{"id":19415,"date":"2014-12-29T14:25:16","date_gmt":"2014-12-29T03:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=19415"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:10:49","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:10:49","slug":"natalie-blunder-eventing-with-the-smell-of-gum-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2014\/12\/natalie-blunder-eventing-with-the-smell-of-gum-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Natalie Blundell\u2026 eventing with the smell of gum leaves…"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Riders like Natalie Blundell make the world of eventing such a wonderful place to be. There is something distinctively Australian about Nat, like the smell of gum leaves, like the sound of a magpie, like the harshly beautiful landscape of the country where she lives, just past Yass.<\/p>\n

This is no ritzy training centre, no plaything of the mega-rich. Nat and her partner, Brad, own 40\u00a0acres, divided into well fenced paddocks, and a shed. To water the horses, the four wheel drive loads up at the dam, and then replenishes the water in each paddock. It wasn\u2019t entirely surprising that Natalie was recently made \u2018groomless\u2019 when the girl who was doing the job, snatched it, complaining that the watering process was too much for her. So when we arrived, Nat was being helped tack up by her Thai student, Namchok ‘Mat’ Jantakad.<\/p>\n

Recently, Nat and Brad purchased the 40 acres next door, and with that a cute farm cottage, so they can at least now live on the property. It is one of the most beautiful locations imaginable, it will be a truly gorgeous place\u2026 but like most things in Natalie Blundell\u2019s life, it is going to take some serious hard work.<\/p>\n

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

Nat likes the rugged appeal of her place: \u201cWe try hard to keep the feel of the property. My horses like living like this, outdoors, that\u2019s why mine are a bit hairier than everyone else\u2019s. Once our stables are finished, I\u2019ll feel a bit more comfortable clipping them up and stabling them on occasions, but it will still be out in the paddock most of the time. I\u2019ve worked Algebra from the paddock for years, and he is happy and he is sound, and that\u2019s the main thing. Once they are used to being out and having fun, they don\u2019t tend to injure themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlgebra never misses a beat, he is such a tough animal, a very sturdy little horse, and being out there free in the paddock, you\u2019ve got the circulation going all the time, they never get swollen legs from standing around.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did you end up with Algebra?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI first saw Algebra with another rider on him, and I thought, he\u2019s a nice little horse \u2013 he jumped a metre forty in a bareback high jump competition. A few month later I was teaching at a Pony Club camp, and I was approached by Julia McLean who owns Alegebra, she told me that Lizzie Roberts who had been riding him, was going to uni. ‘Could I train him up to sell?’ That won\u2019t be a problem, I\u2019ve seen the horse before.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had him for about a month, and there had been a few calls from people who\u2019d seen him advertised, a couple of kids had come and ridden him and he\u2019d pretty much jumped them out of the saddle. One was okay on him, and they were umming and aahing, and may have even made an offer. But Julia\u2019s husband, John Glenn said \u2018I like the way Natalie rides him, can we do something?\u2019 And that is pretty much how it started. She asked me if I wanted the horse to ride, and I thought, I really want him but at the same time he is tricky. He is very full of beans, and I didn\u2019t know if I was going to be able to \u2018nail\u2019 the horse. He certainly had a lot of talent, but was I going to be able to do a dressage test on him?\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t going so well on the flat, but I felt that after a bit, I was going to be able to at least do something with him. At the time I didn\u2019t have a nice horse \u2013 I\u2019d bred some nice ones but I needed money so I\u2019d sold them. Algebra had done a couple of one stars. I noticed looking at his papers that he had had a few runoffs \u2013 he wasn\u2019t necessarily a dishonest horse, he just wasn\u2019t very straight and he put his head up in front of the fences so he wasn\u2019t all that easy to control\u2026 he still does that. When I took him to Sydney 3DE in the one star, I think we were second out of eight in the dressage and he was fantastic. We were going cross country and it was all good, and choof \u2013 he ran off a stupid little fence in the water jump! It has always been in him, the better he is going almost the more I\u2019ve got to stop trusting him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The affection for the little grey shines through. Nat is laughing as she recalls:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is amazing though, after all these years, three star is starting to feel like pre-novice, it doesn\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t feel hard and he can canter round really nicely but that is when I\u2019ve got to not trust that he\u2019ll jump every single fence\u2026 I\u2019ve been riding him for seven years now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Did you think you\u2019d end up riding four star with him?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI guess that was the aim. I try to think big. I thought London and the Games was the aim for this horse. It was pretty amazing that it actually almost happened. We were really happy to be on that campaign, and having everyone become involved and help me train, and helped with fundraising so I could go off and help the horse. When he makes a mistake, it\u2019s not through the want of trying from him, it is just that he gets really tense. The trick is trying to get him relaxed enough to do a dressage test. Then there is the showjumping. He wants to jump but he gets a bit tense even in the showjumping \u2013 so at our first four-star we had a few rails. We\u2019ve been slowly improving that every year since.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aim now is Caen and the WEG next year?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely. I want to go to the WEG. I think now that I didn\u2019t make London, I am more ambitious still. I think I know a bit more what I need to get, I think with this new selection system, it gives me a more clear idea of what I have to do to get there. I haven\u2019t been to Europe and I really want to get there, and right now setting up a property, I don\u2019t have the finances to go there willy nilly, I\u2019d like to get there on the team, so I am going to spend these next twelve months working my butt off to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Natalie and Billy Barthgate riding for Australia in Taupo, New Zealand<\/em><\/p>\n

