{"id":3641,"date":"2010-10-15T23:46:45","date_gmt":"2010-10-15T23:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.89.31.130\/~thehors5\/thm\/?p=3641"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:38:58","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:38:58","slug":"eventing-gill-rolton-an-eventful-life-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2010\/10\/eventing-gill-rolton-an-eventful-life-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Eventing: Gill Rolton, an eventful life Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Olympic bound\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

The next star on Gill\u2019s horizon, was Peppermint Grove, alias \u2018Fred\u2019, the horse that was to take her to Olympic gold, a horse that was loved by equestrian fans all over Australia\u2026 And like lots of great horses, Fred came about more or less by accident.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By this stage my job was school teaching but also working with quite a few horses, schooling and competing for owners, selling on racetrack jobs lots of teaching\u2013 mainly showies \u2026 the things you have to do to survive in the horse game, but the next really good one was Fred and he was supposed to be Greg\u2019s next horse\u2026<\/p>\n

I married Greg during Adelaide Royal in 1995 – the year before the World Championships at Gawler. He\u2019d been riding his first horse, Rare Vintage (an Anna Creek Station racing reject) for a couple of years and together they kicked around Intermediate Gawler and Melbourne and got to B grade showjumping and jumping at the Royal. Not bad for someone who had not ever sat on a horse before I met him! After a couple of years Vinnie had done his job as school master for Greg so we ended up giving him to 12 year old Wendy Schaeffer as her first graded showjumping horse. Wendy needed another horse to ride at the Royal with her mum\u2019s old eventer, Sunhill Cloud, so we gave Vinnie to Wendy, and she had fun on him for a couple of years, while we looked for another horse for Greg.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d heard about a horse three hours north of Adelaide. He was apparently \u2018big and ugly and grey and could move a bit\u2019. He was four. He\u2019d been broken in by Peggy Stewart, the girl who owned him, and she was pregnant with her second child. When we went to look at him, she walked around on him and I thought, oh yeah, he\u2019s big enough and, certainly not a show horse so probably good for Greg. Then he started to trot and I thought \u2018ooh wait a minute\u2026 this is really nice, he really comes off the ground, he had natural rhythm and cadence\u2013 oh wow look at him lengthen and still stay uphill and through!\u2019 Then he cantered and he was just so light on his feet. I thought, bad luck Greg.<\/p>\n

I asked Peggy if she would she pop him over a jump, and she said, I don\u2019t really like to jump him, he jumps too big. \u2018Oh that\u2019s a shame, perhaps you could just pop him over that little log there\u2019. She\u2019s trotted in, he\u2019s gone \u2018Kapow\u2019 and practically jumped her off. I think I better have first ride, and that was the end of it for Greg \u2013 he was a lovely horse. Two thousand dollars, the most expensive horse I\u2019d bought up \u2018til then \u2013 they were the good old days.<\/p>\n

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He had a big scar on his back leg, and I very nearly didn\u2019t buy him, but Peggy was really lovely. She said \u2018take him on trial, get him vetted, then if you still want him, you can pay me.\u2019 Perfect. The vet said he was fine. He was wonderful from day one. He was always such a big careful jumper but he ran on confidence. He had to be very confident in what he was doing. If he was worried about a fence, if it was a little spooky, and you put your leg on a little stronger, he\u2019d just jump way bigger \u2013 but you didn\u2019t want to break the heart of a horse like that. He had to learn to jump within himself, rather than over-jumping everything. While he went up the grades quickly, I would always back off a little, then go forward once we were really established at the next level. I\u2019d always work him at the level above what he was competing at so that the competitions were actually a lot easier than what we\u2019d been doing in training.<\/p>\n

With his jumping, I\u2019d work up to jumping quite complex lines and\/or big fences but finish over something simpler or lower so he always finished a session confident. Sometimes with a horse that is so talented and careful you can get a bit greedy and break their heart because they try so hard all the time.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think he was beaten in his first season, he went up the grades in dressage. I got him up to medium and in showjumping, to B grade. Eventing-wise, he also went up quite quickly. His first Gawler, 1989, where, I think, he came second in the Novice. He\u2019d had about three starts before then. Round about then was when I started to get time penalties \u2013 because I was gun shy after what had happened with Saville Row, I started to worry about Fred. With Saville Row, okay you won the dressage, and then went out to win the event. I didn\u2019t even think about the quality of the ground or about not running hard at every start. After Monty hurt himself, I thought, hmm, that\u2019s not such a great plan, it didn\u2019t keep my horse sound for so long.<\/p>\n

