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Growing up in New Zealand, Sarah Honeywell had Nicole Uphoff and Rembrandt plastered over her schoolbooks. She marvelled at the skill of Isabell Werth, Klaus Balkenhol and Dr Reiner Klimke at the Olympic Games, Sarah\u2019s dream was to ride in Europe.<\/h3>\n
Her start in riding was like any other. A mischievous pony and a firm instructor saw Sarah winning on the show circuit from the age of three and she caught the bug. From then on it was all about horses: \u201cWhen I turned 13 I was saying I wanted to make it a career. But my parents were like, \u2018You can\u2019t ride horses for a living!\u2019 So I said, \u2018I want to be a jockey then, because you can ride a horse and it\u2019s a job.\u2019 And my parents said, \u2018Absolutely not!\u2019 As I got older I was itching to go overseas, but my parents wanted me to have a back-up plan, so I did business studies.\u201d<\/p>\n
While studying in Christchurch, she took up eventing. Funnily enough, it led Sarah to her first FEI Dressage horse: \u201cI was given an eventing horse to ride by Hilary Holstein, who was a very good dressage rider. Hilary had been asking me if I wanted to ride her old dressage horse for a while, but he had a mane this long (she holds her hands two feet apart) and he was hairy, with long feet. He looked like a wild Friesian basically. Hilary had asked a bunch of people if they wanted to ride him but they took one look at him standing in the paddock and were like, \u2018Eh, no thanks.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When Hilary\u2019s \u2018retired\u2019 dressage horse broke out of the paddock and trotted into the arena, Sarah had a change of heart: \u201cHe came trotting out like this, in the air, and I was like, \u2018Oh wow.\u2019 After that I wanted to ride him, so Hilary put some shoes on him and I never looked back. He was about Elementary level and I took him up to competing Prix St George, but training Inter II.\u201d<\/p>\n
Together Sarah and Vangelis went on to win New Zealand\u2019s National Young Rider Championships in 2000 and were named on the various talent squads. This led to clinics with Clemens Dierks, giving Sarah a push in the right direction: \u201cI didn\u2019t realise you could make a career out of dressage, because there weren\u2019t many people in New Zealand who were. Then Clemens said, \u2018I\u2019ll send you overseas\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Oh really!\u2019\u201d\u00a0A plan was hatched that night: \u201cClemens made a phone call to Belgium and they said, \u2018Send her over.\u2019 I left a week later. I had my twenty-first birthday and going away party the weekend after the clinic and left two days later, my parents didn\u2019t have a say, they finally gave up trying to stop me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stable of Stefan Van Ingelgem was Sarah\u2019s first stop: \u201cI learnt a lot about breaking horses in there, and that there\u2019s a planned progression into them becoming a riding horse. If you take the right steps, it\u2019s really not a drama breaking them in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah was well suited to the task: \u201cWhen we first broke them in Stefan would be on the ground and I would be on them, and I had 100% faith in him. Stefan put me on the breakers because fear wasn\u2019t a factor, I sat quiet and I didn\u2019t scare the horse. A lot of people will do too much, they grab at the reins and cling with their legs. But I wasn\u2019t scared because I\u2019d ridden so many mad Thoroughbreds in eventing.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n Many riders struggle to adjust to the workload of a European barn, but Sarah was pursuing her dream and would do anything to prove herself: \u201cEven when I was in New Zealand I would go and live at my instructor\u2019s house during the holidays because I was keen as mustard, I was mad, anything I could do to ride I would do and I idolised anyone who was in dressage. When I got to Stefan\u2019s, sure, it was really hard work, but I thought it was the best thing in the world to be in Europe riding dressage horses.\u201d<\/p>\n It was at Stefan\u2019s barn that Sarah bought her first dressage horse: \u201cAfter I\u2019d been in Belgium for a year I bought a four-year-old with a friend of mine from New Zealand, Ben Alexander. We doubled our money on it two weeks later. Then we bought a three-year-old by Rubinstein called Ruben James.\u201d<\/p>\n When Ruben James suffered from a hernia it gave them a rocky start: \u201cHe had a big colic operation and spent a lot of time recovering so he ended up being a year behind the horses in his age group. I would\u2019ve had to really push him to do the young horse classes, but I was at a competition when he got the hernia, which is created from stress, so I was always a bit worried about competing him.\u201d<\/p>\n They became travel companions instead: \u201cHe travelled with me everywhere through Europe from then on and it was time to take another step. I decided to make a move, Stefan was the main rider, and because there was only ever him and his wife, Carmen (De Bondt), they were always busy teaching clients. So I went to PSI to see the Kasselmanns\u2019 and moved to Germany.\u201d\u00a0The prestigious sales barn was the perfect place for Sarah: \u201cI loved it there. I really like the German style of riding and I liked the family atmosphere there. It was more fun because there was a big group of us. When I was there we had 180 horses in work and I think they have even more than that now.