{"id":26075,"date":"2016-05-20T10:40:18","date_gmt":"2016-05-20T00:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=26075"},"modified":"2017-02-10T10:04:25","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T23:04:25","slug":"anthony-pelling-treading-the-iberian-dressage-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2016\/05\/anthony-pelling-treading-the-iberian-dressage-path\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Pelling – Treading the Iberian dressage path"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Web\"Suzy Jarrat meets an Australian dressage rider who is finding his own way in the world of dressage\u2026<\/h3>\n

Anthony Pelling was only 14 when he rode a canny old stallion in Portugal. Nuno Oliveira had trained the horse, his name was Dodge and he knew how to make a student\u2019s life hell. Anthony\u2019s muscles were sore and he was a long way from home but he wasn\u2019t going to give up.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nine years later the boy from Theodore in Central Queensland is head rider for a stud in Spain successfully training horses all the way to Grand Prix. He speaks and writes fluent Spanish and is the first Australian ever to compete at SICAB, a prestigious international horse show exclusively dedicated to Spanish purebreds.<\/p>\n

It was because of this breed that young Anthony had gone to Portugal.<\/p>\n

His parents Ron and Mary-Lou purchased their first pure Spanish horse in 1998 – Rangemore Silverado. He stood with the Brahmans and performance horses at their Willtony Stud on the Dawson River south of Theodore.<\/p>\n

Anthony would go to clinics with his mother where she trained under Jose Mendez, now based in New South Wales, and with Nadine Francois a former student and family friend of the late classical dressage master Nuno Oliviera. (This Belgian-born trainer based in Portugal). Anthony got the taste for dressage. He was invited to train under Nadine for three months in Portugal.\"_G3A8496_2\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first two were very difficult,\u201d he recalled, \u201cbecause I had to ride without stirrups. With my position changing and evolving every day my muscles used to kill me at night but pushing through it really made me focus and try harder. Dodge, who was over 20 years old, knew every trick in the book and I\u2019d drag my feet to the stable on the mornings I had to ride him. However, by the end of three months, I was able to do pretty much all the movements of a Grand Prix test. The only thing I had problems with were the one-time changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once back from Portugal, Anthony continued with his studies and playing A grade rugby union. He was awarded an equestrian scholarship at the Kooralbyn International School. It closed down during his first year there, reopening a couple of years later. Transferring to Scotts School Warwick he helped map out the school\u2019s equestrian program and in his spare moments took lessons with the late Eleanor Russell. During this time he met Ignacio Candau who had come to Australia from Seville to meet breeders of Spanish horses, such as Ron and Mary-Lou Pelling, and to learn English. Little did the Pellings know then that their son was to become Candau\u2019s head rider.<\/p>\n

Ignacio spent his first night in Theodore fighting fires (had he arrived three years later he would have been battling floods).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got on very well together and he invited me to Spain. Once I was there I knew what I wanted to do with my life \u2013 to become a professional dressage rider and competitor. We went to the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art in Jerez which is where I met Rafael Soto.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of my major influences in trying to enter that school, together with one of his students, Jose Antonio Mena, who I used to sit and watch for hours.\u201d\"NorteJAMena\"<\/p>\n

Jose Antonia Mena and Norte<\/em><\/p>\n

Mena remains one of Anthony\u2019s inspirations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a very good rider – professional and serious. I\u2019ve seen him evolve from the early days when he first worked with Norte to his riding the stallion at WEG last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafael Soto commented when he first saw Anthony on the Candau horses \u2018this man seems very strong yet he\u2019s so gentle a rider\u2019. He asked why he was so big and was told that Anthony was a rugby front rower.<\/p>\n

For the record, Anthony is about 84 kilos and 182 centimetres tall (that\u2019s 13 stone and 6 feet).<\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to have Spanish lessons and sit for the Royal School exams which consist of both theory and practical elements. If you can\u2019t pass the theory you can\u2019t take the other. The Spanish text books covered everything to do with horse care and management, training techniques and dressage history.\u201d<\/p>\n

He took the exam and failed. He returned to Australia, obtained a one year student visa and went back to Seville.<\/p>\n

He studied the language with a vengeance, continued riding at Candau and every week drove for an hour-and-a-half for a lesson with Rafael Soto in Jerez.<\/p>\n

\u201cI began showing a lot of improvement,\u201d said Anthony. \u201cI was understanding what dressage was and he opened my mind to new methods. I was learning not just how to ride but to train. I rode with Rafael for nearly three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had two more attempts at the exam.\"_G3A8528redes\"<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth times I passed the theory and the practical with awesome percentages but for some strange reason I\u2019d always just miss out by one or two points \u2013 the school only takes 6 people a year. One time I was told I was \u2018too big\u2019 except that a couple of years later the school accepted two riders who were both bigger than me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it had something to do with not being Spanish… But it all worked out for the best because Candua gave Anthony papers allowing him to legally stay in Spain and his work began in earnest.<\/p>\n