So I wasn\u2019t going to make the same mistake with Fred. I was criticised for not running hard at every little bunfight, but hey, you have to think about long-term goals. I wanted him sound when he was Advanced \u2013 so I\u2019d pick and choose where I ran hard. On our lovely baked ground, my \u2018run hards\u2019 were only at the major Three Days. One Days I liked to win, and he was quite successful, but there were times when I didn\u2019t go that fast and I did get criticised, but at the end of the day I had a horse sound enough to go to two Olympic Games and the Worlds, and he still finished sound at 17 yrs of age.<\/p>\n

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Cross country at Avenel\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

We were Advanced by the next Gawler in 1990. Fred\u00a0 went straight from Novice to Advanced. We came 4th<\/sup> that Gawler, then spent the rest of the year confirming the dressage at Medium level, jumping B Grade at the Aggie shows and the Royal.\u00a0 By May 1991, we went to Taupo with the Australian squad for the Trans Tasman. There was five of us: Derek Piper on Eurella Jubilee, Andrew Hoy and Kiwi, Heath Ryan on Looking Good, and Peter Haynes on Alcheringa and me. We were away for five weeks.<\/p>\n

We did the NZ One Day Championships, up north at Palmerston. We got there and thought she-it! This is serious. It was tough. Lot of corners, big tall brush and bull-finchy things\u2026 Peter had a bit of a disaster there so they put me and Fred in the team for Taupo. Fred did a great dressage test at Taupo, winning the test on a 46 with Heath breathing down my neck. Then we went cross-country. He jumped clean but had 12 time \u2013 that was the best Australian cross-country result. Jubes had a fall; Kiwi had a runout at a double of Apexes. Heath had a run out at the third fence, the ditch and palisade into a cliff face \u2013 it was a nasty fence. That was a Jennifer Miller course and we\u2019d never ever seen so many apexes, ditches or so many arrowheads.<\/p>\n

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Competing at Taupo in New Zealand\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

There were all sorts of problems there, but Fred was fantastic\u2013 even though we were the best of the Aussies I got my backside kicked for having too many time penalties.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0It was a tough course at Taupo<\/em><\/p>\n

All of a sudden we were in the frame for Barcelona. Then we had to do Melbourne, again probably a little slow, but jumped well and a good test and 7th<\/sup>. I got the call up from Jim Dunn who was the chef d\u2019equipe and Chairman of selectors. OK you are on a list with a chance to go to Barcelona, but the deal was get yourself, your horse, your gear, everything, to England at your own expense. Compete on the circuit over there for six months and if you win enough, and your horse is sound and you survive all that AND you make the team \u2013 then we\u2019ll pay to bring the horse home.<\/p>\n

What happens if we don\u2019t make the team? Oh well you\u2019ll have to sell the horse or bring it home yourself. It was one of those, do we do it, or do we not? We didn\u2019t have the money for it, but I had total belief in Fred, and so did Greg, so we thought, right we have to have a go. We didn\u2019t want to sit here ten years down the track, saying \u2018What if\u2026.\u2019 If we were there, then at least we were in contention. Once we were there, then we would have to make sure we did well enough to be selected to make the team to get Fred home.<\/p>\n

So we had to find a place to stay, organize the blood tests, all the travel arrangements, in those days, we did everything. We had to find the money and work out how to do it, which is not so easy when you\u2019ve never done anything like that before. It was a very steep learning curve. I went over in March, and Greg took leave of absence from school to come over later. He got there in May. It was tough. Before leaving, thanks to some great supporters and friends, we ran a huge fundraiser and that was amazing. So many people came along to a huge marquee at Reynella Horse Trials Venue for a big party\u00a0 to support Fred (mainly) and me. It was amazing! We got the money together for the airfares and help from other friends, so on the 3rd<\/sup> of March 1992, off we went.<\/p>\n

