Rebecca Ashton talks to one of the most exciting new talents in the world of dressage…
Cathrine and Rebecca Ashton, on the right, who took the pics, and wrote the words…
Danish dressage rider Cathrine Dufour continues her incredible success. Most recently she took out the bronze in the Special at the Europeans having brought her top horse Cassidy back from injury. Cassidy, the cute chestnut gelding who she’s had since Cathrine was a Junior rider, She also has another star the Bordeaux gelding, Bohemian.
I caught up with Cathrine after her personal best Special at Rotterdam, which was made all the more wonderful, coming back from a Grand Prix where it just poured!
Photo – Rebecca Ashton
Take us through the two tests, because the conditions were totally different. The first one, oh my goodness that rain!
Yeah but he was really, really amazing in the first one!
It just seemed so unfair!
But you know, that’s just the sport. And we’re working on details really, and it matters. My theory is my reins were getting a little bit slippery, so I held on too tight. So the problem wasn’t that my reins were actually slipping through my fingers, but that I was just holding the reins too tight, and he’s used to a softer contact. So it was super annoying in the Grand Prix. It was still a good mark, but it’s annoying for the team. But yesterday it was really, really nice and it was super emotional because he’s 16 and making a personal best after we missed the World Equestrian Games last year. I’m just really proud of Cassidy, I’m so happy. We’ve just used the last season to really build him up and get him in the best shape ever.
Photo – Rebecca Ashton
So how do you get a PB on a 16-year-old horse?
He only competed two days in Aachen which we planned. He didn’t do the 5*. Then he was out for nearly two weeks afterwards, just walking and jogging. The week before coming here we picked him up a little bit. I rode him Saturday and Sunday together with Kyra Kyrklund and then he was just jogging the week leading up to here. Nathalie and Kyra are both here and we started building him up. He knows all the exercises, so it’s just a matter of keeping him happy. I use a water treadmill back home to keep his basic condition pretty high, without me putting pressure on him from above. After that, it comes down to the day. We know each other so well, so it comes down to things like how tense he is on the day, that sort of thing. I’m always nervous in a good way but we both know the job.
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I read that when you start doing up your girth, that’s when you start visualising. Is that your mental process?
I’m really doing that a lot. As soon as I see the arena I start visualising the Grand Prix, so that when I enter the ring, I feel like I’ve been there a thousand times before, so I feel at home when I enter the arena. All the small things like your trainer says, ‘Outside rein in the corner’, it just pops up naturally and you don’t have to think about it. I think that’s my best mental tool at the moment.
Speaking of corners, you say to train your corners as your safe space. Can you expand on that a little?
That’s the first thing I mention at clinics too. In the warmup, for example in rising trot, I work through all the corners. My goal, when I enter a corner, is to think I have plenty of space for the next exercise. For example in the Grand Prix you have extended canter coming on the centre line zig zag and there’s not a lot of space but if you feel, ok I have full control in the corner, that’s like your safe space. The horses know they have to come back to me in the corner, listen to me and wait for the next thing. So, it’s like finding myself home or safe in the corners. I think it’s a really good thing to do at Grand Prix and at other levels.
Photo – Roslyn Neave
And your fitness? That’s a big focus for you as well…
I really want to because I’m an athlete, not only a rider, and I know that’s getting modern. But I know people say oh it’s not really a sport, it’s a horse carrying me around, but it is tough riding. I think the better you are under pressure, performing with a high pulse, for example in the Grand Prix Special, your pulse is quite high in the last extended trot and passage tour. I mean the better shape you’re in, the better decisions you make especially under high pressure. And all the core strength. You’re improving so much in the horse’s life, diet plans, training plans, water treadmill and I want to do the same for myself as well to help my horses in the best way possible.
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Your partner makes your exercise programmes?
Yeah she’s a physio and personal trainer. She’s a specialist in that area. This is the first competition I allowed her to do whatever she wanted. I gave her loose reins to plan everything!
Cathrine and her partner, Katrine Ørskov Hedeman at the 2016 Olympic hopefuls awards – this year Cathrine was nominated for the Danish Rainbow award which celebrates individuals who have distinguished themselves in society and made a positive impact on the LGBT community and environment. Photo © Ridehesten
Was she tough on you?
