{"id":24654,"date":"2015-10-05T14:06:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T03:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=24654"},"modified":"2016-06-09T15:23:56","modified_gmt":"2016-06-09T05:23:56","slug":"iahp-october-rider-of-the-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2015\/10\/iahp-october-rider-of-the-month\/","title":{"rendered":"IAHP October Rider of the Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_8308\"<\/a>This month’s rider of the month, Sue Hearn is on a roll, with a victory at the Brisbane CDI she has staked her claim to a place in the team for Rio – and best of all, she did it on a horse she trained all the way from the beginning…<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lloyd (Remington) is 13 this year and I\u2019ve had him since he was a yearling. I own him; I\u2019ve always owned my horses. We\u2019ve had horses given to us and previous to Lloyd the most I had spent on a horse was $3500. Lloyd was $14,000 or something. I\u2019m quite used to bringing along horses who aren\u2019t so talented and I find that\u2019s a lot of fun. Not that I want to do that, it\u2019s just how it\u2019s had to be.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s Manhattan\u2019s half brother, out of the same mare. That is one of the big reasons I have him, for sentimental reasons. We always thought he was going to be better than Manhattan having the Warmblood sire (Riverdance). Manhattan was 100% Thoroughbred and was supposed to race. I also had his brother but we sold him overseas when he was training Grand Prix. I love that dam. Mark Dowling had the mare and Mark\u2019s a very close friend. He\u2019s got a lot of horses with her blood in them and I love riding them because they\u2019re sensitive. The mare\u2019s name was Miss Tense. It\u2019s a terrible name! Mark bred Lloyd and the horse was named after his father who died I think the week that Lloyd was born so I didn\u2019t want to change that. It\u2019s all very sentimental and sooky! I didn\u2019t go off to Germany to buy a horse for the Olympics, we just bought him because he was related and we all knew each other and it was all huggy and fuzzy and everybody still gets excited by all the things he does. It\u2019s lovely.<\/p>\n

The marks at Grand Prix are getting consistently higher now but there\u2019s definitely more. Not a mile more but each test I ride gets better and better. He\u2019s only just now starting to piaffe like he does at home. He comes in and he\u2019s like a little nervous nelly. We have to compete indoors almost all the time in Australia these days and he\u2019s not keen on that but he\u2019s getting better.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t had goals in mind. I\u2019ve never said, \u201cOh, I want to go to the Olympics\u201d or anything. For me it\u2019s just the daily enjoyment of training. Maybe that makes me different. I don\u2019t know, I mean I\u2019ve taken some fairly ordinary horses through. All of them can do it it\u2019s just a matter of how well they can do it when they\u2019re in the ring.\"_MG_0183\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Each horse has had its strengths and weaknesses but I think this guy is not really weak in anything. I think he\u2019s what the judges are looking for; he looks easy to ride, the movements are easy for him, he doesn\u2019t look like he\u2019s struggling or heavy and he\u2019s beautiful in the contact. I think I\u2019m lucky I\u2019m in a time where the judges are enjoying watching that.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have that real competition rider thing. I will often go in and think, \u201cWell, that\u2019s the best we can do today. I won\u2019t push it. I\u2019m happy with that.\u201d I think that produces the confidence in the horses. Lloyd was nine when he did his first Grand Prix and he could have done a lot better but I was quite happy to just sit on him and let him do what he could do and not try to force him. If he was looking at something, I let him look at it. I think that\u2019s been the best thing for him because I think if you had a rider who was very, very ambitious, they could have made him peak too early and burnt him out, but as it is, he goes into the ring and still enjoys himself because he hasn\u2019t been pushed too hard.<\/p>\n

I think you need to give them time. Lloyd didn\u2019t come as a really talented horse. When they\u2019re a bit like that but they\u2019re keen, they need to have strength to do what they do and stay\u00a0sound.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have an owner telling what to do either. I think having an owner can create a lot of pressure. I don\u2019t have anyone saying, \u201cWhy aren\u2019t you out competing my horse?\u201d I can make my own decisions about things. You don\u2019t feel like you owe anything to anyone.<\/p>\n

I do listen to people who are really competitive and I think, \u201cOh I think there\u2019s something wrong with me!\u201d haha. That hasn\u2019t been my goal but now that we are long listed I\u2019ve started to think, ok maybe there is a possibility.<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019m a little bit different. People say I\u2019m different, but I don\u2019t know. I think I\u2019ve been doing it for a really long time and I\u2019ve been through the Olympic Games thing in 2000 with my other horse and the disappointments are tremendous and so I\u2019m trying not to set myself up for that. I\u2019m going to stay relaxed about it.<\/p>\n

I love training horses. It\u2019s a progression. You don\u2019t wake up and say, \u201cRight, we\u2019re going to piaffe today.\u201d My horses will start doing some short steps as three and four year olds so it\u2019s no big deal. There\u2019s no pressure on them and when they do have to do piaffe and passage, it\u2019s just a little bit more of the same. It\u2019s just a little bit higher and shorter. There\u2019s no one standing behind them beating them with a stick.<\/p>\n

I think you need to be smart with the exercises and with how you put them together and what\u2019s needed when. There\u2019s no point trying to do something if the horse hasn\u2019t managed to do the step before that. It should flow so one thing leads to\u202fanother.<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019ve taken on a lot of trainers but I\u2019d have to say Miguel Tavora has been my biggest influence. I always fall back on that way of training which is, don\u2019t hit it head on, take another approach, go sideways a little bit. He may not think like that but that\u2019s my take on his way of doing things. So it\u2019s not like I say to my horses, \u201cYou\u2019re not doing that so I\u2019m going to get up you and hit you harder. We\u2019ll go around it a little sideways. We\u2019ll do shoulder in, travers into that if you\u2019re struggling, and keep it creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

I quite like Ton de Ridder who is the squad coach as well. I\u2019ve only trained with him last year at the Nationals. It\u2019s just that little bit of a different spin for me. I\u2019m just a bit too casual in some ways and he just sharpened me up. He was good with that and I think I probably need a little bit of that.<\/p>\n

Heading towards Rio, nothing will change. I\u2019ll do the best I can do and the rest is up to the gods.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Worma<\/a>Each Rider of the Month receives a prize supplied by IAHP.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This month, the Rider of the Month receives a 56g syringe of Worma Paste valued @ $20.40.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Worma Paste combines Oxfendazole and Piperazine, the two active ingredients typically used by veterinarians for stomach drenching horses. The ingredients are selected due to effectiveness, the sterilising action against worm eggs (within 24 hours) and because there is no known worm resistance to the ingredient combination. Worma Paste controls all common worms including roundworm, pinworm, strongyles, small strongyles, adult stomach hair worm and stomach worm.\"IAH-Banner\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

This month’s rider of the month, Sue Hearn is on a roll, with a victory at the Brisbane CDI she has staked her claim to a place in the team for Rio – and best of all, she did it on a horse she trained all the way from the beginning… Lloyd (Remington) is 13 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24656,"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":[4,1],"tags":[1186,1187,1265,1203],"class_list":["post-24654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","category-uncategorized","tag-iahp","tag-international-animal-health-products","tag-sue-hearn","tag-thm-rider-of-the-month"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24654","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=24654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24658,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24654\/revisions\/24658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}