Paul started eventing in Australia, but moved to the UK in 1999, where he established an equestrian centre with his wife, Georgina.

The highlight of his career has been winning Badminton in 2010 on Inonothing – the horse he rode at the WEG in Lexington in 2012.

In May 2010, Suzy Jarratt caught up with Paul:

For three years, he went to and from the UK – it was summer all year round for Paul Tapner.

“It was bliss”, recalled the 34-year-old eventer,”but then I decided that to achieve the goals I had set myself I would have to stay full time in the UK.” So Australia lost another of its fine riders to British soil.

From 1999 Sydney-born Tapner has been a regular competitor on the UK and international eventing circuit working in Wiltshire at Wickstead Farm Equestrian Centre near Swindon, owned by his in-laws. “It’s presently under a foot of snow like most of the country.”

But had it not been for Pony Club Zone 23 it is quite likely he would have stayed in the sunshine. At the time of his being with this pony club it was a fertile breeding ground of embryonic equestrian talent. Edwina Alexander, Carla Koffel, Shane Rose, (Penny, his mother was a powerful force in the club) and Sammi McLeod were some of its members, one of his trainers was Olympic bronze medalist Denis Piggott.

“And when New Zealander Peter Taylor loaned me his horse Look Sharp for a year I seriously got into eventing, but I did have to earn money as well.”

For six months he worked for Muir’s Milburn Creek Thoroughbred Stud. “I hated every moment of it. I discovered I wasn’t very good at working for people in the conventional sense.”

To pay for his expenses while studying for and achieving a degree in agricultural science he mucked out 17 stables at a Quarterhorse stud each morning and during winter lunch breaks would clip Standardbreds at a nearby trotting track. A hairy business in every way. The horses were often orangutans but a mild sedative was out of the question.

“These trainers weren’t going to pay for any drugs. The horses, wearing unbreakable PVC collars, were put in a steel pen attached to a chain welded to the pen. Keeping my legs out of the way I’d begin clipping as the horses tried to hurl themselves all over the place.”

He was halfway through a diploma in education when he quit university life and went full time into the horse business. He ran an equestrian centre on his parents’ property, began a fencing business which, before selling it in 2001, employed 20 people and invented and marketed a type of portable stabling and yarding system which he sold before going overseas.

“While I say I’m no good at working for people I did just that when I secured a job in the UK training horses for Angela and Edward Scott who I’d met at our local pony club.”

“I can pretty much attribute my equestrian and my business successes and advancements to the Australian Pony Club system,” he stated. “I was instructing the Scotts’ daughter Genevieve at the Dural P.C. and when they arranged to move to England, Angela wanted to become involved in UK eventing and asked me to ride her horses for a season.”

He later met and married Georgie Mace, herself an accomplished equestrienne whose parents own Wickstead Farm. Family Tapner now consists of two children, Joshua 6 and Madison 3 and Team Tapner of ten competition horses which are on the road many months each year.

“Soon they’ll begin indoor showjumping and dressage and at the beginning of March the first outdoor events are held and they’ll be competing until the end of October.”

He believes the U.K. is the only place to be, the sport has such a huge following.

“You need generous owners or benefactors and that’s the whole reason I’m here. There are a lot of people who want to be involved in three-day-eventing, they just love visiting the English estates to see their horses competing in prestigious events at magnificent venues. My owners are supportive and wealthy. Among them are Suzi and Martin Belsham. Martin’s a London businessman who began an internet gambling company, Blue Square, which evolved into a very profitable exercise. The Belshams own 10-year-old Stormhill Michael (English TB by Stormhill Miller). He competed four star at Badminton last year placing 18th and we’re going again this year. I’ll be getting my Armada dish. You’re awarded one if you compete five times at Badminton. Andrew Nicholson (N.Z.) is the record holder with five dishes, I’ve a long way to go to catch up to that.”

