{"id":23571,"date":"2015-06-24T10:17:09","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T00:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=23571"},"modified":"2016-06-09T15:15:44","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T05:15:44","slug":"iahp-july-2015-rider-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/06\/iahp-july-2015-rider-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"IAHP July 2015 Rider of the Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

This month\u2019s International Animal Health Rider of the Month is Brett Parbery \u2013 winner of the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special at the Sydney CDI. Brett was riding DP Weltmieser, by Weltmeyer out of a Dutch Gold mare and bred by Susie Duddy. \u2018Rabbit\u2019 as he is known in the stables is not the most modern looking dressage horse in the world, and our conversation turned to just what is the most successful type for Grand Prix dressage \u2013 Brett spent some time looking for the ideal horse in\u00a0Europe:<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny I tracked down the guy who bred Valegro, and I said what was the most striking feature of that foal?\u00a0 And he said, that foal had the strongest back of any foal I\u2019ve ever bred. I went on a mission to find the person who bred Totilas, I didn\u2019t find them, but I found Egbert Kraak who found Totilas as a young horse, and I said, what was the most striking feature about Totilas, and he said, \u2018that foal could trot and come back and do anything, it never looked like it was off balance. I was trying to work out what made them great\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

But with both horses they were really unfashionable in Dutch terms, they were stocky, short horses, and everyone is breeding for great long elegant horses but hey\u2026 they can\u2019t do Grand Prix!<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cExactly. When I went to Edward Gal\u2019s in 2010, everyone was asking me, what is it like, Totilas is amazing but he is so old fashioned. I said \u2018what\u2019s old fashioned?\u2019 Short, stocky. No, he\u2019s a good type.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a cruel sport isn\u2019t it, you cracked the top ten at the WEG in Lexington, come back to Australia, and lose your ride Victory Salute, to a mysterious illness and it is start all over again\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cSee that bald patch! See those grey hairs!! It is hard. If you think of climbing Mt Everest from the bottom to the top, there are so many similarities to dressage. You get to these peaks, these rises, you struggle to get up, and you get over that, can\u2019t get the next thing, it\u2019s one long struggle. Some people get helicoptered onto the top of Mt Everest and have a look around, others climb there. I loved it with Victory Salute, I got helicoptered in, then was lucky enough to find the right people, went and had that wonderful time in Kentucky. But it has been good for me to come back and strip it down, and bring some horses through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell me about Weltmieser? He is perhaps not the scopiest pony in\u00a0town\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, he is not. He is out of Christopher\u2019s mother, a mare that Jennie Loriston Clarke sold the Duddys. Heath Ryan had him as a three and four year old, then he had his five-year-old year off because he had a fungus on his face, then he came to me as a six-year-old. I\u2019ve just brought him up through Medium and all the way through. He has a great canter, the trot has a rhythm \u2013 typical Weltmeyer \u2013 has a swing, and with that you can do stuff. Weltmeyer\u2019s aren\u2019t known for their piaffe, I think he gets that from his mother, he lifts his hind legs better than some. Mainly it is that swing, the swing in the back, and he has a pretty good brain. I\u2019ve had to make him a little bit hotter – to get his knees up and get him looking really elegant and quick, I\u2019ve had to go to the edge and sometimes that doesn\u2019t work. Even today at the CDI when I came out, I didn\u2019t quite get some of the things I wanted. You get to that edge and sometimes you can go over, I\u2019ve just go to get better at knowing where that edge is.\u201d<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t you think it is good that a test that isn\u2019t flashy or spectacular, but that is in a lovely frame with lovely contact and purity of paces, can win? Isn\u2019t that what dressage is supposed to be about??<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is supposed to be a harmonious sport, it is supposed to look easy. When you train correctly, surely you must get to the top of the pile, going above some of the fancier horses that have cut a few corners. I\u2019m glad that it looked very correct, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve tried to do. He is a correctly made horse, not a big fancy one, but just corners and short sides and harmony, and going and doing the movements, and trying to make it look not out of place, balanced\u2026 that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to\u00a0do.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was saying to young Alexis Hellyer that none of those German princesses would try to do it like the riders here do \u2013 taking on a youngster, doing the work themselves with very little training assistance, they are heroes\u2026 You must feel it, if you were in Germany or Holland you would be going to someone every couple of days for help?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI agree. I didn\u2019t see all the tests, but looking at the score sheet here at the CDI, that would be the best Grand Prix class we\u2019ve had here in Australia for depth. It\u2019s a shame Sue Hearn wasn\u2019t in there because she could have pushed it, we\u2019ve got a couple of Kiwi horses, it gives us depth and shows us where we are going. Australian kids like Alexis, they are resourceful, they think about it, they have to work it out themselves. It\u2019s really impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where do we get the next generation of information so it flows through to our riders? It\u2019s crazy, we get someone like Princess Nathalie, who has been one of the world\u2019s top ten dressage riders for a decade, yet our top riders are not taking advantage of what she has to offer\u2026 We don\u2019t seem to have a structure in place so that on the rare occasions when a top trainer comes to Australia, that our riders get funded to take advantage of the opportunity?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to work this out. How do we be smart about it? We\u2019ve put together this thing in the Southern Highlands, because we are lucky there, there is Sue Hearn, Mathew Dowsley and Rodney Martin and myself, so a few of us come together once a month and train together and swap information. We made a few rules from the start. We said okay, we are doing this because we want to get better, two, do we all agree that there is information in this group that we will accept? Everyone said yes. Okay once a month we get together, everyone has to choose a training partner, and that training partner works with the person, and any information you need to help your rider, you have to source it through the group. It removed the rider from people just yelling out things from the sideline. All the instruction comes through this training partner and they form a bond. It has worked really\u00a0well.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve often thought that in Europe, at those good stables, no-one is telling anyone what to do, but it is just the pressure of riding in the same hall, of maintaining 100% concentration, suddenly when our riders go there, they sit differently, they concentrate differently\u2026<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, and bringing that in and getting it in a working group where everyone is trying to get better, trying to sort out the problems for each horse with encouragement. What I didn\u2019t realize at the time we set up, is that all their clients have bought in, so it is a swelled group, and what happens now is down the stables, everyone is like good luck, and there is a good vibe, and when there is a good vibe in the stables you are comfortable taking a risk, you don\u2019t mind taking a risk because you know people are on your side. Rather than you trying to cover up and not make a mistake, you are actually happy to make a mistake and learn from it. It is the only way we can move forward I think, no-one is bigger than the sport and we are all working to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you think you can realistically look at Rio with Weltmieser?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. I think if I can get him to being solid 70%, and I think I can, I think I could contribute to a team score. Kristy Oatley looks as if she has a good one with this Du Soleil, I\u2019m not sure if Rio is too early for her. But if I can come through with a solid team score of 70 or thereabouts, I think I\u2019m lucky, I\u2019ve still got a bit of good will from Kentucky that carries me a little on the international scene. That\u2019s running out quickly though, I\u2019ve got to get back fast!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