His routine at Candau varies:<\/p>\n

\u201cLike now in summer I begin work at 7am \u2018til about 1.20pm, have a break because it\u2019s so hot then ride again from about 6pm to 9.30pm. I mainly only ride stallions, however in the last year I\u2019ve broken my first mare. She\u2019s very good and it\u2019ll be interesting to see what we can accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s presently training with Holland\u2019s Bert Rutten.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also work with Joaquin Legarre Sanz who has his stable in Estepona. He comes to Candau once a month for two days and works with me and all the horses I have. Every two or three months I go down to Soto Grande for a three day clinic with Bert. Joaquin comes too and then we work together on how we can evolve and perform better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery school has its way of doing things. There are so many methods to help with training dressage horses these days. Not everything works on all horses, some need a specific type of work to build certain muscles; you have to assess how much you use of that technique and whether the horse can handle it. It all comes back to how professional and intelligent the rider is. You could say that the German school is more about having its horses straight and on the bit, the general outline of the Spanish horses is rounder. Ours do exhibitions which involve lots of collected movements and the school doesn\u2019t have ten years to train every horse to enter these exhibitions so their frames, earlier on in training, I believe to be more round.\u201d\"_G3A8547redes\"<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, a good horse is a good horse whether it\u2019s Spanish, German, English or French. The difference I feel when riding ours is how gifted they are in piaffe and passage. Also they tend to be easier to train as they have a very good nature but, of course, you\u2019ll always find some bad nuts in the bunch.\u201d<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t try to emulate any particular rider when training and competing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do the best I can in a way which allows me to achieve my goals with the horse I\u2019m on without causing problems, confusion or injury. Not everyone has a picture perfect position but if it allows them to effectively communicate with their horses and achieve harmony, and they have an open mind, I don\u2019t think you need to change what you\u2019re doing to look like someone else. I know and respect a lot of great riders who are at a level I wish to achieve, however my ambition is not to copy them but to stand apart and try to be better.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 u<\/p>\n

His work takes up so much time his social life is less than hectic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften it\u2019s almost non-existent, but I do go out and have tapas and a few beers in Moron, the small town where I live. I have a lot of close friends here who ride as well. If I was at home I\u2019d have to travel a long way to find another guy like me who rides dressage and finds it interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undoubtedly the town of Theodore is not the hub of Doma Cl\u00e1sica although Anthony\u2019s mother definitely shares his passion for the art.<\/p>\n

His 27-year-old brother, William, showjumped as a kid but dressage is not his thing. Working as a diesel fitter at Moura Mine he gives the impression of being a bit of a larrikin action man. Whilst holidaying in Canada he was bitten on the leg by a wild bear, is a fan of local band \u201cHibernation Sickness\u201d and can be seen on You Tube fighting in Fred Brophy\u2019s Boxing Tent. (This is the only tent of its kind in Australia, and it\u2019s restricted to Queensland and the Northern Territory, everywhere else these fights are illegal. Spectators come from far and wide to watch \u2018Tiny Tim\u2019 grapple \u2018The Bear\u2019 or \u2018White Lightning\u2019 wipe out \u2018Baby Rabbit\u2019. William, in barefeet, was aptly named \u2018Theodore Thunder\u2019 \u2013 he won.)\"IMG_2374\"<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother goes at everything 110 per cent,\u201d remarked Anthony.<\/p>\n

Anthony, too, has immersed himself to the maximum – in dressage. In his earlier years in Spain his competition successes were with young horses; in the last twelve months he has made his GP debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year I competed Babieca at Prix St Georges, we placed sixth at SICAB, which is the national final for the Spanish horse. Then this year in my first CDN*** in Montenmedio I came fifth with him in the Grand Prix and Africano also did well. A few weeks ago in Estepona I placed second and third in the Inter 1 and GP K\u00fcrs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy with them as both stallions are very young and just starting in these levels. Babieca is nine and Africano seven.\u201d (And blind in one eye added his mother).<\/p>\n

He has five more major competitions until the end of the year and in March 2012 will be taking part in the Sunshine Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be my first international. I guess I\u2019ll have to approach the Australian Equestrian Federation in order to ride in international competition, I don\u2019t think they even know I\u2019m over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe it would be simpler for Anthony, who admits to being \u2018Spanglish\u2019 these days, to become a naturalised Spaniard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve thought about it and will consider it further. It would have a lot of advantages such as making travelling easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

This young man has certainly come far since scoring second place in the 1D at the Warwick Show & Rodeo eight years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought my life would take me overseas but I never knew how or for what reason. It\u2019s funny looking back to when I was riding at pony club and in local gymkhanas and so gratifying to now be riding at Grand Prix in Spain at national level. And I\u2019ve done it on horses completely trained by me \u2013 that\u2019s the greatest feeling of all.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article first appeared in the November 2011 issue of THM.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Anthony Pelling was only 14 when he rode a canny old stallion in Portugal. Nuno Oliveira had trained the horse, his name was Dodge and he knew how to make a student\u2019s life hell. Anthony\u2019s muscles were sore and he was a long way from home but he wasn\u2019t going to give up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26076,"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":[1434,1435,1436],"class_list":["post-26075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dressage","tag-anthony-pelling","tag-iberian","tag-iberian-dressage"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075","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=26075"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32352,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26075\/revisions\/32352"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}