Yeah, but you have to be tough on me. At that point she’s not my girlfriend, she’s my trainer. So that’s been really fun. I think she thought to was fun too.
What was her aim with you?
First of all, we wanted to cut down a little bit of weight before the competition because that always makes me feel a little bit better. Secondly, trying to really improve on doing some hard lifting, and then the cardio, really try to simulate that you’re riding, you have to be quite static, but with a high pulse and still able to make the right decisions. Then of course still things I have to do to help my back. We work out six, seven days a week. I like it. As a rider also, you want to be competitive when you’re 50, 60. You lose muscle as you get older. I just want to be a little ahead of my time a little bit!
Photo – Rebecca Ashton
And diet? Because last time I spoke to you you were eating cakes and candy!
All the time! We love sugar, but it’s just nice to have a goal and follow a plan. Katrine, she’s done it all, so we’ve really been pushing each other.
This year you’ve also taken on some of Andreas Helgstrand’s young horses?
Yes! It’s really interesting. He’s been asking me for a while if I wanted to come and work for him, but I really wanted to stay at my yard, with my trainers and with my system. But then we found a compromise where some of his horses come to my place, and I could educate them. Then instead of me having say five good horses, and five shitty horses, now I have eight or nine really, really good horses.
At the beginning, I went to his place and tried 54 horses over two full days and then I picked four four-year-olds, and two seven-year-olds. The two seven-year-olds have been bought by one of my clients. They’re with me, so it’s really nice to have two really great seven-year-olds up-and-coming.
Right now from Andreas’ yard we have two five-year-olds which are just super, super horses and one four-year-old stallion, and a six-year-old stallion. They’re different horses, with great quality, and some of the types I really like to work with: fast, quick, small horses, really hot horses. It’s nice to be part of his team, and it is such a professional team. How he can do so many things so well is really amazing. I’m really enjoying it and I’m really happy for the cooperation.
Photo – Roslyn Neave
And it’s Danish!
Yeah it is. He’s pushing the sport to the boundaries in a good way and I think the mix of him really pushing things forward, and me with my trainers, it’s a good mix.
Bohemian. What an exciting horse for you!
After Aachen I thought ok, I’m going to take him to the Europeans. I was quite secure with him, and I thought I’d take the risk. Then we came back home, and the Danes really wanted the Olympic qualification, and I think Cassidy and Bohemian at his top level are almost the same now, but then again, the bottom level, it’s not so good. Bohemian could do 71% if he was crazy, or behaving like a youngster. So we had a squad training about ten days before this comp, and I brought them both, and we did the test and I just thought, I feel more secure with Cassidy. I mean, it was a tough decision for me to pick Bohemian for Aachen, because Cassidy is really my pony, but then after the squad training, it was quite clear that I wanted to take Cassidy because then I knew what I was bringing to the table. It felt like a more secure decision. And after how we went here at the Europeans, Bohemian couldn’t do this. He couldn’t have done 80%, maybe close, but then you never know.
So now, I’ll plan on doing a little bit of work with both of them, and of course with the aim of the Olympics next year.
Bohemian at Aachen (Photo Kenneth Braddick dressage news)
Who would be your choice do you think?
I think Bohemian, because Cassidy will be 17, and the weather conditions in Tokyo, they say are a little bit crazy. Cassidy likes the heat, but they say with older horses, it’s a little bit more difficult for them to cope. So in my head, it’s Bohemian, but if Cassidy continues improving, you never know.
There was a time when cracking 80% was amazing, and now it’s almost, oh we have to aim for 85% now! What is it? The quality of horse, the quality of training?
I know! It’s crazy. I think it’s everything. It’s super, super quality horses and riders. We all find our way around perfecting the Grand Prix.
But where do you go?
Look at Isabell Werth!
Everyone’s getting PBs here on the same horses.
Yeah, but for me in a way it makes sense. I’m never pushing my horses to the same level at a normal competition, as I would in a big championships like this. For example, I said to my trainers, I haven’t pushed Cassidy for an extended trot like that since the last Europeans. I won’t take that risk because I don’t want to break him. This time I thought, it’s now or never.
So how do you know it’s there?