I was based with some lovely people, the Shepherds in Little Cheverell, near Devises. I\u2019d met Jacquie their daughter while I was staying with Vicki and Wayne Roycroft and she said that if ever I was in the UK to look her up. So we did. The Shepherds raced Arabs and had a couple of steeplechasers. It was a great area, right on the Salisbury Plains, fantastic for galloping and fitness work – but not so flash for the dressage and jumping as there was no arena there. I used to have to hack down the road a couple of miles to find a 20 by 40 to ride in. No jumps, I just had to go to comps to train jumping, which was fun anyway! Money was very tight, so with the odd showjumping win, Fred ate better than I did, which probably wasn\u2019t a bad thing…<\/p>\n

When you put your life on the line like that, you have to make it work, it makes you more determined to make it happen. Sometimes things wouldn\u2019t go well for whatever reason, I\u2019d feel homesick and lost, I\u2019d think why am I doing\u00a0 this on the other side of the world without family and friends for support? I\u2019d feel sorry for myself and want to slash my wrists. Then I\u2019d think, how stupid\u00a0 am I? Here I am competing in the UK with my fantastic Fred. I may feel out of my comfort zone but so what, I\u2019ve got my chance, I\u2019ve got to make the most of it, to get off my butt and chase that dream!<\/p>\n

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Making a bid for selection at Saumur\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The French National Championships at Saumur was to be our major selection event in the UK as it was suggested that Saumur was a better lead up to the Games than Badminton in the Olympic year (it\u2019s a a bit different to these days!)\u00a0 The night before leaving for the event, Fred put his foot in a haynet. Stupid me, I didn\u2019t tie the haynet up well enough, he played with it over night, got his foot in and wrenched a fetlock, so he wasn\u2019t quite 100% on the morning we left. He wasn\u2019t bad, but standing in ice all the way over to France wasn\u2019t the most comfortable way to travel.<\/p>\n

He passed the trot up fine \u2013 the only one of the Aussies that didn\u2019t go to the hold box, as it turned out!\u00a0 He did a fantastic test and was leading after the first day of dressage \u2013 and was still there at the end of the second! There were 90 in the class, including the then world champion, Blyth Tait, Eventing legends Mark Todd and Mary King as well as Andrew Hoy, Stuart Tinney and David Green. I didn\u2019t want to run hard, because of the fetlock – but when you are in the lead, that\u2019s what everyone expects you to do. There was some pretty rough ground at the end of the track \u2013 he jumped super all the way around, and I just took a bit of a pull when I came to the bad going and picked up a few time penalties, and although he show jumped well, we dropped down to 7th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

For me it wasn\u2019t a disaster. I was pretty happy about the whole thing and he pulled up sound. But coach Wayne Roycroft wasn\u2019t happy, he told me that I wasn\u2019t a winner, and\u00a0 to sell Fred to one of those many people who were offering us big money\u00a0 and \u2018go off and have babies – that\u2019s probably all you are good for!\u2019 Harsh words but that\u2019s Wayne\u2019s way of making you tougher. He could see that maybe I wasn\u2019t as tough as I needed to be, and that was his way of making me tough. You\u2019ll find that the best coaches around will try and find people\u2019s weaknesses, and work on those weaknesses to make them strengths. It did give me the incentive to prove him wrong and make the team!<\/p>\n

In the end the team was decided pretty much on soundness. Stuart came second at Saumur on Eurimbla Bright Beacon. He was down the track a little after the dressage but he came in exactly on optimum time and showjumped well. While he was 2nd<\/sup> at Saumur, the horse wasn\u2019t sound for Barcelona. My goal wasn\u2019t to win Saumur, especially when the horse wasn\u2019t quite 100% – my goal was Barcelona and the Olympic Games. I learned many years before that you sometimes had to forsake short term glory for those long term goals.<\/p>\n

