Matt Williams is one of the most successful Australian jumping riders of modern times, and has been selected for the Beijing Games, the WEG in Lexington and the London Games. Now living in the United States, Matt is in keen demand as a coach, and as a rider, and is working to produce the right combination to take him to yet another World Championships – in Normandy next year. We asked him to look at these three jumpers and decide which one he would like in his stable block.
The First Choice – Cruising
I would take the grey horse (Athlet Z /Calypso) as my third pick, even though he has very nice technique. Look at the way he is coming up through the knee. However, I am not a big believer in technique, if you look at horses that are winning championships, like Hickstead, often don’t have a technique that is classical, by any means. It is nice to have that technique, but then often that great technique is the horse’s downfall because they are a little bit more careful and not as brave.
Choice number two is the Diamant de Sémilly/ Ouragen du Don. It’s a scopey jumping machine and I really like its breeding. When I look to breed a horse, that’s the first stallion I want to use, Diamant de Sémilly. For me, he is the next stallion after Galoubet for jumping horses.
The Second Choice – Diamant de Semilly
The horse I would most like to take home is the chestnut horse, the Cruising out of a Galoubet mare. I’ve loved Galoubet ever since Beijing – he’s bred so many great horses. Cruising throws a type that has a difficult canter, but if you can ride that horse, they are very careful and they are very fast horses.
The Third Choice – Athlet Z
With young horses, you look at the breeding because you want to see what the horse is likely to end up – does the horse have the breeding to have the scope to go bigger? Looking at a horse that is already jumping a metre sixty, then I don’t look at the breeding. I look at the heart, what the horse is capable of. Conformation can be a factor for soundness, but to me the biggest thing is their heart. The horse I had at Kentucky, Watch Me, he was a beautifully conformed horse but his technique was terrible, his canter wasn’t great, but that horse out of every horse I’ve ridden, had the biggest heart. He wasn’t sound and yet on the last day he came out and jumped clear. On the other hand, you can find horses with the most beautiful jumping technique, but they knock a fence down every time – and that is a depressing horse for me. I’ll take something that fights for you every time, that’s why I like the Cruising, the Irish horse still has a lot of fight, and with the Galoubet blood throwing in extra scope, that’s a pretty nice mix.