{"id":10138,"date":"2017-09-17T09:47:02","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T23:47:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=10138"},"modified":"2022-02-11T15:41:43","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T04:41:43","slug":"cross-country-with-sam-griffiths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2017\/09\/cross-country-with-sam-griffiths\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Griffiths : Training not Testing on Cross Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Griffiths, Australian Olympic and WEG representative and recently appointed New Zealand eventing coach works with young riders:<\/strong>
\n\u201cWhen I\u2019m warming up pupils for a cross country training session, I do a little exercise \u00a0like this cross of logs exercise. I want to make sure the riders’ brakes and accelerator are working, not just cruise around, and then start cross country and go one, two, oops we\u2019re out of control.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Story by Susan Mackenzie & \u00a0Photos by Roz Neave<\/h3>\n

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Sam\u2019s message is universal for all riders,\u00a0whatever level they\u2019re competing at.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The cross of logs exercise, ideal for warming up<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I take a horse out to school on a cross country course, I ask myself, \u2018what am I doing?\u2019 Well I\u2019m training my horses, I\u2019m not testing them. The test of my training is at a competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to take my horses very slowly when I’m training, so they know what they need to do and understand your leg. Once they understand, then you add back in the speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to let horses learn to look after themselves, because you\u2019d be amazed by how horses can get themselves out of trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen training I just introduce fences at walk, get them confident and then at canter.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They start with a bank, which has options for every level. One rider comments, \u201cI hate banks, I know that they\u2019re conceptually fine, but\u2026\u201d But Sam plans to work today on the jumps that make cross country different \u2013 banks and ditches and hills and water.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\u201cWith the bank we allow them to put their heads down, they can pop off like they\u2019re an old man, what we do as a rider is stay in balance like we did in the arena with our legs, so keep a long rein and pop off, if you have a short rein they will jump out.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some young horses that aren\u2019t too thrilled by the bank and Sam is quick to say, \u201cwhen these young horses do it really make a fuss of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having let the horses see exactly what\u2019s going on and assuring them it\u2019s not scary the riders then go over at trot and then immediately again at cross-country canter. Sam\u2019s point is that the basis has to be easy and reassuring for the horse, it\u2019s not a matter of teaching them to jump out here, it\u2019s about teaching them to trust you and to have a positive experience.<\/p>\n

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They move on to the higher part of the bank and canter straight off it, \u201ccanter up, reins up, ready with your body, let him get his head down to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cCan you see how giving your inexperienced horse the reins it gave him confidence to see what he had to do?\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The riders pop on and off the bank, jumping a little brush afterwards, \u201cYou\u2019d be amazed by how horses learn about what they need to do in combinations, but they have to trust that you\u2019re not putting them in a scary place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamGriffiths_4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We move on to the water jump, again designed to cater for all levels, tackling the easiest part first at walk, letting the horses have the rein and figuring it out for themselves, then moving up to cross-country pace.<\/p>\n

\u201cHorses do things without understanding what they\u2019ve done, so it\u2019s better to take it easy and really let him switch his brain on to where his feet are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamGriffiths_5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once the horses have gone through at walk and trot it\u2019s into cross-country canter and they cruise through, again the ones who phoofed and pawed at the water on their first try, now bowl through without worrying.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat you\u2019ve got to remember is the last thing the horses want to do is hurt themselves, if we just play to that, make them understand and trust them, it\u2019s amazing what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The riders move to bigger drops in to the water and exits, \u201chorses are herd animals and they will learn to follow others so like before, just walk up like they\u2019re an old plodder out on the high plains and let them have a look. Then it\u2019s cross-country canter and all go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

next it’s on to ditches<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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Next it\u2019s on to the ditches. \u00a0Over to the other side of the hill where we find three ditches of different widths.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"SamGriffiths_7\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Sam gets the riders going over the narrowest ditch, again they walk, letting the heads go down, \u201cwe need a bit of repetition here because you can see some of them are saying \u2018I don\u2019t know what to do\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Then it\u2019s more of the same and on to trot and cross-country canter. Now the horses are doing it by themselves, the rider doesn\u2019t need to push and pull because the horse trusts them, they just need the rider to be there, \u201cat a competition you might need to adjust the speed but the main thing is to get them to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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They move on to an apex.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me training a young horse to jump apexes you jump them square on at the front, ride a bit of an oxer at 90 degrees to the front of the jump. At the higher levels I\u2019ll adjust the angle and get them jumping on the angle, but here just keep it simple for them and don\u2019t worry about the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam adds in a second apex, \u201cso it\u2019s just oxer to oxer on a bendy line, nothing scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamGriffiths_8\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Moving on, and we\u2019re tackling all the tricks of cross country, so next it\u2019s a ditch at the bottom of a shadowy gully. A young dappled grey doesn\u2019t like the shadows and spooks at the ditch, so they go through three more times, as Sam said, repetition is the key, and when asked again at canter, there is no hesitation.<\/p>\n

