OCTOBER 2002

Well its Saturday, September 2, 1.30 pm or at home in Lochinvar 9.30 pm. I’m in the air again leaving Germany heading into Spain with Stilton right alongside once again overseeing this column. Alongside Stilton is Aphrodite and this time there is no nightmare experiences triggering away this update. Well not for Aphrodite and Stilton anyway. I guess the breaking news is that Kristy Oatley-Nist and Wallstreet are not on the flight. That’s really bad for the Australian Dressage Team as it would have been fair to say that we expected Kristy to produce our best individual score and so promote our chances of qualifying a dressage team for the Athens Olympics 2004. Of course the upside for me is that Stilton and I are now assured of a start barring any unforeseen disasters. Bloody beauty! Stilton gets better and better everyday. The Grand Prix happens over the 11th and 12th which is just four days away. I just know we’re going to peak right on schedule. (Prophesy like when I wrote the column going into Brisbane!! That didn’t go so well, but this will be different!) As I understand it this magazine is going to have a last minute insert with WEG reports so just flick to that section to see how we went.
In big time competitions it’s been very interesting seeing how the Europeans do a competitor/dressage start draw. The perceived lesser riders are pooled together and a draw is done for the first eight spots. Then the next group of riders are pooled together and drawn down to the perceived best eight which then get the last eight spots. This draw is sort of legal as apparently in the FEI rules the draw can be somewhat manipulated to accommodate a positive media presentation. It seems that Australia is the only country that does a straight honest draw. This does make it tough over here as we Australians seem to always draw very early in the competition. Ricky McMillan says that at best we are considered exotic!! The B…..ds!!!! The judges in turn are then inclined to score the early combinations moderately and so work up to some mighty scores. I wonder if the Spanish officials might enjoy a case or ten of Fosters! God help the world and especially the girls if I draw last! Yeee Haaa!!!
Since arriving in Germany on Friday 16 August, we have seen and done so much. On Saturday 17 and Sunday 18, I went and watched Mary Hanna competing at Lingen CDI which was about two and half hours drive from where we were based at Gronwohldhof. Gronwohldhof is where Kristy is based, just out of Hamburg. Mary has been schooling with Anky Van Grunsven and Sjeff Janssen for the past couple of months embracing Anky’s signia training technique where the horses are schooled very very deep and very very light. Really develops the horses to go "over the back" and develop enormous elasticity and expression. The trick however is to convert this training approach into a more recognisable classical presentation in the competition arena. Mary got a little caught between the two worlds and so didn’t score as well as she had hoped. This sort of setback doesn’t do your confidence any good especially just before a big competition and Mary was beside herself with worry and torment. Personally I think where she is going is absolutely on target if Australia’s dressage future is to move on from the 60%-65% score to the 66%-72% range. It will be painful but we’re ready and we have to go there.
Starting from Tuesday 20th I rode each morning with Martina Hannover who has a training centre just around the corner from Gronwohldhof. Each morning I would get from three to six horses, all of them really nice and interesting. Always I would start with a four year old Weltmeyer stallion out of a Bolero mare. I was fascinated to get a ride on stock with this breeding and he was really nice. Then I rode Rubilit who is a 10 year old Rubinstein gelding. He did all the Grand Prix work really beautifully and Martina would help me with a view to Stilton and the WEG. Other horses I rode would vary from three year old colts to competition FEI horses and I found my mornings both fascinating and inspiring. Certainly watching Martina ride was something else and her energy as a person was awesome. This diversion from riding just one horse a day was entirely responsible for keeping me sane. Well as sane as I get!!
Late mornings I would have a lesson at Gronwohldhof on Stilton with Clemens Dierks and Karen Rehbein. I enjoyed these lessons immensely although I think Clemens was driven nearly mad coping with all my variations of approach! Too bad!!
Again it was just fantastic watching Karen ride and train, Gronwohldhof as a facility is straight out of a romantic dream. It’s just beautiful and until recently was also the home of the great dressage stallion Donnerhall. Under Karen, Donnerhall got a team Olympic Gold Medal at Atlanta and also features in Rozzie’s and my dressage breeding programme at Lochinvar.
On Thursday 29th Ricky McMillan and Crisp, Emma Youngman and Rasputin and Stilton and I go to the Munster show as a pipe-opener for the WEG. I was sure I was going to go well and the more I watched the name riders the more convinced I became that Stilton and I had all the firepower they had and if all went well then we were about to cause a serious international upset. Well to my disbelief we didn’t go well! In actual fact Stilton and I came last with 59 odd%. What the hell happened?? Stilton and I do in actual fact possess serious firepower. We actually have quite a few highlights like our flying changes, extended trot, extended walk and trot half pass that is as good as it gets. Ironically the piaffe work with which we have struggled for so long is improving daily and certainly will also be one of our strengths in the future. The problem is that we have these little flounders here and there which when executed at atomic blast level has many similarities to a dogs breakfast! Just doesn’t go down too well with these foreign judges. Don’t worry, Stilton and I have been working doubly hard on that minor detail and we’re going to be great. The hardest bit is that Stilton is seriously sensitive and so for the first three or four minutes in a new arena, Stilton will tense up and that is when we lose balance or make mistakes. (me? Well I’m always cool!!) So we can be impressive and foot perfect in the practice arena ( in which we have been working for the last 20 minutes) and just not quite transfer it to the competition arena. Well Stilton and I are working on it!!
We have arrived!! It’s now Sunday 8th September and we’re just three days away. Stilton went terrific this morning. We were allowed into the main competitive arena for fifteen minutes and Stilton and I worked hard on the first three minute tension thing. Had a couple of momentary splatters but it will be better tomorrow when we are again allowed into the main arena for another 15 minutes.
Nick Fyffe is doing a great job grooming although he was complaining from lack of sleep this morning. Apparently there are three grooms per bunkhouse, only last night there were four people in Nicks house and two them made a lot of noise. Must have been the Russians!
Right that’s it, I’m just about to sign off however the wold on Guy Wallace, who is still in Westmead Hospital, Sydney in the rehabilitation ward, continues to be positive. Guy is now eating solid food and enjoying it. He still can’t talk but can mouth the alphabet and some words. Melissa says he remembers everything and everyone now and has started playing computer games. Apparently he thought it was really funny when Melissa told him I was on the Dressage Team!! He never was super reverent even at the best of times!
Cheers, Heath

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