{"id":31701,"date":"2017-02-03T12:28:21","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T01:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=31701"},"modified":"2018-01-14T09:38:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-13T22:38:49","slug":"at-home-with-nick-skelton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2017\/02\/at-home-with-nick-skelton\/","title":{"rendered":"At home with Nick Skelton"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Story by\u00a0Bernadette Hewitt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Driving up to the village (which ought to be renamed Skelfield as it\u2019s all about Skeltons), through the Warwickshire countryside, it takes a couple of phone calls to the only British show jumper ever to win individual Olympic Gold to negotiate the route through winding country lanes. Past the gallops where Nick\u2019s son Dan trains National Hunt racehorses I ask a young girl on a racing snake if this is the way to Nick\u2019s. It is, she says with a smile. I spot two very familiar-looking faces and realise I am in the right place. There at the gate is Mark Beever, Nick\u2019s groom of 37 years. We share a laugh before he heads off aboard Big Star for the majestic creature\u2019s daily spa treatment at the racing yard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Leading up to Christmas there\u2019d not been a day since Rio when Nick hadn\u2019t had some sort of Olympic duty to perform; medal parades, interviews, award ceremonies, more interviews. It\u2019s something his partner, US Olympian Laura Kraut didn\u2019t quite \u2018get\u2019 as in the US all that\u2019s over in two days and everyone goes back to normal life. For Nick Skelton, however, in winning Britain\u2019s first ever individual Olympic Gold for show jumping in Rio at the age of 58 he did exactly what London 2012 called for as a legacy. Inspire a generation? Nick\u2019s inspiring in ways more than one. In his local market town of Alcester he\u2019s regularly stopped by people who tell him he\u2019s inspired them to take up cycling, walking, whatever they fancy. People relate to his achievement, even if they\u2019ve never been near a horse. For medal parades it became a convention for Nick to be paired up with Amy Tinkler, GB\u2019s bronze medal winning gymnast at just 16 years old. Nick laughs: \u201cEverywhere I go they put us together, we\u2019re like Morecambe and Wise now\u201d<\/p>\n

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There are only two Olympic Games Nick hasn\u2019t ridden at since his team silver debut at the 1980 Alternative Olympics in Rotterdam. One was Los Angeles in 1984 when his professional status denied him eligibility. The other was Sydney 2000 during which he spent nights watching all kinds of obscure sports, unable to sleep. Well, sleep\u2019s difficult with a titanium hoop screwed into your skull. He\u2019s had numerous injuries and a new hip, but the freak accident that demanded five months in the so-called \u2018halo\u2019 was thought to be the end of his career. Fourteen months later, however, came the diagnosis that the broken ligament between his spine and brain had mended. Nick Skelton was back. The British tabloid press at the time had a field day. Headlines abounded about the \u2018bad boy\u2019s come back\u2019. Stories about Nick decking former mentor Ted Edgar, and Nick being decked by Harvey Smith, let\u2019s say it was a little alcohol-influenced, you\u2019d have thought the guy was some out of control rock star. But the guy behind those headlines is now a national treasure. And he\u2019s very much in control.<\/p>\n

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The indoor barn is immaculately tidy. Nick likes things tidy. Just off the barn corridor one side is an \u2018almost restaurant\u2019 and kitchen \u2013 super light and bright – which looks over the outdoor school, complete with terrace. Not always so tidy in the kitchen maybe, but the opposite when we sit down to talk in the beautifully appointed office. Nick\u2019s Ridgeback Elsa settles down to listen in. She\u2019s gorgeous. Yep, it\u2019s tidy. So many iconic trophies all organised, yet so many more awards have come in since Rio. \u201cWe\u2019ll never be short of shelves though,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

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In the New Year Honours List Nick was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, a CBE in short and a step up from the \u2018Officer of\u2019 he received from the Queen after the London 2012 Games where he led the Brits to team gold. Another trip to Buckingham Palace to go in the diary then. There have been many and as the Queen enjoys talking horses and racing there are good chats involved, although when I say Carl Hester loved the canapes Nick laughed: \u201cThey couldn\u2019t have used a loaf of bread in the whole lot!”<\/p>\n