Four weeks later I went to the big Jumping Derby at Hickstead, and won an AM7 foxhunter class (1.25m) and came fourth out of a 100 or so starters in the Eventers Special. That was a metre thirty track for the top 20 qualifiers on the main arena and included the Devil\u2019s Dyke, the Liverpools, banks and ditches – a real tough Derby course. It was a great event, everyone was there: Toddy, Blyth, Ian Stark on his amazingly scopey grey, Murphy Himself and Fred was a star. I even had the showjumpers coming up offering me quite big money for him. And I got to ride on the same warm up arena as Milton. Was he ever an amazing jumper in the flesh!<\/p>\n

We did a number of One Day Events, and usually placed, competed dressage at local West Wilts Equestrian Centre where UK based Swiss Eventer Christian Landolt (now an Olympic judge) and I would fight it out for first place in the medium tests against the Dressage Queens. Then it was off to Savernake Forest which was the final selection trial. Freddie was the highest placed Aussie horse there.<\/p>\n

It was a very strange weekend to pack for. It was either pack everything to be ready to go straight into training camp and on to the Games, or pack nothing and go home and get ready to sell your horse. I packed for nothing because I didn\u2019t want to tempt fate, but after that event we were definitely getting a berth –\u00a0 as reserve rider. There were no illusions about actually riding in the team, it was come along to Camp but you are the reserve rider. As things turned out, Greg Watson\u2019s horse had a bit of a leg, and Fred got his chance. They didn\u2019t want a \u2018girl\u2019 in the team, and they weren\u2019t keen on Matt Ryan and Kibah Tick Toc either. Matt had been to Badminton, did a great test and was fantastic in his cross-country, then had five rails in the showjumping. Not an ideal selection performance.\u00a0 As it turned out they had to take the pair of us \u2013 and Matt did a sensational job.<\/p>\n

We all didn\u2019t pull off as good a test as our lead up events had promised and the Aussies were in 6th<\/sup> but this wasn\u2019t going to be won on the dressage. The cross country was long and tough, the weather hot and humid and there were lots of problems out there. Clear rounds were the exception not the rule.<\/p>\n

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Cross country at Barcelona\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

After the cross country at Barcelona, we knew that our horses had pulled up really well, and there were lots of others that hadn\u2019t. Our vet\u00a0 Denis Goulding\u00a0 \u2013 \u2018Bear\u2019 \u2013 was our secret weapon. Bear knew how to get those horses re-hydrated in the heat. At the finishing there were horses gasping and tottering all over the place, no one had a real understanding of the effects of the humidity and the heat. But Bear was on to it, he had buckets of iced water. He also got fluids into them quickly, which was allowable under the rules but no-one thought of it. He was right on to it. My major concern with Fred was that he had lost a shoe in the steeplechase, and we had to wait in the box to get a shoe put on. There were a couple of nails that never came out to start with, so we were just a tad worried…<\/p>\n

The Australian horses came out bright-as for the trot up and the showjumping, We were in third going into the trot up, then we were in second after the trot up when they spun Ian Stark\u2019s horse, Murphy Himself.<\/p>\n

In the showjumping, I had a rush of blood going into the final treble and had one down, but the rest was super. It was the first time I\u2019d ever ridden an open water jump\u2026\u00a0 Olympic Games, here\u2019s this 13\u2019 open water related to planks, and all the fences various shades of blue grey not at all like the normal showjumping track. This will be interesting. Fred didn\u2019t care, he just jumped his usual big careful round.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Showjumping for gold at Barcelona<\/em><\/p>\n

So I had one down, Andrew Hoy and Kiwi had one down. The NZ team were having rails all over the place, then Andrew Nicholson had 8\u2026 and we thought this is getting quite exciting. Matt went out, and if he jumped clear or one rail, he had his gold medal. We were thinking about him and his gold medal, not a gold medal for us. He did a sensational job and just one fence down. Thank god it was the last one, not the first one \u2013 and all of a sudden the calculations were done, and we were in the lead for team gold by 1.2. We went crazy.<\/p>\n