You burst on the eventing scene with a bang \u2013 how old were you when you came out starring on Billy Barthgate?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI was nineteen, I won the four star at Adelaide. I left school after my HSC, and I was very lucky that I met Phil and Mary Hockney who bought me Billy Barthgate. They saw a talented young person in Harden and they wanted to help. They had no idea about horses at the time and I was lucky I had a very good mentor in Jo Brady, and she actually found Billy for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the Hockneys bought him for me, Billy had done up to two star. He wasn\u2019t overly successful. He\u2019d been through a lot of people. Niki Bishop, Sammi McLeod, Tim Boland, pretty much everyone had a crack at Billy. I don\u2019t know why it didn\u2019t work with them. He wasn\u2019t the most careful jumper. He had very nice movement but he was pretty tricky on the flat. I think Nikki had his dressage going really well, and at the end, Sam Lyall had him when we bought him, and he had him showjumping quite well. Sam said, I quite like this horse\u2026 and me, I\u2019d ridden pre-novice! I\u2019d never had the horse up to then, everything I\u2019d ridden I\u2019d trained off the track. I\u2019d got to State and National Pony Club on these off-the-track horses. I wasn\u2019t that I couldn\u2019t ride, I\u2019d just never had the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo Jo Brady said, we\u2019ve got you this horse, now we\u2019ll send you up to Heath and Rozzie Ryan, because Jo had come through Lochinvar with Heath and Rozzie. I was kind of like a fairy tale, it almost happened too quickly. I went back to pre-novice and Heath wouldn\u2019t let me go up to the next level, until I was ready. Finally we got to the two-star at Berrima, and that was my first three-day event. I was fourth there \u2013 then the following year I broke my leg and was out for six months. Then I did the three-star at Adelaide the following year, and we were fifth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember standing up in the presentations at Adelaide and Heath said, well done, and I went, oh yeah, but I didn\u2019t win. I was so na\u00eff.\u201d Nat is roaring with laughter at the memory\u2026 <\/em>\u201cLater Jo was asking me, who was the judge? I don\u2019t know, some guy in a bowler hat. I was really na\u00eff \u2013 I had no idea, I just thought oh yeah, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom there I went to the Trans Tasman in Taupo. I think I was 11th<\/sup> there, it wasn\u2019t too bad, but it was what kick started my learning. This is what I\u2019ve got to do, and this is serious. The next big one was winning Adelaide, and that was another big fairy tale and it was all good, but the fairy tale in eventing comes crashing down pretty quickly\u2026 the horse did have little issues, with what I know now perhaps they would have been handled better, but then again I might not have bought him because he wasn\u2019t overly careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly it was all cut off. No more horse, we just couldn\u2019t get him back right. It was very sad. Since then I\u2019ve had horses, Good Timing was around three-star, and I think Heath thought that I could do with him what I\u2019d done with Billy, and at times I did get him going well at one thing or another, but he didn\u2019t have the same brain as Billy. Billy was really calm and relaxed where as with Good Timing, he was quite scared of things. We thought we could turn him into a pretty good horse, then we had a bit of a fall at Goondiwindi and I thought, I don\u2019t think this horse is going to take me where I want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween then and now, I\u2019ve had horses up to two-star, and you think you\u2019ve got a really good one and it just hasn\u2019t gone to the next level, or there have been soundness issues. A lot of the nice ones I\u2019ve bred, I\u2019ve sold, to do things like put a shed on my place. Then Algebra came along and I think the difference between the horses I own, and this horse owned by Julia and John is that there is no constraint on where I can go and compete, or go and train. Whereas with your own horses, you are like, I can\u2019t afford to go to SIEC this week on this horse\u2026 for me with Algebra it was perfect because they said I could run him wherever and go to the good competitions. They have put a lot into him over the years and I am hoping I can repay them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you had horses since you were a kid?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad used to ride, droving cattle around. His Pop was a drover as well. When I remember Pop he was driving a horse and sulky around, he would never drive a car. Horses were in the family. Mum loved horses but she grew up in Canberra and never had the opportunity to have anything to do with them, she met Dad and he was just a bushy, and they moved to Harden. So I guess from day one I had ponies. Mum taught herself, and then taught me, and luckily I ran into the right people in the right circles. With Sue Walker in Young, then Bonnie Holstein, and from that Jo Brady when I was a teenager.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was about fifteen I started doing work experience at some racing stables, then once I was old enough I started riding trackwork in the mornings, just a couple of horses before school. I wasn\u2019t like we\u2019d do track every day, we\u2019d be riding around our property every day and going to the track twice a week. I did become an amateur jockey and I rode in a couple of races, that was fun. I think it gave me the ability to manage horses like that, when Algebra does his little jumping up and down act, I\u2019m like, that\u2019s nothing. I can be quite relaxed on a horse that is a bit naughty, whereas I am probably not so good on horses that I have to push around. I quite like that sporty type of horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

