16 days to go!

Mary King and her Olympic ride Imperial Cavalier

With the Olympics a mere couple of weeks away many predictions as to who is going to take the medals are beginning to circulate. In the Equestrian disciplines our teams appear to be the strongest they’ve ever been and our chance of clinching the gold seems as likely as ever. Before the Olympics have even begun our Eventing team has been blighted with injury and controversy, with the sad withdrawal of Piggy French after injury of both Jakata and DHI Topper W. The surprise initial rejection of Nicola Wilson and everyone’s favourite Opposition Buzz had rather a bittersweet ending when they managed to secure a place on the team when Piggy was forced to pull out. The final team is Tina Cook with Miners Frolic, William Fox-Pitt with Lionheart, Mary King with Imperial Cavalier, Zara Phillips with High Kingdom and Nicola Wilson with Opposition Buzz. We now must pray they all stay safe and sound in the short run up to the games, I do believe it’s time to bubble wrap the horses!

Andrew Nicholson on his way to a win at Barbury

With all of the predictions circulating it’s time for me to name mine (or attempt to, at least). I must say it’s a difficult decision, the performances from so many riders across the nations have been astounding recently. We saw Andrew Nicholson take a 1,2 in the CIC*** at Barbury earlier this month, Christopher Burton winning Aachen on his sub-40 dressage score and Michael Jung achieving a 1,2 at Luhmuhlen in June. Their nations; New Zealand, Australia and Germany respectively, are perhaps Great Britain’s toughest competition for the Gold medal. The New Zealand team is particularly strong, consisting of Jock Paget with Clifton Promise, Caroline Powell and Lenamore, Andrew Nicholson and Nereo, Jonelle Richards and Flintstar and Mark Todd and NZB Campino. Their form recently, particularly Andrew Nicholson’s makes them favourable for the top spot at Greenwich, but the German team are unlikely to make this easy for them. Known for their admirable dressage scores the top of the leaderboard after the first day of competition is likely to feature a number of German names, notably Michael Jung (recently 3rd at Aachen) who rides La Biosthetique Sam FBW (a horse who’s name proves a challenge for the 140 character limit on Twitter). Jung is looking to add to his collection of golds – notably his individual title at the 2010 World Equestrian Games as well as his individual and team gold at the 2011 Europeans. With this form, he is perhaps favourite to take the individual Gold. Despite this and the obvious strengths of both New Zealand and Germany our British team are also in with a fighting chance of standing on the top spot of the podium on the 31st July. William Fox-Pitt (1st at Kentucky, Bramham and Tattersalls this year) is looking stronger than ever and despite two of his qualified horses out with injury (Oslo and Cool Mountain), William is still a favourite for a medal. The Brits as a team are exceptionally strong and I would love for them to clinch the team gold, an achievement I believe is highly likely.

I look forward to the forthcoming games which are now scarily close (the announcement that we’d won the bid feels like yesterday!), and wish a safe build up for all horses and riders competing. I leave you with a cracking video from Barbury last weekend, where Clayton Fredericks performs quite a stunt...

2012 and Olympic Selection

It's finally 2012 and the Eventing season is due to begin any day now, so of course the focus is on the London Olympics. Great Britain is tipped for a medal, with a high chance of Gold - especially when you look at who is in contention for the team. Gold at the World Equestrian Games in 2010 and a (perhaps unlucky) Bronze at the Europeans last year makes us hot favourites to take the top spot at our home Olympics this summer. So who is qualified for our team, who is still yet to qualify and who is likely to take the 5 places on Team GBR?


Perhaps a certainty for the team (although in our sport 'certainty' is never a wise word to use!) is World Number 1 Mary King and the hugely successful William Fox-Pitt. William has managed to qualify nine horses since qualification began in 2011, but with his perhaps favourite (1st Kentucky Rolex 2010, Team Gold and Individual Silver at WEG) Cool Mountain out of work for 2012 due to a tendon injury, William looks likely to be taking Oslo - who had a very impressive 2011 with two 3* wins and a 4* win at Pau. Yet, we can never predict anything in Eventing so take any news at this point in the selection process very lightly. Mary King also has a number of horses at top level, namely her WEG and Europeans ride Imperial Cavalier. Mary will miss Badminton with both him and King's Temptress this year in order to preserve them for the Olympics, instead they will aim for Chatsworth 3* in preparation. Her other 4* rides include the newly acquired Chilli Morning from Nick Gauntlett and Apache Sauce, both who will aim for Badminton this year.

Other likely combinations qualified for the Olympics include Nicola Wilson and everyone's favourite Opposition Buzz. Their pathfinder skills across country are invaluable for the British team and I'm sure everyone would love to see them skipping round Greenwich this July. In addition, Blenheim 2011 winner Piggy French and her top horse Jakata are also in the running after a 2nd place at Badminton and 9th at the Europeans, yet it has often been noted that this horse's way of going isn't suited to the twisty course at Greenwich.