I can really feel with him. I enter the ring and I do my halt every time at the gate, and if he’s really breathing, it’s a feeling and he was really with me yesterday.
And I heard when you brush him, you brush one leg then you kiss him, brush a side of his neck…and kiss him.
Yeah, it takes me an hour to groom him, even at home. I don’t have a lunch break, that’s my lunch break, kissing and hugging and brushing and spoiling! But I’ve had him for nine years. When I was a Junior, I didn’t have a groom, I had to do it myself, so it would be weird to get my groom now to do it. That’s our thing.
Photo – Rebecca Ashton
What’s your routine in a day. I know you work out first…
Work out first if possible from 06:00-08:00, then I ride eight horses, then I have my lunch break with Cassidy, then I ride him, and finish around 16:00. Then I have students, but I have less students now than previously, because I got a scholarship from a Danish company. It’s quite nice, I’m not working 15 hours a day. I have about ten lovely students back at home, who have similar goals to myself, so it’s really nice.
Princess Nathalie – keeping an eye on the training
(Photo – Roslyn Neave)
You obviously work really well with Princess Nathalie and Kyra. How does that all work so well?
I think it’s the combination. Nathalie is really my daily trainer. She’s with me quite often, and I know her really, really well. We’ve been working together for about one and a half years now. We are really similar how we’re thinking, but we still have our things, and we mix and match a bit. I think Kyra is the magic maker. She has some funny things, she’s all the time thinking outside the box. She was the one who got Cassidy to piaffe for the first time before the Olympics. I’ve known Kyra for many years now, and Nathalie was with Kyra back in time, so it’s the same school. I love the combination and they’re both really calm and very confident.
What do you do after a comp, because you don’t give Cassidy a day off immediately…
After this one I have a vacation! Seven days! Cassidy will walk for two weeks, do the water treadmill, do a little bit the spa. He’ll walk for three to four weeks now. It’s really important for my horses to drop. I really want to allow them into a very low gear. Of course I want them in basic good condition, so they’re walking up steep hills, in the forest, so they are in great condition. Normally with Cassidy I only need two weeks to take him from basic, and really take him up.
It’s really important to try to avoid injuries. Like riding, riding around and around the arena all the year. There’re competitions all the time so you really have to say to yourself, no, I’m giving the horse three months off.
Photo – Roslyn Neave
So you have to be really disciplined in yourself…
Yes because it’s easy just to keep entering shows. But I’m really confident that I’m bringing everything we have when we go out.
When you work with the horses, you train the problem. You have to go and find those problems and really address them?
Of course. For example, in Aachen, Cassidy was a little bit lazy in the piaffe and I really wanted to crack the code and make it a little bit more ‘game on’, so that’s what we’ve been working on since Aachen. We haven’t done a lot of canter work at all because the canter work is often quite easy, so I’ve really been spending the kilometres in piaffe/ passage instead and we’ve tried some different things like using a short whip instead of a long whip so I only ride him with a jumping whip right now.
Why is that?
Because instead of tapping him on his butt, I’ll just pat him on the saddle pad. What I really wanted was him to be sitting and rounder and if I touched him on the butt he was jumping up behind but just touching the saddle pad is the middle part, his tummy, and I really want him long on the top and short underneath, in his core. Small, new things like that. That’s Kyra. She asked if I had a jumper’s whip, and I’m like, I’m not a jumper! I had to get one! Small things can make a difference without force. That’s why I really like Kyra and Nathalie, they never force anything, they’re playing and being creative. They’re always finding other ways around a problem. And that’s the way dressage is moving hopefully I think, no forcing, no pulling the bit and kicking.
I’ll let you get back to your hammock in the stable!
Oh yeah! We didn’t know how Cassidy would cope with that! He’s so cute. I fell asleep, Katrine fell asleep, and Cassidy was asleep, but with his head on the top of Katrine’s head. He’s so special. But when you’ve had a horse for that long…
He’s a big dork. He follows us around everywhere. Katrine has an old horse too who’s 18. One day we’ll retire them both and build a castle in the field for them with a butler!
Photo – Rebecca Ashton
Want to breed to the sire of Cathrine’s new star Bohemian? IHB has semen from Bordeaux
See the website for information…