverian, part Thoroughbred, and that is what we are looking for. I didn’t buy him on his breeding, I bought him because of the way he feels and the way he is soft across the ground, he gallops, he’s fast. I hope I’m not over-talking the horse, I just hope he is as exciting as I think he is.”
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Is that essential, what you were doing with him – getting out in a paddock where there are some fences that look like the fences you are going to find at an event?
“I like to do that, you can be schooling your horse in the transitions in walk, in canter, in trot – you are not just schooling cross country. And particularly with Thoroughbreds, that is better schooling than trying to beat them round a 20 by 60. It’s a great way to get to know your horse. A good rider should be getting to know his horse, schooling the horse, even just hacking out on the road.”
What’s the most important thing when you do have fences like those ones, that are relatively unforgiving, they don’t fall down like showjumps?
“My new horse, Under Discussion, is a super careful jumper. If he has a weakness, I think that will be his weakness, he might be a bit careful for eventing – however if you keep them confident by riding small fences so that if we have a hiccup, he can still make it to the other side unscathed, and he learns to trust me that I am not going to over-face him in schooling, and then in competition I hope that my training will carry through, and maybe with more riding at the competition, on course, he will just go.”
He did have a run out on the skinny and you gave him a tap with the stick, but then you made him stand for a while… what was that about?
“I’ve always done that. If I am to discipline a horse, and I don’t mind disciplining a horse if it is necessary, then what I do do, is not just keep mindlessly going, or let the horse run mindlessly through the bridle. I’ll walk or halt, and give the horse time to think, and let him get his adrenalin down to where he can think – and then go again… and you saw, he was very good at the fence the next time.”
The next time you used the ‘funnel’ poles to keep the odds your way…
“In training if it is possible I would rather not have any mistakes. I was very upset to have had that little whoopsy, but it won’t be a problem. It is always better not to have problems occur, give the horse every opportunity to do the right thing.”
In the best of all possible worlds, if you had access to well designed, well constructed cross country jumps – how often would you school over them?
“It depends on the horse, it’s a tough question. The mare I am riding now, Leilani, while I do cross country school her every time she comes in to start a season, I’m not interested in cross country schooling her a lot. I mostly work on the dressage and the jumping, but she is a very brave mare. However with some of the younger, careful horses, like the lovely one from Kinnordy Stud – Rivaldo – he’s a bit the same, I will take him cross country schooling a lot, just to say, look, these might be solid fences, some of them are spooky, some of them are narrow, but we just run and jump them. With careful horses like that I don’t have to focus too much on getting them up in the air and keeping them careful.”
Is that more and more the needed skill for an event rider… once upon a time, everyone rode Thoroughbred horses and they were brave, they would always try to get to the other side…
“I like the way the sport is going. I like the showjumps going up, I like the dressage getting more difficult, I’m not saying I am doing it better than anyone else, but I like the way it is going. It has to be a good thing for the sport. I say this to event organizers, if everyone finishes clear and inside the time, the winners will still be separated by their dressage and their showjumping, and what’s wrong with that? We don’t need to see gladiator cross country courses, with horses coming back with blood everywhere, I don’t think anyone wants to see that.”
But it does mean you are going to have to develop cross country schooling techniques that are more confidence building than you had to do in the past?
“Well, I’ve had some very careful Thoroughbred horses where I would just keep them confident and that’s how they went, I’ve had some others that occasionally needed a cross country school to teach them to be a bit more careful. It’s horses for courses. I do think we are getting a different style of horse that is a super careful jumper, the good horses we see in this country, they are really careful jumping, they are really extravagant on the flat these days, they are nicely schooled, they can be very accurate on the flat, and no longer can we just have the old war horse that is brave cross country, not clever on the flat, not a careful jumper, just brave. That was yesterday.”
Chris and Underdiscussion winning at Aachen. Underdiscussion (aka Remi Lethal Weapon) won the Aachen CHIO 3* in Germany in 2012 with Chris Burton, beating Michael Jung and Sam who went on to win Gold at the London Games. Libby Law image
Breeding eventers? There’s new stallions available from International Horse Breeders www.ihb.com.au – Like Grey Top 
Or Diacontinus
Plus many more to select from to find the right stallion for your mare: www.ihb.com.au