You like Thoroughbred blood?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI do like a lot of Thoroughbred. The ones I am trying to breed have got a lot of Thoroughbred blood, and my original Palomino mare was Thoroughbred cross Arab, she is really hot and sensitive, and her foals are a little similar, sensitive but sensible. I like that sensitivity\u2026 I have used the Thoroughbred stallion, Cool Cat a couple of times and then bred my Cool Cat mare to the Warmblood, Metallic, and I think that is a very nice mix. The mare is a really nice type, and I think that is so important in eventing, they have to have really good feet, and good straight legs. I\u2019ve been caught in the past compromising on conformation, and sure they might get there, but I just remember the hearbreak of Billy Barthgate breaking down \u2013 he wasn\u2019t so well conformed, he had one bad back leg, and he went unsound in one of his front legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy original Palomino mare is a tough sort of pony and she had a lot of heart, and I am hoping to pass that down the line. You want the heart and the sensitivity, but you still have to be able to ride them in a test.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who have been your influences in your riding?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJo Brady has been and still is, a mentor \u2013 she was there again, helping me before Adelaide last year. Heath and Rozzie Ryan were a big start for me to get into that real professional feel. A lot of kids these days don\u2019t get that these days, but you have got to work hard to get where you get \u2013 everything I have here now is from what I have achieved and done, and I\u2019ve worked to get it without the money that some of the other guys might have. That\u2019s the work ethic that Heath drives into people. Now I have a lot of help from Ben Nettlefold, he is just down the road, the showjumping is probably my weakest phase and he has been helping me a lot over the last couple of years to get Algebra from a wild little upside-down pony to having jumped a clear round at Sydney. I\u2019m a bit of a gung ho rider, and so is the horse, and to ask both of us to go in and do a nice soft, quiet round, that\u2019s a big mental effort as well. Ben helps me jump but he also helps keep my head in gear as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final challenge is to get the dressage test \u2013 what is the strategy there?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I went to Warwick, I went up and had some lessons with Prue Barrett. I\u2019ve had lots of dressage lessons with different people but the thing with Algebra is that he is a Thoroughbred, he is an eventer\u2026 I can have lots of dressage lessons on him but they just don\u2019t quite understand him. Prue helps so much, we went from getting 50s, to Albury where we got a 46, that was a big improvement. She was pretty tough on him, not letting him dancing around \u2013 no, you\u2019ve just got to have him under your thumb a bit more. Sure people have told me that, but yeah, you try and do it. I\u2019m going up there again, but I am also going to have some lessons with Heath again. Heath is a bit the same, I understand the Heath method, that\u2019s why I went to Prue and Jo Brady, they both came through the same system \u2013 I get on quite well with Brett Parbery, and the other guys, it is not that I don\u2019t like them, it is just this is how I was trained, and my horse needs that adrenalin pushed through him a bit more. It doesn\u2019t quite work, ‘let\u2019s be nice and quiet, there\u2019s a good boy’.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is a lot just me learning how to get the test nailed. At Sydney it was one of our better tests, but watching it afterwards, I was thinking, the halts weren\u2019t square, our rein back wasn\u2019t great, there were so many little things \u2013 now I can see the light, I probably can score in the low forties. I not kidding myself, he\u2019s not an 80% horse but if I can get the score in the low forties and finish on that, then I am pretty competitive. If I had gone under time on the cross country at Sydney this year, then I would have probably won!\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire still burns?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah, I think more so because I am so close, and I really want to do it. My poor partner, he\u2019s not horsey at all, I kind of feel sorry for him because I\u2019m always going off somewhere, and they don\u2019t quite understand why we are so driven with horses. It\u2019s just how it is. I see Heath, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll still be doing it at his age, I think I\u2019ll probably be judging or I like coaching, but hopefully that is still a fair way off, and there is another big win to be had.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Natalie Blundell is a top competitor, but her training stables are as Australian as they can be\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":19425,"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":[73,987],"class_list":["post-19415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-eventing-training","tag-natalie-blundell"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19415","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19415"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20682,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19415\/revisions\/20682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}