Nick\u2019s travelled the world to jump, but lives just half an hour from where he was born. His Dad, David, lives next-door-but-one, and is up every morning at the gallops with his copy of The Racing Post<\/em>. Nick himself tries to split his time between the jumping and racing yards. When at home he\u2019s up at 5.50am and at the gym for 06.30, currently in Stratford until the purpose built gym is completed at the racing yard, then he joins his Dad at the gallops to watch first lot before returning the jumping yard for 9.15. He rides Big Star of course, but the legend that he only rides his Olympic partner these days isn\u2019t quite accurate. On the day I visited he\u2019d ridden four having been left with the task of schooling and jumping his partner Laura Kraut\u2019s horses, before their departure to a show on one continent whilst Laura was on another.<\/p>\n

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And then there\u2019s the coaching. It\u2019s not teaching. Nick says emphatically: \u201cLaura does all that, I\u2019m not a teacher.\u201d But as a coach, well there is a typical understatement going on here. He\u2019s been pretty amazing at helping other riders in a low key way over the years, but post\u2013Rio he coached Olympic Gold Medal winning cyclist, turned jockey, Victoria Pendleton and Flat racing legend Frankie Dettori for a celebrity challenge class at Olympia before Christmas, which raised money for the Injured Jockeys\u2019 Fund. Also joining in was another legend, the former champion jump jockey and a great mate Sir Anthony \u2018AP\u2019 McCoy who later returned to Nick\u2019s to jump Big Star for a magazine article. Wow that was interesting. Big Star\u2019s not jumped much at home, and given AP\u2019s used to speed, well, it ended in AP reaching for Big Star\u2019s reins for the Tokyo Games (Yes it was only banter!). Nick\u2019s going race riding in April at the Cheltenham Festival, taking part in a charity flat race.<\/p>\n

Nick tends to train horses rather than riders. He explains: \u201cWe do a lot of jumping with the racehorses, as to my mind you can\u2019t jump them enough. It\u2019s all about jumping at speed and jumping them a lot is our secret really.\u201d The schooling arena is at son Harry\u2019s yard. Lots of poles, telegraph poles, hurdles, barrels and all sorts of jumps fences on sand and on grass which, when Nick remarks \u201cis too firm at the minute\u201d makes me think it\u2019ll be quite a while in the English winter, even if we don\u2019t have snow.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the racehorses we\u2019re talking about here, and there a lot of them. Dan\u2019s the trainer, but \u00a0Nick says: \u201cWe do a lot with the young ones to get them rideable. So once they\u2019re going at 35 mph, there\u2019s not a lot to be done to change what they\u2019re doing. So I think if you can place them in the right place it helps. We do flatwork with them, lots of schooling.\u201d He adds quickly to give his sons the credit: \u201cDan and Harry do that. If I\u2019m here I watch, if I see anything that can be helpful, but they\u2019re very, very good at what they do.\u201d They are indeed and the next Skelton family accolade in Nick\u2019s sight is a serious win, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, with Dan the Trainer and Harry the jockey. I\u2019d not lay odds against that happening, sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

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While Dan\u2019s talent lies in training, and attracting some of jump racing\u2019s top owners, including John Hales who bought Arko III for Nick, Harry could have followed in his Dad\u2019s stirrups but was set on the jockey route from his early teens. Nick\u2019s pride is obvious. He\u2019s helped his boys with a leg up, but they\u2019ve inherited a work ethic and use their talent. \u201cThey work well together as a team, we all do, and we\u2019re a close family. We\u2019re all there for each other. If I\u2019m schooling Big Star and Dan comes in the yard, he\u2019ll watch. We\u2019re all a big team effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rio<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn\u2019t mess it up I knew Henry (Big Star)<\/em> wouldn\u2019t. He very, very rarely has a fence down. When he hit the middle part of the combination on the first day it was my fault. But I think he was rusty at that height as he hadn\u2019t jumped a course like that since Aachen 2013, when he won the Grand Prix. That jump off in Rio was his eleventh round that year. I don\u2019t think I could have done that with any other horse, brought him back with so little competition work. It takes a serious horse just to train him like that at home. It\u2019d be like training a Gold Cup winner without having a race. It takes some balls to do that and you need a class horse to do it with. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll have another horse I could do that with.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nick and Big Star at Rio<\/em><\/p>\n