After a devastating 2011 for Tina Cook's ride Miners Frolic their hopes for the Olympic team were perhaps dissolving rapidly, but after a fantastic recovery Miners Frolic is fully fit and raring to go for this season. They aim for the 3* at Ballindenisk this weekend, where their result will be closely watched by many. Part of the gold medal winning team at WEG in 2010 and Olympic medallists in 2008, Miners Frolic and the experienced Tina Cook were perhaps in good contention for the Olympic team going into 2011, but after being diagnosed with colitis shortly after Badminton Miners Frolic was in a critical condition and their season came to an abrupt end. It is up to them now to prove their place on the team in the few months of qualification we have left before the final selection takes place.

Another rider hoping to make Olympic qualification this year after injury in 2011 is Pippa Funnell and Redesigned. They were perhaps a surprise choice for the 2010 WEG team, with Pippa making her first team appearance since 2004, but they proved their worth and finished on their dressage score for a very credible 5th place. This result has most definitely put Redesigned as one to watch for future years, and a few good runs at the beginning of this season will put him and Pippa in good contention for Olympic selection. They aim for the one-day at Burnham Market in April to kick-start their quest for qualification.

Other riders that we can't possibly overlook for the team include Ruth Edge, Polly Stockton, Lucy Wiegersma and Laura Collett. Knowing Eventing and the horse world we simply cannot predict anything accurately though and the results of the spring events, namely Badminton, will be the deciding point for many. The final five team members will be named on July 6th, 3 weeks before the Olympics will begin. Whoever manages to make the coveted places on Team GBR will I am sure do the country proud and we look forward to this season, one of the most exciting years of sport in recent history, with bated breath. Good luck to all.

The big hat debate

Recently the whole debate about whether or not a helmet should be compulsory to wear in the dressage arena has arisen, as I am sure you are all aware. The introduction of a safety top hat has turned the world of dressage upside down, turning everyone’s attention to perhaps valuing safety over looks. The development of this hat, which meets EN1384 safety standards, was spurred on somewhat by the Olympic dressage rider Courtney King-Dye’s accident back in March 2010. Whilst schooling her horse at home he slipped and fell, knocking her unconscious, fracturing her skull and leaving her in a coma for almost a month. Courtney was not wearing a hat. Now if this isn’t reason enough to wear a hat every single time you ride then I don’t know what is. Courtney now cannot stress enough how important it is to wear a helmet that meets the current safety standards – quoting from her website;

‘When I first wrote on my website after the coma. I said I was all for wearing helmets, but I didn't want helmets to be all my accident means. Now I think it should be. What else could it mean? It's exactly that that helps save people from injury. It saved a few people we all know from having to go through what I went through. Guenter Seidel, Liz Austen, Debbie McDonald. They're three great riders who have had recent falls and didn't always wear a helmet before my accident. I've said before that if my accident saves ONE person from going through what I went through, it's worth it. That's THREE that everyone knows... Definitely worth it. I can tell myself that my accident is definitely beneficial because of that. Without it, like Lauren Sammis said, it's
just a simple tragedy. This gives it meaning.’

Courtney now no longer plans to wears a top hat to compete in, and calls herself ‘silly’ back when she used to wear one. So clearly, the introduction of this new safety top hat is nothing but a good thing. But will it catch on? Courtney’s accident may have provoked other riders to wear hats more frequently temporarily, but a year on we are still seeing riders both competing and riding generally without helmets on. Proof that possibly the message is yet to really catch on – and that this new hat may take some getting used to. Will riders really sacrifice appearance for safety? I certainly hope so.

The debate continued when a photo of the Queen was published earlier this week. It showed the Queen riding along with two of her grandchildren. Queen Elizabeth was not wearing a hat – sparking outcry from the safety-conscious of the equestrian world. It is well known that she very rarely rides with a hat, and instead chooses to replace it with a headscarf. At the age of 85 it is wonderful that our Queen is still riding (I certainly hope to still be in the saddle at that age!), and although yes it is a risk of safety to be on a horse without a hat, if anyone is allowed it surely is the Queen. I am not in any place to tell our Queen what to do, and I am certainly not going to judge! In this photo I believe what you have to focus on is the fact that the two children are wearing helmets, one even in a body protector. This is what is important.

I may have somewhat contradicted myself here, yet my message I hope is still clear. Wearing a safety-approved hat whilst riding is perhaps one of the most important pieces of advice for any rider to listen to. There is no technical understanding about it, no complicated nonsense to get your head round, just simple pure facts – they save your lives. I can give many examples of riders who have had their lives saved by simply wearing a hat; Oliver Townend at Kentucky 2010 and Elizabeth Power at Badminton 2011 are among the recent. If Courtney King-Dye had have been wearing a hat she wouldn’t have had to go through the trauma and life-changing experience that her accident brought upon her. A year later she still isn’t back to normal – do you really want to risk that happening to you? Can you afford to ruin your life in that way, or possibly even sacrifice it? I believe the answer to that is no. No more lives should need to be affected or ruined by the lack of a hat whilst riding. They save lives – it’s a fact.