{"id":22626,"date":"2015-03-31T14:39:38","date_gmt":"2015-03-31T03:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=22626"},"modified":"2017-02-09T16:58:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T05:58:23","slug":"hayley-beresford-getting-ready-to-take-on-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/03\/hayley-beresford-getting-ready-to-take-on-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Hayley Beresford \u2013 Getting ready to take on the world!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"013<\/a>Story by Chris Hector and Photos by Karl-Heinz Frieler<\/h3>\n

Hayley Beresford was one of Australia\u2019s most exciting young dressage talents, and I guess it is no surprise to see her making her mark on the world\u2019s toughest dressage circuit \u2013 in Germany. But how on earth did Hayley make it from Australia to Germany to working with World and Olympic champion, Isabell Werth?<\/p>\n

\u201cIsabell came to the Master Class at Dressage with the Stars in 2000. I rode in that with Galactic, and we talked about it then. But at that stage I was 21, I didn\u2019t really believe I could come to Germany and be good enough. A lot of Australians come to Germany and are swallowed up. I didn\u2019t just want to be cleaning stables in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I was back in Perth, and Isabell came back in 2005. I\u2019d just sold Galactic, but had kept the ride for the clinic. I thought it would be a nice way to finish my partnership with him. He was really working well, Inter 1, Inter 2, and we were talking about it again. I said, \u2018I\u2019ve sold him now, and I\u2019m not really sure\u2019\u2026 Two weeks later, Isabell sent me an email, inviting me to come and stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite fortunate in that clinic. I was riding a young stallion as well, a very talented stallion, but quite testing \u2013 I thought it was good for her to see me riding Galactic, and then a spirited young horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Germany and I was quite undecided about living here. I\u2019d had cancer for two years, and was still in remission\u2026 So I was backwards and forwards a bit. The first time I came was for six weeks, then I was home. I was only home for three weeks before I was pretty itchy to get back. When I came back we talked about it, and Isabell said I was welcome to stay. I went home, sold my house, sold my car, sold everything, wound up my business and started full time in Germany in November 2006.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"017<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a lot of adjustments for me to make with my riding. It was easier for me than a lot of riders because Isabell and I are the same body type. I have the same principles with the horses \u2013 it has to be done through relaxation as the first priority. This was all similar, but with some horses you can apply that way of riding and it works \u2013 but then along would come a difficult horse, and I was really needing her help. I have learnt so much in such a short time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year was a bit easier because I was just competing in the Small Tour. This year I started to do my first Grand Prix with Retiro \u2013 this has been a big learning curve to say the least!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy horse, Relampago do Retiro, arrived at the stables just before I did, a few weeks before I arrived. They were trying to prepare him for the Pan American Games with a Brazilian rider. He\u2019s quite sensitive, and it wasn\u2019t really working \u2013 but from day one we really worked. It\u2019s just gone step by step from there. When it wasn\u2019t going to work for the Pan American Games, I took over competing with him. My first show was last year at Hagen. He was quite sensitive but we learnt a lot about each other. He developed in a super quick way. He\u2019s very intelligent, and a very forgiving horse. We\u2019ve learnt together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is from Brazil, from the breeder Eduardo Fischer of the stud Villa do Retiro, where they breed a lot of Lusitano horses. The ride on him is very safe with me. He\u2019s to be ridden for Australia \u2013 and it is a long term ride\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Was it hard to be accepted \u2013 an Australian riding a Brazilian horse in Germany?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning it was, and we both suffered a bit. I\u2019m just a little Australian riding a little Brazilian horse, who are we to be here? But you chip away at it. I had a big break through at Balve last year because we did a very good test. I think since then the judges have talked about him a fair bit. We don\u2019t present him as a Spanish or Portuguese horse, we prepare him and train him, and we\u2019ve developed him, in our system. He works like all our other Warmblood horses. He\u2019s really through the neck and over the back. Last year they were saying, oh he looks like a little Rubinstein. It\u2019s like any rider, you have to become acknowledged and get a bit of respect, it\u2019s like any sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

What does a typical day look like for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m on the internet very early to check emails. I\u2019m at the stables at 7, to make my first horse ready. I ride til about 2.30 \u2013 between eight and ten horses. Then I start teaching at 3.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"018<\/a><\/p>\n

In what language, Deutsch?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cMy own special language. It\u2019s mostly Deutsch but with English joining words. It\u2019s quite funny if someone from Germany comes in and starts listening, but the students take English at school and they seem to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you find you fit into Germany?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I must admit I\u2019ve been helped because the family Werth are sensational. They look after the whole team like we are their kids. Where I am living I have been kind of adopted by a family and they have three children, and they are really supportive, they look after me when I stop looking after myself. They feed me quite often. Like everyone, I\u2019ve had moments when I am homesick but I\u2019m completely addicted to the competition. It is a long way from home and all the usual support \u2013 I\u2019d like to thank Pete and Caro of Wagners Saddlery who helped me out with competition clothes \u2013 one thing for sure Wagners clothes look great anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m enjoying it, and now summer is here, it is easier. The winter is long, it is not so much the cold, it\u2019s that the days are so short and the sky doesn\u2019t turn blue, but it is not so bad, especially now when you can see the results\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Story by Chris Hector and Photos by Karl-Heinz Frieler Hayley Beresford was one of Australia\u2019s most exciting young dressage talents, and I guess it is no surprise to see her making her mark on the world\u2019s toughest dressage circuit \u2013 in Germany. But how on earth did Hayley make it from Australia to Germany to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22627,"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":[4],"tags":[1243,410,537],"class_list":["post-22626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-dressage","tag-hayley-beresford","tag-isabell-werth"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22626","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=22626"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32304,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22626\/revisions\/32304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}