{"id":60735,"date":"2021-09-24T12:21:14","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T02:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=60735"},"modified":"2021-09-24T12:35:47","modified_gmt":"2021-09-24T02:35:47","slug":"simone-pearce-the-ups-and-downs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2021\/09\/simone-pearce-the-ups-and-downs\/","title":{"rendered":"Simone Pearce – the ups and downs"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interview with Christopher Hector<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I rang Simone it was 8 in the morning German time, but she had already ridden her first horse of the day – the sort of success she has enjoyed is based on hard work, lots of it…<\/p>\n

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The Games in Tokyo didn’t pan out the way you hoped they would…<\/em><\/p>\n

“No, they didn’t.” But she still manages a laugh…<\/em><\/p>\n

I know you are not one to hit the social media weeping and wailing, you tend to just get on with it, but what did go wrong in Tokyo?<\/em><\/p>\n

“It was a lot of factors, but a big factor was that he got a skin infection that stopped me riding him in the days before the competition…<\/p>\n

No riding!?<\/em><\/p>\n

“No riding, good timing wasn’t it? It was tick spray that burnt his skin, and as a result he got a skin infection on his chest, and you have to be so careful how you treat skin problems because some of the lotions show up as illegal substances. So it was a lot of factors that just came together that didn’t allow me to do a preparation. Also, I have to say, with Tokyo, being in quarantine for three weeks before was it not great because you feel watched every day and a little bit uncomfortable, not in your normal routine. It was a really good learning experience for me because I have not been in a situation like that before – and you just have to deal with it. It’s definitely something I’ve learnt from, and will be aware of in the future.”<\/p>\n

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better at Aachen (Lily Forado photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

Now for the good news bit, Aachen must have been pretty much how you dreamed it – second in your Grand Prix to Jessica von Bredow-Werndl?<\/em><\/p>\n

“It was my first time riding in Aachen – that show is something else. It was fantastic!”<\/p>\n

Tell me more…<\/em><\/p>\n

“After the Olympics I was feeling down in confidence, you know, you don’t expect it to go quite that bad, so many things went wrong and my mentality was like, it won’t work<\/em>, and it didn’t work.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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With Dancier Gold at the World Young Horse champs…
\n\u00a9 2021 Ilse Schwarz\/dressage-news.com<\/em><\/p>\n

“After that I went straight to the World Young Horse Championships and even there I was feeling shaky. The first day I was riding shit, but I picked it up after that, then on to\u00a0 Aachen. I’ve been training on my own again. I find when I train on my own I have a lot more feeling, I am able to be at one with the horse and make decisions on the spot, not someone telling me what to do. It helps me feel more in tune.”<\/p>\n

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Second at Aachen with Destano (Lily Forado photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

But it is not too shabby coming second to Jessica…<\/em><\/p>\n

“Absolutely. On the first day I felt I rode really quiet and I felt like I just wanted to get back into it, then on the second day I was like, okay, now we go for it, and I had a really, really good feeling.”<\/p>\n

When you plan a test with Destano, which are you seeking to highlight?<\/em><\/p>\n

“My way to ride dressage is harmonious, the overall picture should be harmony. This horse has really good walk, trot and canter, and with that I like a girly picture, I always aim for something really beautiful.”<\/p>\n

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(Lily Forado photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

Is Destano also a breeding stallion?<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yes, he is breeding.”<\/p>\n

Is that making it a little bit harder for you to develop his career?<\/em><\/p>\n

“No. Sprehe are really good, this season he is only doing frozen semen. But to be honest, all my stallions – I think I have fourteen breeding stallions in training at the moment, and they are all fully in the breeding program, and they manage it really well. I think if you are sympathetic and keep in mind what they are doing, it’s not really a big problem.”<\/p>\n

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(Lily Forado photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

What are you aiming for next Simone?<\/em><\/p>\n

“Now we look towards WEG next year, that’s the next big goal, and then, of course, Paris…”<\/p>\n

Versailles is a nice romantic place to go for a horse show…<\/em><\/p>\n

“Wouldn’t that be nice!”<\/p>\n

Do you think you will get to ride Destano for a little while longer?<\/em><\/p>\n

“Yeah I don’t think there are any plans to change things (again the laughter bubbles) <\/em>that I know of!”<\/p>\n

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(Lily Forado photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

For dressage rider Simone Pearce the last couple of months have been a roller coaster ride, a triumph at Aachen, not so wonderful at the Olympic Games…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60745,"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":[81,4],"tags":[596,1243,1732,1985],"class_list":["post-60735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-dressage","tag-aachen","tag-dressage","tag-simone-pearce","tag-sprehe"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60735","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=60735"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60751,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60735\/revisions\/60751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}