{"id":63812,"date":"2022-07-15T16:30:54","date_gmt":"2022-07-15T06:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=63812"},"modified":"2022-12-08T16:09:00","modified_gmt":"2022-12-08T05:09:00","slug":"talking-with-cathrine-an-interview-with-a-superstar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2022\/07\/talking-with-cathrine-an-interview-with-a-superstar\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking with Cathrine – an interview with a superstar"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Story and Pix – Rebecca Ashton – on\u00a0the right, and Cathrine on the left..<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour has just finished a super Aachen. It couldn\u2019t have been better preparation for the World Championships in her home country of Denmark next month. With five wins in five tests on two different horses, Bohemian, GP 4* and GP freestyle 4*, and Vamos Amigos, GP 5*, GP Special 5*, and Grand Prix freestyle 5* <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With Bohemian…<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The young dressage super star really is riding high. It\u2019s been a fast progression for the Cathrine, who although successful in the junior levels, only came to prominence in the seniors at the Rio Olympics in 2016 where she came13th in the individual event at the age of 25. In six years, she\u2019s trained two more horses to international Grand Prix success, claiming individual and team fourth at last year\u2019s Tokyo Olympics on Bohemian and second in this year\u2019s World Cup final on Vamos Amigos.<\/span><\/p>\n

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And Vamos….<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I caught up with her at Aachen after her two Grand Prix wins.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>I know this is a bit of a standard question, but how do you feel?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"\u00a0<\/span>Yesterday I had to pinch myself because the one thing with Bohemian, I knew that he could really perform super, super well and it was nice to have him back in the ring this Wednesday and it was really the easiest Grand Prix I\u2019ve ever had with him. It was chilled. I mean it was a bit conservative, but that was the plan from the beginning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"And yesterday with Vamos, coping with this atmosphere. He\u2019s been quite hot down here but yesterday it seemed like he was not really reacting to the atmosphere. He was just taking it in. I mean riding Grand Prix on that horse, I could just piaffe for ages. It feels amazing. He just keeps on going without me really telling him. He just says, \u2018Yep! How much do you want?\u2019 So of course I feel extremely lucky. Then with the Danish team, it\u2019s an honour to be in front with my team mates. So honestly I\u2019m very happy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Would you also say relieved? Because you obviously work really hard to have goals and your goals are obviously to be up there.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"\u00a0<\/span>Yeah I work really hard, but it\u2019s not only to get out there on top. I really like the training back at home and I love the process with the horses and I really love having Nathalie and Kyra at my yard training. I\u2019m often more excited by that than the competitions. It is nice when we\u2019re here, it\u2019s super cool, but I love being back home. So I am relived because the boys feel really, really, good and they did a super job.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>And Vamos has been, how shall we say, quite highly strung over the years?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Yeah. Really, really crazy hot and afraid of the other horses. But the last half a year I\u2019ve brought him to quite some shows and he\u2019s really grown from that I think. He felt amazing yesterday and he was so cool. Even when I finished my test, I could just drop the reins and he just took it in like a pro, no tip toeing or anything.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Is that just from taking him out a lot?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s also like trust training back at home and doing plenty of other things with them, and just being around them 24\/7 and they trust me 100%. That\u2019s the important thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>What are some of the other things you do?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I hack them out, I take them to spa training, water treadmills, I work them from the ground, walk them across plastic and poles. All sort of different things. I play with them. I see every day how they are. They\u2019re not just a number.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>How many horses do you have at home now?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We have 22. Rasmine has three jumpers, and we have horses of the girls from the yard. There are approximately 17 dressage horses and I have one rider. Her name is Janni<\/span>\u00a0Dietz\u00a0<\/span>and she\u2019s been with me around three years now. She\u2019s an amazing rider really. She\u2019s fantastic with the basics. She trained with Rune Willum my old trainer for years so we are sort of from the same system so we make a great team.<\/p>\n

