![\"DSCF1263\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSCF1263.jpg\")
In May 2010, Suzy Jarratt caught up with Paul:<\/strong><\/p>\nFor three years, he went to and from the UK – it was summer all year round for Paul Tapner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was bliss\u201d, recalled the 34-year-old eventer,\u201dbut then I decided that to achieve the goals I had set myself I would have to stay full time in the UK.\u201d So Australia lost another of its fine riders to British soil.<\/p>\n
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. \u201cIt\u2019s presently under a foot of snow like most of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
For six months he worked for Muir\u2019s Milburn Creek Thoroughbred Stud. \u201cI hated every moment of it. I discovered I wasn\u2019t very good at working for people in the conventional sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese trainers weren\u2019t 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\u2019d begin clipping as the horses tried to hurl themselves all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I say I\u2019m 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\u2019d met at our local pony club.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI can pretty much attribute my equestrian and my business successes and advancements to the Australian Pony Club system,\u201d he stated. \u201cI was instructing the Scotts\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.![\"Wickstead](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Wickstead-Areial.jpg\")
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\u201cSoon they\u2019ll begin indoor showjumping and dressage and at the beginning of March the first outdoor events are held and they\u2019ll be competing until the end of October.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes the U.K. is the only place to be, the sport has such a huge following.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need generous owners or benefactors and that\u2019s the whole reason I\u2019m 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.\u00a0My owners are supportive and wealthy. Among them are Suzi and Martin Belsham. Martin\u2019s 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\u2019re going again this year. I\u2019ll be getting my Armada dish. You\u2019re awarded one if you compete five times at Badminton. Andrew Nicholson (N.Z.) is the record holder with five dishes, I\u2019ve a long way to go to catch up to that.”<\/p>\n
\u201cKilfinnie 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\u2019s 13 and the Waalers have had him since he was five months old. Claus is a retired shipping merchant.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Burghley](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/INONOTHING-BURGHLEY-2009.jpg\")
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Paul and Inonothing at Burghley \/ Photo: Optimal Photography<\/em><\/p>\n This is the horse Tapner would like to take to Kentucky \u2013 if he\u2019s selected. \u201cWhen Vettori, who recently had a magnificent win in Adelaide with Stuart Tinney, was competing in the U.K. in \u201908 this gelding and Inonothing were up against each other and Inonothing always beat him. They\u2019re equally matched. Hopefully the selectors will take note of that\u201d. Paul and Kilfinnie at Badminton 2009 \/ Photo: Optimal Photography<\/em><\/p>\n Nobody\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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!\u201d<\/p>\n He has a few theories about why Australia isn\u2019t winning as many medals as it did some years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cThe standard of rider hasn\u2019t changed but when we first began winning gold we seemed to be the world leaders in horse and athlete management \u2013 our veterinary team led the way, we had sports psychologists and specialist trainers. We\u2019ve become a bit stagnant.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow look at the British eventing circuit \u2013 there are full time veterinarians, psychologists and physiotherapists and specialised coaches and personal trainers regularly visit the riders\u2019 properties. Two days after Matt Ryan announced he was going to take out British citizenship and ride for the UK the team\u2019s performance manager, Yogi Breisner, came to his house and discussed plans for the next European Games \u2013 Matt received instant support. Bettina Hoy says it\u2019s the same with the German team. And these riders are given videos of each other\u2019s performances which they analyse in a group. A confronting experience maybe but if you want gold medals you don\u2019t beat around the bush. Our holistic side must be improved.\u201d<\/p>\n And he is unhappy with course designers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe sport\u2019s organisers, who\u2019ve been riders in the past, persistently make changes. These days it\u2019s a competition between the world\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd 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\u2019t happen but when he retires that\u2019s what will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had some interesting conversations when we flew to Poland together for the World Cup final.\u201d recalled Tapner. \u201cIn his day the straight route was just that \u2013 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\u2019ll see riders standing at a fence for twenty minutes trying to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMark 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course frangible pins help to prevent these often fatal accidents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey 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\u2019t have them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is another example of the Federation dragging its toes \u2013 frangible pins are not required under FEI rules.\u201d<\/p>\n But this won\u2019t deter Tapner from riding at those events. And he\u2019s doing well \u2013 business and career are booming. The only time he\u2019s in the red is when he\u2019s competing.<\/p>\n \u201cBack 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 \u2013 sorry, I mean lorry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere are 15,000 registered members of British eventing you\u2019ve got to stand out somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Kilfinnie](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Kilfinnie-Badminton-096.jpg\")
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