As the IAHP July Rider of the Month, Brett wins a 30g tube of Protexin Paste valued at $21.60.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Protexin is the most advanced multi – strain Probiotic in the world today. Unlike many other Probiotics that consist primarily of a single strain of bacteria, Protexin consists of seven different naturally occuring bacteria. The effectiveness and synergy of these strains has been proven in years of trials and production application. The uniqueness of Protexin is not just confined to its multi-strain formulation. Research and Development has produced a special \u201cprotection\u201d to ensure the highest possible numbers of bacteria survive the journey through the hostile conditions of the crop or stomach, into the gut where they rapidly begin to work for the benefit of the animal. Protexin\u2019s introduction to Australia makes it the first and to date, the only nationally registered Probiotic approved for administration to animals and birds.<\/p>\n

www.iahp.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month\u2019s International Animal Health Rider of the Month is Brett Parbery \u2013 winner of the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special at the Sydney CDI. Brett was riding DP Weltmieser, by Weltmeyer out of a Dutch Gold mare and bred by Susie Duddy. \u2018Rabbit\u2019 as he is known in the stables is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23573,"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":[444,1186,1187],"class_list":["post-23571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-brett-parbery","tag-iahp","tag-international-animal-health-products"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23571","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=23571"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23577,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23571\/revisions\/23577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}