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Cassidy and Cathrine at Aachen in 2017\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Cassidy up to now?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>He\u2019s teaching Janni some tricks. He\u2019s in top shape. Every time we\u2019re loading the horses he\u2019s screaming and trotting around. It\u2019s horrible leaving him back home because he\u2019s so eager to join. It\u2019s a pity for him because I\u2019m not going to bring him to any big shows anymore, but I think that Janni could have a start. She did the Inter 2 the other day and Cassy was so fired up to do the test. He was so happy and seemed so relieved, \u2018Finally, I can go up the centreline!\u2019 He\u2019s so sound and if you put him on the lunge he looks amazing, so fresh and so happy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>The Worlds are just around the corner. Which horse will you take? Bohemian or Vamos?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>No not yet. Yesterday didn\u2019t make it any easier!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I know I haven\u2019t seen you ride in the flesh for a couple of years, but I feel like you\u2019re riding, not differently, but I don\u2019t know, more zen like or something.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Definitely. Yeah but I\u2019m learning something every time Nathalie and Kyra come to the yard. Of course, with Cassidy, he was my first Grand Prix horse so I actually haven\u2019t done that many Grand Prix tests. I\u2019ve been in the senior sport for some years, but only with one horse competing maybe four competitions a year. Now I\u2019m way more settled in and I\u2019m sort of proving myself, by creating the third Grand Prix horse, so it gives me great confidence that I can really ride a nice Grand Prix test. That\u2019s how it feels. It\u2019s nice because it just feels super chilled now. In the warm up, I don\u2019t have to press myself, or the horses, above any limit. We can just chill and do what we do back home. We\u2019re not changing anything. We just play around.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>That takes discipline too though. You still see riders under pressure and working harder. I don\u2019t know if you don\u2019t feel it or you\u2019ve trained yourself out of that pressure?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I have a really good mental trainer Rasmus Bagger. I can\u2019t remember what it was like without him because he\u2019s trained me since I was 12 years old. I believe that training your brain is just as important as training the tricks, because all the riders here are super skilled, super nice and can do a super Grand Prix. But as you say, under pressure things do change. So it\u2019s important that you can change as little as possible from what you do back home. I think that is the whole mental perspective of riding Grand Prix at this level.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s more an observation than a question, with the very good riders, especially you, you just don\u2019t interfere when you ride. I feel a lot of riders don\u2019t listen enough to the horse, they just keep telling the horse, but you listen to the horse more than you tell it what to do.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/span>I think that\u2019s been my identity for years. It\u2019s refining all the time, but that\u2019s also they way Nathalie and Kyra do it. That\u2019s also how I can keep the horse really electric and still relaxed when I drop the rein. Ok, so maybe at home more you ask them, but still as little as possible because they know if I say go right, they go right, go right, go right and I can just relax and then say ok now left. Or they say, this is tough and you can say ok, do a bit less. It\u2019s a cooperation. The two Grand Prix I did here, it almost felt telepathic with the horses. I could just think, and they were there. It was really, really cool because it\u2019s not often that that happens. I\u2019ve had it a lot with Cassidy because I\u2019ve ridden him forever, but now it starts with these two boys as well. I can just think, and they can just feel my body from me doing almost nothing. If you see my spurs on Vamos, they are really like the smallest spurs you can find. It\u2019s really just from body language.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What are they like personality wise?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>They are really different. Bohemian, the best thing is if he gets the idea himself. Vamos is more like what? I tell him go right, he\u2019s like ok, I go right. He\u2019s more like Cassidy. He can be fired up by the atmosphere but not really spooky. Bohemian is more spooky but he doesn\u2019t care about the atmosphere. Vamos is really talkative in the stall and Bohemian just wants to be left alone. He\u2019s really friendly when you take him out, but the stall is definitely his space. So they are super different. I think Vamos is Bohemian\u2019s biggest fan. He\u2019s like, \u2018Oh wow! Did you win today?!\u2019 And Bobi is like, \u2018Yes I did, and you can never do that.\u2019 He\u2019s so arrogant!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Do you have a ritual before you go out?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

THAT’s Gerd D\u00f6rich!<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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No I don\u2019t have, well I have to bring my lucky pet Gerd D\u00f6rich every time, but really it\u2019s the normal routine. We don\u2019t change anything. I want the atmosphere to be as easy and relaxed as possible and that\u2019s the most important thing for me. I don\u2019t need any more tension. I don\u2019t need to get myself in gear. I am in gear. The boys are ready. It\u2019s just to confirm what I know I can do. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>How do you stop yourself from over doing things?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It was like with Bohemian the other day. Some of my team was like you could do a little bit more, you could go a little bit harder. But I\u2019m like yeah but why? We won by four, five percent. Riders want to peak all the time but that\u2019s impossible. Impossible for the riders, for the horses to peak maybe just three times a year. I think if you have just one or two perfect rides a year, you\u2019re bloody skilled. I\u2019m trying to tell myself they don\u2019t need to peak here. This is just a stepping stone to the Worlds and if we can just come out among the top, then that\u2019s enough for now.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To be fair I could have done even less and still have done a good job. I didn\u2019t even push them. They were two very easy, nice Grand Prixs, just feeling what they will offer me, not me saying you have to. It was more like those two tests were what they offered me, and me saying thanks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Your whole management\u2026.of yourself and your horses; the physical, the mental. The whole package and attention to detail, you don\u2019t miss a thing.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>That is everything. It\u2019s really important, because all the riders can do a bloody good Grand Prix and all the riders are super skilled. But little things like having the boys\u2019 physio Gitte S\u00f8by here. She\u2019s been on my team for 10 years now and is amazing. She knows them so well, from the home work, from this is how their bodies change when they go to competition because then they get a little bit more tense, so working with my home vet, my two trainers, my groom. That\u2019s really just an almost perfect team, because we all do know the horses from each angle, and from that we can put together the best training plan, the best competition plan. So yes management is everything, for sure it is.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You seem to try different things, like we talked about yesterday, keep it if it works and discard it if it doesn\u2019t. But you\u2019re always trying and trialing and comparing and changing and evolving. Where do you get your inspiration for that?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Kyra and Nathalie. They are the most curious trainers I\u2019ve ever been with. Even Kyra, sorry Kyra, but she\u2019s not that young anymore, but she\u2019s so bloody curious. Every time she comes to my yard she has a new little strap or a new idea. We talk almost every day and she\u2019ll say I tried this funny thing, \u2018Can you test it on one back home?\u2019 They are so skilled, from Nathalie\u2019s experience in the sport, that\u2019s just really inspiring and it keeps me motivated and they keep me busy all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Like the first day we were here, we were supposed to just trot and do nothing, but then we went\u00a0 totally nerdy with something in the walk. Just a tiny little thing. Then we walked for about half an hour and it wasn\u2019t asking really anything for the horse, just practicing the walk, being really nerdy. That\u2019s what I just love about them. They\u2019re never, \u2018oh we have to practice anything\u2019. Today we\u2019re just walking the boys. Vamos may not even have a saddle on today. They know the tricks now so it\u2019s just to keep them happy.<\/p>\n