\u201d<\/p>\n Lots of horses meant lots of learning experiences: \u201cYou\u2019re exposed to so much and they really teach you how to bring the best out of a horse. Whether it\u2019s a Stallion show or you\u2019re riding the horse for clients, you\u2019re really taught how to present them and train them to be something special.\u201d<\/p>\n Surprisingly Sarah was given more lessons riding for the auction barn: \u201cIt was really good because they don\u2019t have many clients coming for lessons, they don\u2019t teach a lot of people apart from their staff, so they had more time for us. Training us is a way of investing in their horses, the better we do, the better their horses do. They can\u2019t ride 180 horses so they have to make sure we\u2019re doing a good job.\u201d<\/p>\n It was also a chance for Sarah to prove herself: \u201cIf you can do well with the horses that aren\u2019t the super stars then you get better horses and everybody wants to have the best list of horses.\u201d<\/p>\n This appealed to Sarah\u2019s competitive nature and after making progress with the challenging ones she was given an opportunity: \u201cI actually got what we call the \u2018best seat in the house.\u2019 Bianca Kasselmann had the best horses in the stable, amazing horses, and I got to warm them up for her and sometimes work them as well. A particularly memorable one was the stallion Lord Sinclair, but I rode her Grand Prix competition horses too.\u201d<\/p>\n After four years at PSI, Sarah was ready for a change: \u201cI was at the stage where if you stay there you\u2019ll be there for the next twenty years, like you\u2019d never leave, and I was starting to want to have a bit more of a lifestyle.\u201d\u00a0When Sarah moved to England she became frustrated with the change of pace: \u201cI went there for a couple of months and I couldn\u2019t handle it, I didn\u2019t like it at all. I was used to the German way, where everything is so precise and planned, and it made me a real perfectionist. In England they wanted to ride one horse and then have a cup of tea. I actually got home sick for the Kasselmanns\u2019 so I went back to PSI for a few months.\u201d<\/p>\n Through a connection made at PSI, Sarah took a job riding at Florida\u2019s Winter Show in the United States that runs for three months. Then it was time for another change of scenery, and Sarah was introduced to a different style of riding in Holland: \u201cAt the Kasselmanns\u2019 they\u2019d always say, \u2018Legs on, legs on, sit deep and put your legs on, ride with your legs.\u2019 When I went to Holland they said, \u2018Take your leg off.\u2019 I went, \u2018Is this a joke?\u2019 Their system was so different and I just couldn\u2019t get my head around it. The way I\u2019d been riding had been working for me so I needed to find a trainer who suited me.\u201d<\/p>\n This led Sarah to the stables of Anne van Olst, who was part of the Bronze medal winning Danish team in Beijing, and has coached the likes of Hans Peter Minderhoud and Carl Hester: \u201cShe\u2019s a very precise trainer, she\u2019s where I learnt more about developing the horse into a Grand Prix mount from a very early age. Not pressurising it to do movements but taking the simple steps that build up to them being an FEI horse, rather than the horse turning eight and the rider going, \u2018Oh now we have to piaffe.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n I watched Sarah ride three horses, two five-year-olds that had started the half steps, and a six-year-old that hadn\u2019t. The strength of the horse dictates the work, not their age: \u201cYou feel when they\u2019re strong enough. When they have a good connection to the bit, and they can push from behind while staying straight and steady to the contact, I play around with the half steps. By no means can they hold it but they start to get their head around the rhythm, and they\u2019re thinking about sitting on their hind legs. They start to build strength from that and learn how to use their body better. Then they show themselves better in their working and collected trot.\u201d<\/p>\n This work brings the horse into an uphill frame: \u201cWhen they\u2019re strong enough behind and straight to the contact, they come up themselves. When they\u2019re not pushing from behind they dive on the forehand. I find if they\u2019re off the leg and engaged they\u2019ll come up in the contact when they\u2019re strong enough.\u201d<\/p>\n For Sarah, feeling the horse do exactly that is what it\u2019s all about: \u201cI\u2019m a perfectionist and I like competing, I did from a young age, but what I really love is the feeling underneath you when the horses lift and they trot with expression. I just think it\u2019s amazing what you can teach a young horse. Like Alexis Rose (Aachimedes \/ Falkland II), who was running around like a scared rabbit when I first got on her, and now she\u2019s like I know what to do. <\/em>I love that feeling when you connect with them, and you\u2019re on the same wavelength, and they just want to perform for you, that I love.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sarah works on building strength before teaching tricks, which is why the six-year-old stallion Glencairn Waterdragon (Wolkenstein II \/ Daktylus) is doing trot poles and cavallettis: \u201cHe\u2019s only been back in work for a couple of weeks. If I push him now then I create an issue already, because he\u2019s not strong enough to do it. He physically can\u2019t do it, so if I force him to then he\u2019s only going to get negative about it and that\u2019s the last thing I want. I\u2019d rather play around with him, do some poles, have him forward off the leg, and develop his balance. He\u2019s got plenty of talent so he can catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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