{"id":56078,"date":"2020-10-02T15:53:49","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T05:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=56078"},"modified":"2022-09-14T15:38:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T05:38:46","slug":"simone-pearce-shares-the-secrets-of-her-successes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2020\/10\/simone-pearce-shares-the-secrets-of-her-successes\/","title":{"rendered":"Simone Pearce shares the secrets of her successes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Scarcely a day goes by without Simone Pearce achieving a new highest score for an Australian, how did she get there?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Along with all her other talents, Simone Pearce is a natural when it comes to being interviewed… On a visit to\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Australia, she shared her knowledge and insights on the European\u00a0scene.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

How is it that you sit on a horse, and your legs are ten times quieter than we see with most of the Australian based riders, and yet your horse is 100% more forward?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to say something funny, because when I first moved to Europe, the first thing my first boss said was\u00a0look at her legs! She cannot possibly be a professional with legs like that!<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>That\u2019s the first thing I heard when I\u2019d just got off the plane from Australia, so it was a real struggle for me in the first twelve months \u2013 a real struggle to get my legs still.<\/p>\n

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The first thing was that I developed my legs to be still, and that\u2019s a structural thing \u2013 but my horses are off the leg because I don\u2019t touch them as much as other riders. Other riders are kick, kick, kick, kick, me, I have still legs, quiet legs, I support the horse. If I need them I use them, but otherwise\u2026 that\u2019s the thing with everything, patience, quiet, not so much movement, simplify everything, take it back to basics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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You say you had to re-make the way you used your legs, but how do you do that?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of personal perseverance. The place that I was at, my boss was not going to tell me every two minutes to keep my legs still and my toes in. She told me about three times and then she said, I\u2019m not telling you any more, it\u2019s your turn to fix it yourself. And that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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When you were talking about contact, you were saying, not strong but not give away, which are the only two options our riders seems to consider\u2026. What is the middle option you are looking for?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, the way to get the perfect contact is by having shorter reins. I think more about my elbows than my hands. Your elbows should be giving and your hands keep steady on the contact. That\u2019s really important, so many riders pull back with their hands and let the elbow also pull backwards, but for me, you have to have a soft elbow and a steady hand, not a strong hand, a steady hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The other thing I find interesting about your riding is that while it is almost a cliche of the young horse rider to ride shoulders back, seat grinding into the horse \u2013 you rode at your Masterclass here in\u00a0Australia \u00a0with a slightly forward upper body all the time\u2026 that\u2019s conscious?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it is in this instance \u2013 on my own horses for example, you won\u2019t see me lean so far forward, but with the horse I rode today, I want her to be a lot more round than perhaps she has been before, a lot more forward than she has been before and so she doesn\u2019t need my tension coming against her. I\u2019m very conscious to be soft to the young horses. I think a lot of people have the perception that young horse riding is about being strong, but it is not \u2013 it is about being very soft and forward. I think that is what is lacking, riders get too much backwards, too much kicking, I don\u2019t kick and I don\u2019t lean backwards. I\u2019m very patient, all the time encouraging the horse to go forward. You would see, if I rode this horse a few more days, I would come back to a more upright, competition posture. At the moment, that is too much for her. I am very conscious of allowing the horse to have what it needs to have at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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You talked about how in between movements, in your transitions, you wanted one stride of shoulder in?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit like when you teach a dog something, and you use a clicker, and the clicker gets the dog to think, okay, now I have to do what my trainer wants me to do. It\u2019s exactly the same thing with the horse, the shoulder in re-connects the horse to the rider \u2013 so I use it when the horse is straight and running a little bit, instead of getting hectic and pulling backwards \u2013 you have no opportunity to do that in the show \u2013 so I just use one step of very gentle shoulder in to re-connect the horse to me. Shoulder in and corners, that\u2019s all I do. On my Grand Prix horse, I never train Grand Prix movements, I train shoulder in, corners. With my young horses, shoulder in, corners \u2013 that\u2019s the secret!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Do you think that you are lucky that you are showing young horses in an era when the style of young horse showing has moved from super spectacular to soft and harmonious?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, definitely, and to be honest I find it very funny when people call me a young horse rider, because I don\u2019t think I\u2019m a young horse rider at all. I\u2019m just a rider, and as a professional you should be able to do everything. I think the young horse riding has changed so much in the last five years in a really really good direction, and I feel the success I have had as a young horse rider is through true training and I am very proud of that, and I hope that it continues in this way because I really enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It was interesting when you were riding Cognac here today , when the mare started to get a bit upset, you just sat quiet and worked your way through it\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is exactly how I ride at home, it\u2019s fine, no stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you didn\u2019t give up and throw the contact away\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, no \u2013 I, 100% stay with what I want, and what I want is contact and forward, but she doesn\u2019t have to do it in the next step because it is not going to happen so there\u2019s no point in fighting with her. I\u2019m just showing her and guiding her to what I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Do you think it is your timing, you are so quick to reward\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something a lot of riders have trouble with, they don\u2019t know when to hold and when to give, and to be honest, that comes with a lot of experience and feeling. You can\u2019t say to someone \u2013 this is the time, there is no time, you have to feel it. It\u2019s hard but it helps if you trust yourself more \u2013 I think a lot of riders don\u2019t trust themselves enough.<\/p>\n

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I never think\u00a0what if?<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>I think, it\u2019s good, good girl, or it\u2019s not good, no stress, just this, this, this. I think I\u2019m quite lucky that I naturally have quite a lot of feeling. It\u2019s the hard truth of riding, there are some people who are naturals. I\u2019ve been messy before, but I\u2019ve always had that feeling to sort of know when to stop and when to go, but you can definitely develop it by having a good trainer \u2013 that\u2019s essential.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Catch up with Simone, who has moved back to Germany:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Simone Pearce – making it, with a smile!<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n