story continues after advertisement<\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Do you read much for your inspiration?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Not for technical reasons, but I do read a lot of books for ideas: from different business people around the world, different sports people, to get into their minds and see how they kept themselves motivated and moving towards new goals, after they achieved their goals. So it\u2019s more about mental perspective, but never really when it comes to technique training. I leave that to Nathalie and Kyra.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>We kind of know what a day is for you because of Instagram, but how is your day balanced?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Normally I get up at 06:00 and then in the stable from 06:30. I do a little paper work in the morning. You know, having your own business takes a bit of paper work as well. I\u2019m not really that good at that, so that takes me some time every single day to have everything in order. Then I start riding from about 07:00\/07:30 until lunch then take a little break before riding two or three more. So I finish riding around 15:00 then I start teaching and have a lot of lessons, with Annabella Pidgley from England and I have students at home so I would finish around 19:00. Then we go to the gym, work one to two hours, then go home, eat, sleep, repeat.<\/p>\n

What do you do for your fitness? Mainly cardio?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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No it\u2019s both. Cardio and strength training and then coming up to a competition it\u2019s more cardio so I don\u2019t get an injury from heavy lifting. It\u2019s a good mix.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>What did you do to prepare for Tokyo?<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We did heat training so I worked out in the gym with a hell of a lot of clothes on. It was fun to see the mechanism. They told us that it was going to take around seven to ten days before your body starts to get used to it. It was really true. At the beginning I was sweating like hell, soaking wet, then seven, eight days in, I wasn\u2019t really sweating at all, even with all the clothes on. It was funny to see that and made me understand how the horses might feel, and how they might adjust to it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I think that\u2019s important as well with the fitness work, so you know how the hard physical work feels for the horse.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>Super important. It gave me a different perspective. You can tell riders to remember to give your horse a break and they\u2019re like yeah yeah. But once you start working out really, really hard yourself, you know no matter how hard your trainer whips and pushes you to do one more lift, if your muscles can\u2019t lift one more, then you just can\u2019t. Not even if someone threatens to kill you. You\u2019re done. But then have a 30sec, one minute break, you can go again. I mean I knew that before, but working out really drove it home and really it made sense.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span>How do you stay motivated, getting out of bed on those cold, dark winter mornings\u2026<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I\u2019ve actually been talking to my mental trainer about this because of course there are ups-and-downs with the horses. But I think it\u2019s the passion that makes you motivated, because I\u2019m not driven by my results. I\u2019m driven by my everyday. I love my life and I love my training. With competitions, it\u2019s something that can take my motivation away actually because I think it\u2019s bloody tough being away form home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That for me can be a bit of, hey, now you sign up, now you go for this competition. Of course sometimes it can be tough but I just love my job. It\u2019s the paper work that can be a little bit tricky to motivate myself do! I have Rasmine back home and we\u2019re in this together and we help each other if we have a tough period. And also Nathalie and Kyra and Rasmus. We have a few days off and renew our battery, and we\u2019re back with more energy. Other than that I just really love to do what I do.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I know you have to be really serious and really focused with what you do, but you also have fun with it. You\u2019re light. You don\u2019t strangle it.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I was more strict like that before but I realised I was just killing myself. When I was younger I was thinking how the hell has Isabell (Werth) done this her whole life? That\u2019s impossible. But now I know it\u2019s probably because she loves competing, she\u2019s playing along with it. Of course it\u2019s strict and you have to train a lot, but it\u2019s also about taking a chill pill and go-with-the-flow somehow, and knowing things happen for a reason. Of course you have to be super serious, super strict and super disciplined, but that\u2019s like in my DNA. That part is a bit easier for me. I actually had to learn to relax and know if I go a day without training, it\u2019s not going to kill a whole year of training. But I thought that when I was younger. So, yes, just going with your feeling.<\/p>\n

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

Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour swept all before her at Aachen, claiming the title, best dressage rider in the world! Rebecca Ashton caught up with Cathrine for this exclusive interview….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63823,"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":[596,2356,1243,535],"class_list":["post-63812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-dressage","tag-aachen","tag-cathrine-laudrup-dufour","tag-dressage","tag-rebecca-ashton"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63812","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=63812"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65014,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63812\/revisions\/65014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}