There were two absolute standout moments for me at the Games. The first was entering the stadium. Wow, the reality hit that I was actually at the Games, and the reality that all that hard work and belief was for something. It was euphoric. Until then we spent most of the time two hours away up the hill with the horses, not in the Games village, and it was just like another competition. At the opening ceremony we had no idea what was going to happen. We were down in tunnels (the bowels of the earth?) waiting to come up into the stadium, and all of a sudden you burst into the place, surrounded by 100,000 people cheering and clapping, it gave you such a kick. It was as we were marching that I actually found out I was riding. Right at the last minute and what a way to find out!<\/p>\n

And of course, the other moment that will live forever was when we realised that we had won a gold medal\u2026 and we galloped madly around the stadium feeling like we owned the earth!<\/p>\n

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Charlie\u2019s lesson over jumps<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Gill sees it, Charlie has to work on two things: her body and leg position, and her horse\u2019s way of going:<\/em><\/p>\n

Apart from the way the horse jumps, Charlie likes to look down over a fence, and her upper body topples forward. The horse has quite a nice back end over a fence, so he does tend to kick her that way a little. When he lands, she lands looking down tipping forward, and takes three or four strides to get herself back up again, re-balanced and re-organized.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been talking to her about what she has been doing over in Tassie. She said, the horse usually goes around pretty well but he does fight me and have the odd runout at skinnies, especially after a water or bank. Ah, it wouldn\u2019t be because you are leaning forward looking down with an unstable lower leg and\u00a0 not sitting up in time to balance for the out? Oh, yes, probably that\u2019s it\u2026<\/p>\n

In showjumping when she has a related line, or a double or treble on a waiting distance, she often has the front rail on the way out because she can\u2019t keep the horse together enough for the out. Again, that is because he jumps in big and she tends to tip her body forward and take three strides before she is balanced enough to adjust him, so she is on his head trying to adjust on the last stride or as they are taking off, as opposed to getting it early so she can ride to the fence. We need to get her thinking about the landing and keeping her heels down and shoulders up, to help re-balance the horse through the line of fences.<\/p>\n

She has to concentrate on keeping her eye up to keep her shoulders up, and keep her eye up on a focal point. It probably didn\u2019t come out a lot in this lesson, but the lesson before we had a line with a particular tree at the end of the arena, with Charlie keeping her eye on that tree so she had a definite focal point to aim for through the turn and through the line but at the same time, she must be aware of where all the fences are with her peripheral vision. I don\u2019t want her looking down at the fences; I want her looking up at the top rail and through the back rail towards where she is going, keeping her eye up so she is not tipping forward.<\/p>\n

The other thing she does is that she collapses through the stomach and tips forwards with the shoulders. She isn\u2019t disciplined with her upper body and through her abs, to stay up \u2013 whether it is on the flat or whether it be jumping. She tends to throw her body forward, she tends to grip with her knee and the lower leg swings back. We are working on trying to stabilize her lower leg position, trying to keep her shoulders up, keep her focal point up.<\/p>\n

Her lower leg position has improved amazingly since she arrived. At first she was really gripping with her knee and keeping her leg off the horse. She thought because he is a hot horse he wouldn\u2019t let her have her leg on. The opposite is actually true. He becomes more confident with a consistent and educated leg on him. Not this unstable no-leg-then-kick routine. I\u2019ve been making her ride without stirrups on the flat, and also a little without stirrups in her jumping saddle over little fences and rails, just so that she can keep her lower leg on and realise that the horse isn\u2019t nicking off.<\/p>\n

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In this photo Charlie is keeping her shoulders up, her lower leg is a little too far back and her arms are a little low, but she is keeping her eye up, the shoulders are up and she is not collapsing through her stomach. I\u2019d like to see a little more angle through her hip but that is pretty good for her at the moment\u2026<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s actually quite good, she is really keeping her eye up and her lower leg is on. She\u2019s keeping her shoulders up and her heel down a little bit and the lower leg is closed. She is giving quite a nice elastic feel on his mouth. She needs to be able to do that over a bigger fence now.<\/p>\n

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She could just be coming a bit more into a light three point, she is still a fraction too far forward \u2013 I\u2019d like to see her sitting up through the shoulders and not leaning down on her hands too much.<\/p>\n

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I like the focal point. I think the focal point is quite good. She could have a little more release through the elbows and I think her body is still too far down with her shoulders. The good thing is that she is not collapsing totally through her stomach, but I\u2019d like the shoulders fractionally up from there, and a more traditional release. But it is not too bad.<\/p>\n