Watching the final round at home on TV, I talk about this feeling I had, knowing he was going to win. He laughs. \u201cI didn\u2019t think that till Eric Lamaze went! Eric wins so many classes on that horse (Fine Lady 5). I wouldn\u2019t say it was an Olympic horse, but he\u2019s an amazing rider. He got everything out of her, and that horse did a great job. I think in the end it was probably meant to be from all those years before and getting so close in London, Athens. It was my time.<\/p>\n

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Gold for Nick at Rio, Peder Fredricson – Silver, and Bronze to Eric Lamaze<\/em><\/p>\n

While the remaining riders jumped, Nick stayed on Big Star. \u201cNormally I get off, go and watch, but by the time I came out the next one was in, so thought there was no point. What was I going to do about it? I might just as well sit and listen to the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems surreal that Rio was their first jump off against the clock since their Aachen in \u00a0win, the first time Nick had taken\u00a0Big Star in the ring in nearly two years. That\u2019s partnership for you.<\/p>\n

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www.gfeweb.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

A bit about the sport and the future<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cLottery funding has made a huge difference to us as Team GB. In 1980, as a country, we won a few medals and gradually got better and better, so to come second in the medal table behind the US, I don\u2019t think that would have happened without lottery funding. It proves it’s working. Rowers, swimmers, cyclists, they\u2019re getting funding into their sport so they can be fully professional athletes training for a job. It\u2019s a bit different with us as we\u2019re in partnership with a horse, and if you haven\u2019t got the right horse all the funding in the world isn\u2019t going to make a difference. But, saying that, we do appreciate it, it helps a lot with vet work and getting yourself fit and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then there are the owners. There were offers, huge ones, after London, but Gary and Beverley Widdowson ‘are amazing owners’ who ‘luckily’ didn\u2019t want to sell. Nick\u2019s known Gary since the two were on the junior team together. They became lifelong friends. Nick is philosophical about losing horses over the years, but it\u2019s ironic Gary wanted to buy the one he really wishes he hadn\u2019t lost, Top Gun, who helped Holland win team gold in Barcelona. Nick, being loyal, said he\u2019d promised the horse to Tony Elliot who eventually put his whole string up for sale when he ran into money problems. Oh for the benefit of hindsight!<\/p>\n

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From the end of 2015 Nick made it perfectly clear he was only going to ride Big Star from then on. \u201cMy body takes some looking after; aches and pains, my back, hip and god knows whatever. That takes a lot of work, as I said two hours a day at the blinking gym! To be honest when I was riding other horses I didn\u2019t feel comfortable on them, didn\u2019t feel confident. Whether it\u2019s age or fear of falling and hurting yourself – because you know if you fall it\u2019s going to hurt before you hit the floor because you\u2019re brittle – so if I\u2019d ride a young horse at home I\u2019d be riding it too strong to make sure it wasn\u2019t going to do anything. There\u2019s no point riding like that, you might as well give up. Every rider has a different feel, at different age, and some riders probably never feel that at all, but I do. But I don\u2019t have that feeling at all on Big Star, not at all and you can see that. I\u2019ve had lots of falls, not just the neck, and when you know it\u2019s coming so try to save yourself that\u2019s worse. When you\u2019re younger you hit the floor and bounce.\u201d He laughs.<\/p>\n

Mind you, that day he\u2019d jumped four horses at home! He\u2019d also bought a six-year-old he has confidence on, a mare he thinks very highly of. So whilst he\u2019s said he\u2019ll stop competing when Big Star retires he\u2019s still intending to produce a few more: \u201c Yes, I would like to get a couple of young horses and try and ride them, produce and train them for the next level and after a couple of years move them on. I think I could do that with ones I like. For example I saw the mare in Holland, tried her and liked her instantly, which is a good omen. I think she\u2019s going to be really good. She\u2019s really quiet, placid, and beautiful to ride. She\u2019s six but she rides like a ten-year-old. She\u2019s got an old head on her.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s still that thorny old question, where are the young riders coming up? Nick, the Whitakers, yes there\u2019s Ben Maher and Scott Brash, Jessica Mendoza, but when it comes to it, Nick and the Whitakers with a combined age of 174 in Rio are still the stalwarts. \u201cI think some young riders are bad pickers of horses, they go off and buy something they think is right and it\u2019s not. Experience tells, but it is horsemanship. It\u2019s difficult for young riders today. They want success, to get up the computer list, and the only way to do that is to jump a lot. If you haven\u2019t got many horses you\u2019ve got to jump the ones you\u2019ve got, to get to the better shows, and that is a problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not bothered about going up the list. It doesn\u2019t matter to me, as I\u2019m really doing it for pleasure now; going to help Laura with her horses and students, stuff like that. Being No 1 in the World is not my life. Younger riders like Joe and William Whitaker, they want to be number one and rightly – if they haven\u2019t got that drive at their age, they shouldn\u2019t be doing it – so they\u2019ve got to get out there. You need good horses, and to get good owners you\u2019ve got to put yourself out there, and be approachable, put yourself about in a manner that you can talk with these people.<\/p>\n