“Kilfinnie 11, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse by Tullibards Shakespeare belongs to Sue White who owns a local nursing agency in Swindon and Jenny and Claus Waaler own Inonothing (English TB by Basildon Bond). He’s 13 and the Waalers have had him since he was five months old. Claus is a retired shipping merchant.”

Paul and Inonothing at Burghley / Photo: Optimal Photography

This is the horse Tapner would like to take to Kentucky – if he’s selected. “When Vettori, who recently had a magnificent win in Adelaide with Stuart Tinney, was competing in the U.K. in ’08 this gelding and Inonothing were up against each other and Inonothing always beat him. They’re equally matched. Hopefully the selectors will take note of that”.

Paul and Kilfinnie at Badminton 2009 / Photo: Optimal Photography

Nobody’s going to know what the Australian selectors will do for quite some time. Tapner would, of course, love to wear the Australian flag on his jacket but that is an honor bequeathed only to Australians officially representing their country. But he does wear it on his saddlecloth.

“We wish to be recognised as Australians competing internationally, every other nation in the world does this. So we ignore any directives and do it too. And I wear Australian flag underpants!”

He has a few theories about why Australia isn’t winning as many medals as it did some years ago.

“The standard of rider hasn’t changed but when we first began winning gold we seemed to be the world leaders in horse and athlete management – our veterinary team led the way, we had sports psychologists and specialist trainers. We’ve become a bit stagnant.”

“Now look at the British eventing circuit – there are full time veterinarians, psychologists and physiotherapists and specialised coaches and personal trainers regularly visit the riders’ properties. Two days after Matt Ryan announced he was going to take out British citizenship and ride for the UK the team’s performance manager, Yogi Breisner, came to his house and discussed plans for the next European Games – Matt received instant support. Bettina Hoy says it’s the same with the German team. And these riders are given videos of each other’s performances which they analyse in a group. A confronting experience maybe but if you want gold medals you don’t beat around the bush. Our holistic side must be improved.”

And he is unhappy with course designers.

“The sport’s organisers, who’ve been riders in the past, persistently make changes. These days it’s a competition between the world’s designers as to who can come up with something different. Why does every new major event have to feature innovative jumps? I and many other eventers find it very frustrating.”

“And every year we have to contend with a huge barrage of rule changes. Over the years three-day and one-day eventing have become closer to merging into the same thing. Wayne Roycroft is adamant this won’t happen but when he retires that’s what will happen.”

Mark Todd is a legendary eventer. Voted by the FEI as its rider of the twentieth century the New Zealander, now 53, is based and competing in Britain.

“We had some interesting conversations when we flew to Poland together for the World Cup final.” recalled Tapner. “In his day the straight route was just that – you kicked and you went straight. It was terrifying but that was the easiest way through. Now to ride the straight through route you need a puzzle solver. These days when walking the course you’ll see riders standing at a fence for twenty minutes trying to figure it out.”

“Mark said the courses of the past were more horrendous looking, there were more falls and horses would become entangled in fences, which he knows is not good for the viewing public, but those horses were rarely seriously injured. Today there are more rotational falls.”

Of course frangible pins help to prevent these often fatal accidents.

“The steel pin holds up a solid timber log. If a horse falls on top of that log it will break and the horse is supposed to fall sideways, instead of vertically on top of the rider.”

“They are totally invaluable and a huge asset to the sport. The UK is the world leader in eventing rules, equipment and organisation. We have an enormous amount of fences built with these pins so it does somewhat scare us when we travel to international events which don’t have them.”

“This is another example of the Federation dragging its toes – frangible pins are not required under FEI rules.”

But this won’t deter Tapner from riding at those events. And he’s doing well – business and career are booming. The only time he’s in the red is when he’s competing.

“Back in my Zone 23 days Penny Rose had us all wearing red. In the UK I decided I needed a marketing tool so everything is that color. Red buckets, rugs and bandages, horse rugs, T-shirts, socks and a bright red truck – sorry, I mean lorry.”

“There are 15,000 registered members of British eventing you’ve got to stand out somehow.”

www.tapnereventing.com