How do we improve lower leg and heel \u2013 does it just come because the instructor keeps saying \u2018remember your lower leg and heel?\u2019 Or are there exercises?<\/em><\/p>\n

Definitely Exercises. There is no point just saying get your heels down. There has to be a why and a how. I do quite a lot of work in two point. Not because I expect them to jump everything out of two point but because it is a means to an end to get more stability of the lower leg. You get them to make sure that they can take the knee off the saddle to make sure that the knee is not gripping. Make sure that the lower leg cuddles the horse. And you make sure they use the stirrup as a fulcrum to allow the heel to come deeper.<\/p>\n

I try and make sure they understand why. We don\u2019t just say put your heel down<\/em>. We say, relax though the ankle, let the weight come down into the heel, stabilize the lower leg by cuddling the horse with the calf. Try and make sure that the ankle is like a shock absorber. All three joints, ankle \u2013 knee \u2013 hip, have to be like a shock absorber, and the more they work in two point, the more they start to be able to relax into that position. I do quite a lot in trot (despite their cries of pain!) because then they have to become more supple and relax down through the heel, which then gives them the ability to be more stable with the lower leg. Most of them hate doing it to start with because they may be quite sore the next day \u2013 due to using and stretching muscles that are often not worked enough. They can be quuite sore in the lower back and the Achilles tendon, and sometimes in the ankle, especially if they have quite rigid ankles.<\/p>\n

I also get my students to do dumb things like walk around on their heels with their toes up when they are walking around in the stables, or stand on a brick and lift up from their toes and then lower down through their heel, just to get more mobility.<\/p>\n

Or I get them to drop their feet out of the stirrups, and point the toe right down, then up. It is just a mobility exercise for the ankle\u00a0 but they have to keep the lower leg in the correct position. All those things allow the base of support to become more stable, they are things that most kids don\u2019t think of doing until they are told to go away and do some homework. And it does make such a difference to the fitness and position of the rider..<\/p>\n

And for the upper body?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAgain I get them to move through a series of exercises breaking it down to the basics then putting it together.\u00a0 So for example they can go around on the circle establishing an active rhythmic rising trot, then into a balanced two point – and be able to maintain the rhythm and activity. Then show me a release, then back into three point, re-find your seat bones and come back to an upright sitting trot. So they start to think of keeping their shoulders tall while doing these exercises. Or, even at the halt you can put them in the position you need, get them into two point, release, rebalance \u2013 do it at halt, walk, trot, canter \u2013 make them aware of what their body is doing. Then you start to put it together with rails, cross rails, gymnastic exercises, like simple grids, rail cross, one stride vertical, two strides oxer, sequences of bounces \u2013 the exercises are endless really but the whole time making them think \u2013 keep the eye up on where they are going, because the first thing that makes a rider collapse, is the eye going down.<\/p>\n

Keep the eye up. Keeping the shoulders up, and into that two point with ear-shoulder-knee-toe in line over simple jumps, so they get into the habit of staying in balance and riding correctly. I feel that a lot of the time they are lacking discipline, they just want to gallop around and go out and jump\u2026 not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that in moderation!!!<\/p>\n

Charlie will tell you that. She has never thought about keeping the horse round\u00a0 and making it adjustable when she went to gallop. Or do a warm-up to produce a good rideable canter before she jumps. She never thought about doing a circle after a jump to get back to being balanced \u2013 or to think about her position. You have to be in the habit of doing it right. I break it right down, get them comfortable, and then start putting some fences into it. I don\u2019t spend forever trying to make it perfect.<\/p>\n

You also have to give them some exercises with some reasonable sized fences, which is why I put Charlie over a little course at the end of her lesson. She\u2019s got a competition next weekend, she needs to jump, we need to make sure she can get the horse operating at competition standard while she is still thinking about trying to make her style better. It has got to be a balance of trying to knock off the rough edges, but still get out there and do the competition.<\/p>\n