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www.kohnkesown.com<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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Big Star<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Quick Star (who made Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum\u2019s name) out of Nimmerdor mare, Jolanda, he\u2019s royally bred. He\u2019s not actually that big at 16.2, but \u2018Henry\u2019 has incredible presence. At home he\u2019s very laid back, lazy even, although he can have the odd \u2018fresh and mad\u2019 day, but in the ring he\u2019s a totally different character.<\/p>\n

As Nick puts it: \u201cHe lights up when he gets to a show. He neighs, always, when he goes into the arena and if he didn\u2019t, I\u2019d think there was something wrong with him. You really need to know him, to know what he\u2019s like – of course you do with all horses – but I\u2019ve had him for eight years and I know him inside out. And he\u2019s always been the same, as a young horse he was like he is now, just young. He\u2019s the most amazing horse, a once-in-a-lifetime horse.\u201d<\/p>\n

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He doesn\u2019t jump a lot at home, but the former champion National Hunt jockey Sir Anthony (known as AP) McCoy had the chance to ride Henry over fences for a magazine article. His biggest worry was stopping. Once Henry powers up…<\/p>\n

Laura Kraut, Nick\u2019s partner found him. She was preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics via training in Holland, and arrived a day early. There was a show nearby; she decided to drive up there. She spotted a horse with an incredible jump, ridden by an American who lives in Holland. Asking was the horse for sale the answer was yes, but only to a good rider, and he\u2019s expensive. Laura called Nick and said he had to come buy this horse. A couple of days later he did just that.<\/p>\n

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Reminding Nick about watching that final round of his in Rio, feeling not \u2018edge of seat\u2019 but just glued to something almost magical about to happen, he laughs again: \u201cEverything Big Star does, he does with a lot of enthusiasm, that\u2019s part of him. People go and watch him jump, the riders go watch him jump it\u2019s his actions, his character. He\u2019s a creature of habit. Then look at him now, laid back, quiet in his box.\u201d We did. Every word Nick speaks rings with such affection for this horse.<\/p>\n

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Big Star\u2019s welfare is top priority. When he twisted a joint the week before CHI Geneva, and then was pulled out of Britain\u2019s big Christmas celebration show, Olympia. On slow work he still paraded at Olympia before heading off to Twemlows Hall, hub of Stallion AI Services, for his other career, breeding. As the Number 1 show jumping sire in the world that\u2019s important. He is stabled next door to the now 23-year-old Arko III, Nick\u2019s Athens ride and world number one show jumper from 2004-6. Who can tell what conversations these guys have over hay? And with Jaguar Mail just one down?<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Arko, Big Star, and Jaguar Mail \/ Photo:\u00a0Stallion AI Services<\/em><\/p>\n

Big Star will be home mid-February and back into work, ready for the next instalment in an extraordinary story. Now that the final four horse swap has been dropped from the World Championship format, who knows?<\/p>\n

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PHOTO CREDITS<\/strong>
\nNick at home\u00a0photos:\u00a0Clement Grandjean
\nCompetition photos: Roz Neave
\nRio photos: Dirk Caremans<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2016\/08\/walking-courses-its-crucial\/<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2016\/12\/a-jumping-lesson-with-kathy-kusner\/<\/p>\n

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

Nick Skelton talks about his Big Star, and more with equestrian journalist, and old friend, Bernadette Hewitt…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31708,"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":[81,6],"tags":[898,1669,67],"class_list":["post-31701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-show-jumping","tag-big-star","tag-nick-skelton","tag-showjumping"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31701","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=31701"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39073,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31701\/revisions\/39073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}