In 1995, Sam made the decision to leave his home in Australia and make a career for himself in the UK as an International Event Rider. He trained and worked as a back up rider for double Olympic gold medallist, Matt Ryan, for three years. After leaving Matt Ryan’s base, Sam established his own team of horses – Sam and his wife, Lucy,  run the team together from their yard on the Dorset/Somerset border.

Sam was short listed for the Athens and Beijing Olympics, finished 5th in the HSBC Classics for 2009 and was a member of the Australian Team for both the 2010 World Championships in the USA and the London 2012 Olympics, with his top horse, Happy Times.

Sam was part of the Australian Team for for the 2014 World Equestrian Games in France with his Badminton 2014 winner Paulank Brockagh. The pair have again been selected for the Australian team to go to Rio.

When Sam was in Australia at the Adelaide International Three Day Event 2015, he took time to talk about how he finds his horses…

Where did you find your first good horse?

“I was lucky enough, my older brother rode quite a bit, and Hosun was a hand-me-down horse. He was a super super horse for me, we were second in Gawler Advanced. He was a very forgiving horse. I look back now and I know I made a lot of mistakes, perhaps I didn’t realize it at the time, but he was so forgiving, and it grew my confidence. That’s what you need when you are starting out, a horse that gives you confidence.”

Now if you were going looking for a top horse, where would you start looking?

“They are really hard to find. One thing I really look at is the breeding. I definitely want at least 50% Thoroughbred in the breeding. My search for horses has taken me all over the world, quite a few have been bred in Europe. There are nice horses in Australia, but what stops us a little is the exchange rate, and the logistics of getting them to the other side of the world. I look in Europe and Ireland but they are hard to find and when you do find one, they tend to be expensive.”

What are you looking for?

“One of the first things I look at, apart from their type, is that the horse is athletic. I love horses that when they trot past you, you can hardly hear them trot, I love that, it tells me the horse is an athlete. If they are athletic and they have a good mind, then you are really on your way. To be a top event horse they need a whole host of attributes and that’s not easy to find in a horse – they have got to be able to gallop, they have to be good jumpers, and particularly these days, be very good on the flat because it is getting so competitive.

Are you happy to take on a young horse or do you want them already going?

“I definitely enjoy producing young horses. To get a horse to four-star, you need a real partnership with them, getting a horse when it is young is good because you can develop that partnership, and that’s where I’ve had most success when I have had the horse as a youngster.

What attracted you about your current frontliner, Paulank Brocklagh?

“When I first saw the horse, I thought, she’s a nice mare, but nothing exceptional. She was an example of the more I did with her, the more I realized how hard she tried – she gives it absolutely everything. On top of that, she is really talented. She is a really scopey jumper, and careful. Mainly she tries so hard and that’s an amazing attribute.”

www.samgriffithseventing.co.uk