How much of it is a factor of personal physical fitness?<\/em><\/p>\n

A rider should always be able to make the horse\u2019s job easier or better \u2013 not hinder it because they are overweight or out of condition. The best way to be fit for riding is the specificity training of riding a lot of horses every day, but not everyone has the luxury of having a lot of horses at their disposal to ride.<\/p>\n

I think working out in a gym is good. I feel I was the most physically capable of riding well when I was doing karate. I was very fit and supple \u2013 essential qualities to riding well. Karate was very good for body awareness and suppleness in the Cata\u2019s (slow motion fighting techniques ). We did a lot of work on breathing, core stability, flexibility, and balance. The strength work was in the fun bit, the sparing – fighting not bathing! Though a spa would have been a very good finish to the session on more than one occasion.<\/p>\n

I have to say, I think pushing tons of weight isn\u2019t necessary \u2013 or helpful, but certainly the cardio work,\u00a0 bike, rowing , running, skipping, swimming, is good for basic cardio fitness, but nothing beats actually riding \u2013 a lot – and well.<\/p>\n

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Lower leg is quite nice, I\u2019d like to have her again more flexible through the hips, and another problem is this locked elbow and really low hands \u2013 like she is trying to hold his head down. It can be a bit of an eventer thing and it is something she needs to really work on because there is no subtlety in any of your work if you\u2019ve got a locked straight arm.\u00a0 We may get beginner riders to keep their hands very low for stability and support but as the rider improves we need a bend through the elbow so you can establish a feel. So I would like to see her hands fractionally higher\u00a0 but not way up, and I would like to see the straight line from the bit through to her elbow, even when she is in a two-point position.<\/p>\n

I like the body folded through the hip, the lower leg is on and actually quite nice, the toe is higher than the heel, if anything it could be a fraction more forward but you\u2019ve got a pretty reasonable shoulder-knee-toe line \u2013 that\u2019s a good line.<\/p>\n

What happens on course is a reflection of the problems they have on the flat. Whenever you put jumps into the equation then you are going to find that the problems they do have on the flat are going to be magnified .You can see that with Charlie and Twistie when he goes to the right.<\/p>\n

When she jumps and lands wanting to go right, Twistie will land on his left lead most of the time because she likes to lock with her left side and sit out to the left. She needs to think about that when she is on top of the fence, by looking slightly to the right and even think of a slightly opening right rein and getting more weight into her right heel to get the horse to land on the right lead. And if that doesn\u2019t happen she\u2019s got to do something quickly to get it on the right lead if she is on a course. I was asking her there to think of leg yielding \u2013 in other words, making her right leg longer, pushing the horse away from her right leg into the left rein a little bit to stop it from dropping the right shoulder through the turn. What he does, is as soon as he lands, she lets him fall against her right leg, he drops his right shoulder, and he\u2019s on the left lead. She has to get him up, off her right leg, and then ask for the change with the left leg back. .<\/p>\n

If she tries to ask for the change when he is leaning through the shoulder, then she is not going to get a change through.\u00a0 She was finding that she puts her left leg back and gets a change, but she is still blocking him in front \u2013 so he changes behind and is late in front. She has to think of leg yield for one or two strides on landing to get him up and balanced, and then put her outside leg back to ask for the change. At least he does change, eventually, but she needs to work on getting it through quicker to re-establish the better quality canter through the turn and to the next fence.<\/p>\n

At home, she needs to get the change happening, and she is much better staying on a circle until she has him set up to do the change correctly, than coming around totally unbalanced and into a line of fences. Get it organized, and then come on to the line. I know she can get away with it in a competition but at home she needs to get it correct, or her way forward is blocked and there\u2019s no way to get better to handle bigger tougher courses.<\/p>\n

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

Olympic bound\u2026 The next star on Gill\u2019s horizon, was Peppermint Grove, alias \u2018Fred\u2019, the horse that was to take her to Olympic gold, a horse that was loved by equestrian fans all over Australia\u2026 And like lots of great horses, Fred came about more or less by accident. By this stage my job was school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18591,"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":[5],"tags":[73,385],"class_list":["post-3641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-eventing-training","tag-gill-rolton"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641","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=3641"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20799,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3641\/revisions\/20799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}