Story Christopher Hector, Photos Roz Neave and Libby Law
Christopher Burton is a very gifted teacher, and one who doesn’t compromise his message in the interest of pupil popularity…
Like all good teachers, Christopher keeps the message clear and simple, when I caught up with him at Sara Madden’s magnificent Fairhurst, on the Mornington Peninsula, he was using poles on the ground, then upping the rails to become a double of little jumps. The pupils had to ride the distance in ten strides (seriously short strides) moving up to five (at a ground covering gallop). It is a wonderful exercise in control and brings into play most of the skills required of both horse and rider.
“Whenever I teach, I can’t stress enough how important the exercise of lengthening and shortening the canter is, cutting and adding strides between the poles or small jumps is so useful – it is the best way for them to learn because if they do make a little mistake, it’s just a pole on the ground, it is not going to hurt anyone. But if they miss on big jumps, then the result is terrible, the horse starts stopping; ugly.”
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Each session finished off with a little showjumping track, which was fun – well mostly fun – for the riders. It wasn’t quite so much fun for Olivia Townsend riding son of Visage, Villain. The bay gelding was quite disobedient and refused to go near the jumps a couple of times. Christopher asked Olivia to cluck, once, twice and if she didn’t get an immediate response, kick and kick hard and send him galloping forward, but, and this was an interesting twist, having got the horse going forward she had to bring him back to a halt, quickly.
“That issue gets messed up and confused in a lot of rider’s minds, and therefore horse’s minds, but once you teach the horse to go forward, leave them galloping for a while but then say, we are also talking about ‘stop’. They are the basic principles that we work within. I am always fascinated how with a piggy horse that doesn’t want to go forward, if you give it a kick and then stop it, interestingly by half halting and stopping it, you often get it with you a little more. But it is essential that they must be with you because that is the way we get out to trouble…”
Olivia tried valiantly but Villain was still in a less that cooperative mood, so Christopher donned his crash cap and climbed on board. The gelding soon learnt to go forward, and come back. Christopher was full of praise for his student, “most would have had a dummy spit, but Olivia took it, worked at it, and got a result”.
It was Roz Neave who reminded Christopher how it was just that quality that got Chris and Leilani out of trouble when she lost her footing at the first water in Greenwich at the Olympic Games…
“Were you there for that? There were precious few people who saw that, but it was a really hairy moment. I don’t think it was seen on the big screen because no one commented on it, and afterward I just sat there saying, ‘yes, yes, I had a foot perfect round’ but actually it was pretty close to disaster. We were trying very, very hard to make the time, and I went very bravely down that steep hill – it was only as the day went on that we learnt there was quite a reverse camber there which caught quite a few out. I didn’t know that then, and she lost her back end, and she was very nearly down and I had very little left as we came to the water. We jumped in fine, and it was an adding distance, and then I saw another one… good old girl she just took off, she has so much scope and so much stride, I was able to jump it easily. When you say go they have to really go!”
Leilani and Chris make it through…
This shows how steep the slope was, and it was wet and became slippery, especially at the bottom where the horses had to turn to fence one…
This shows the camber, looking over the flags of the last element of the water complex
Go Leilani! And she does
And back in rhythm for the next fence which was only a couple of strides away
It was a change for Christopher to be teaching again, and he really enjoyed his session with the two Griffiths muppets… “It’s rewarding when you have a group like that, Mark and Vanessa’s daughters Alla and Nina are incredible, so much fun to teach because they hang on every word and have a real feel for it. Lessons like that make it worth doing. It’s crazy, I’ve hardly taught a paid lesson in England – it’s one of those things about setting up, it takes time. Riders over there have their trainers that they have been going to for years, and I am really very new over there, but it will happen.”
When you decided to go to England, did you ever hope that you would go half as well as you have for the past twelve months?
“This last twelve months has been a glory run, and when that happens in your riding career, you’ve just got to enjoy it. I do remember being fearful when I left Australia, I remember worrying, what if I fall on my face when I get over there? Which could still happen… Then I thought, I’ll just stay there till I work my way through it and I am successful – I always believe that with patience and determination, you will get there. When I arrived, I didn’t have the best run. The first six months were not so good, I had horse soundness problems – it’s a thing when you go to a different hemisphere, horses that are not quite right. They probably even showed a clean blood, but they just weren’t quite right, they weren’t themselves.”
“Then at the start of this year, I remember thinking to myself, these horses are going to come jumping out of their skins this year. They have just got through the winter, they are fit, they are fat, they are ready to go, and sure enough, I had a great year.”
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Was it easy to get into the British scene?
“I was lucky. I deliberately based at Sam Griffiths’ place, and that was a clever thing to do. Over there, it is so easy to go off track, thinking you’ll do it the same as you do in Australia, and it is just not the same. I was hanging on Sam’s every word – where to go, what to do, how to re-structure my gallop program using a different gallop from what I had used, how to re-think eventing programs, all that sort of stuff. I am really grateful to Sam and his wife, Lucy, for helping me through that time.”
Where now?
“I am looking around for a yard, it’s time for me to be out on my own. I’m always looking for more horses, always trying to keep the team up there and strong. I will be a bit light on in 2013 for horses, I’ve had a few retired, and a few break down… so now I’m trying to find some nice young ones.”
So any Australian eventing fan who would like to have you train a horse for them, should pick up the phone?
“That’s it, let me know! People said to me after the Games, ‘you must be inundated with horses to ride?’ But it doesn’t happen like that, it takes time to build up a rapport with owners. In England I am starting again.”
What do you have that is exciting coming on?
“We are quite excited by Graf Liberty. He has just gone two star, he is only young but he seems to have the goods. We are still hoping that Underdiscussion will win a four star at some stage…”
Graf Liberty and Christopher , winners of the Pau**. Photo by Libby Law
Leading the dressage at Pau***, Christopher and Underdiscussion. Photo by Libby Law
He must be breaking your heart, leads after the dressage at Pau**** then a couple of stops and you walk home… you were always worried that he might just be too careful…
“He is frustrating, he has all the talent in the world but he certainly is careful and you have to have everything right on the day. The thing about a horse of that calibre is that he doesn’t finish second. I’ve got some nice Thoroughbred pre-Novice ones that are coming along, and I am excited this year to have Leilani and Newsprint doing Badminton.”
And that will be their swansong?
“Just about. Certainly Leilani will be flying home and Jade will be riding her, or she will be going in foal – that’s nice, she’s been a superstar.”
As one great partnership comes to an end, you get the feeling that the next CB star might be just around the corner…