Sam then sends the riders off on a course: one jokes, \u201cwow we\u2019ve got our solo ticket!\u201d<\/p>\n

While they are bowling around Sam chats about his training, commenting on the increasing technicality in cross country and how this affects his schooling: \u201cI school over skinnies in the arena, it\u2019s just my showjumping training with a different focus, my cross country schooling is more banks, ditches, waters, like I\u2019ve done today. They don\u2019t need to learn to jump out here on the course, that\u2019s for the arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dog is in the way of the course the riders are on, and as we call it back to us it looks quite insulted by this bunch of interlopers roaming across his property.<\/p>\n

Roz and I had a chat to Sam before he headed out to the cross-country jumps\u2026<\/p>\n

\"SamGriffiths_9\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You have quite a mixed bag of horses and riders for cross country, how do you balance the different levels and abilities?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWell I have the same principle for training from the start right through to the advanced horses so I\u2019ll just do the same but over smaller fences for the less experienced horses. You know it\u2019s just about building up the horses\u2019 confidence so the riders will just do what they feel comfortable with and hopefully it will go well\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you do much teaching in the UK?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI do a bit, I\u2019m usually so busy competing, it\u2019s quite tricky, but I do the odd clinic here and there, which I quite enjoy doing, particularly the cross country side of things, today you\u2019ve come and seen some challenging students!\u201d<\/p>\n

How long have you been based in the UK?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 15 years now, I only went over originally to travel around and I worked for a short time with Blyth Tait and Matt Ryan, and one thing led to another and I sort of stayed over there. I really miss home, but there\u2019s such a great circuit over there, I\u2019m quite established now so I\u2019ll be staying there for a while\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

So with younger riders thinking about heading over, you see it with showjumpers especially, what would you advise, do you think you made the right decision?<\/i><\/p>\n

[Sam laughs]<\/i> \u201cCareer-wise yes, it\u2019s the best circuit in the world over there, but it is very much a lifestyle choice, Australia is such a beautiful country to live in, but career-wise Europe is the place to be, I think anyway. But having said that, there\u2019s riders like Stuart Tinney who have proved that you can do it just as well from here\u2026 It\u2019s a big decision to leave your home and your base\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SamGriffiths_10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What would you say to people like your talented nieces who might be thinking of going over there?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI think if they wanted to do it I\u2019d say come over for a short stint and see if it\u2019s for them. I mean come over and try it for a while, don\u2019t overly commit yourself until you\u2019ve had a taste, do a season or half a season and see what you think. The hardest thing about leaving home is you lose all your connections and support group. It\u2019s great when you\u2019re going well, but it\u2019s when things aren\u2019t going so well that you need the support and that\u2019s what makes going abroad so tough\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Plans for Happy Times\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI will take him to Badminton this year, and I\u2019ve got another horse, an Irish mare with unusual name of Paulank Brockagh, that I\u2019m going to take to Badminton as well. She\u2019s a promising horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve had some good runs at those big events\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, they\u2019ve gone pretty well, I just haven\u2019t quite cracked at representing Australia\u2026 but I think if I just keep plugging away I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll get there\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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And Sam’s prediction on Pauline Brocklagh proved correct. The combination won Badminton in 2014.<\/p>\n

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They were part of the WEG team at Normandy…<\/p>\n

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And part of Australia’s Bronze Medal Team at Rio – Hippo foto<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHorses do things without understanding what they\u2019ve done, so it\u2019s better to take it easy and really let him switch his brain on to where his feet are. They don\u2019t need to learn to jump out here on the course, that\u2019s for the arena.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10143,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[439,73,554,560],"class_list":["post-10138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-cross-country","tag-eventing-training","tag-sam-griffiths","tag-susan-mackenzie"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10138"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62290,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138\/revisions\/62290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}