{"id":8957,"date":"2012-09-11T16:35:48","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T06:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=8957"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:31:31","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:31:31","slug":"sam-griffiths-lead-up-to-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2012\/09\/sam-griffiths-lead-up-to-london\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Griffith’s Lead Up To London"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Words by\u00a0Alexandra Bruggisser & Photos by\u00a0Kit Houghton<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s no surprise that the person Sam Griffiths would most like to meet is Don Bradman, or that his most admired sportsperson is Steve Waugh because Sam was actually touring the world on cricket teams before he turned his hand to eventing! These days, the dream of winning the Ashes has been replaced with the aim to win Badminton.<\/p>\n

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

Sam was last seen on the world stage back in 2010 at the WEG in Kentucky where he was eliminated during the cross country after a fall. Having been in England virtually ever since (or at least out of CH\u2019s gaze) he\u2019s been a bit out of sight and out of mind. From the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, Sam started out in the Pony Club ranks. After finishing uni he went backpacking around Europe for a while until he ran out of money… We\u2019ve all heard fellow eventer, Gill Rolton\u2019s stories of polishing off half-finished meals from cafes after she was robbed in Europe (page 49 of Free Rein if you\u2019re curious)<\/em>. Sam didn\u2019t go to quite such nauseating lengths and opted for a job with Kiwi eventer, Blyth Tait. Once on the eventing scene in England, Sam linked up with Matt Ryan about fifteen years ago and started catching rides under Matt\u2019s watchful eye. With plenty of reasons to stay in England (including his lovely Pommy wife Lucy), Sam set up his own yard with fifteen eventers on the Dorset-Somerset border in April 2009.<\/p>\n

I was goaded into finding out just what went down in Kentucky and managed to catch him during a few autograph-signing-free minutes on the Horse Quest stand at Equitana.<\/p>\n

Talk us through Kentucky\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWell sometimes you get to events and it goes your way, and other times, it doesn\u2019t. It was a big learning curve. In hindsight I came in a bit under-prepared and under-run. Usually I would run my horses more prior to the event, but I had wrapped him up a bit too\u00a0 much for that competition and had a round that just didn\u2019t quite happen for me out there. He\u2019s generally very reliable but it just didn\u2019t happen on that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

It was your first time on a big team too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve been on what I would call a proper team, meaning a team for the Olympics or World Championships. So it was the first time I had experienced that sort of pressure. It wasn\u2019t really the best experience, but I think I\u2019ll come back better for it. And Australia already has a record for going badly at the World Championships and then going really well at the Olympics. So fingers crossed, we\u2019re going to keep that tradition going!\u201d<\/p>\n

After Kentucky, how did you regroup for your next competition?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever you have a bad performance you\u2019ve got to look at it and work out where you went wrong \u2013 so I had some soul searching to do! Then you just have to knuckle down and bounce back from it. So I tried to work out where I\u2019d gone wrong and what I would do next time. I think I was too conservative and should have run him harder. It was tricky though because at the time we, as Australians, were short of horses so I\u2019d been encouraged not to over do it. I\u2019ve just tried to focus on doing as well as I could from there on and have put Kentucky behind me. That\u2019s the way it is with horses \u2013 so many ups and downs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you got any <\/strong>strategies for helping yourself bounce back?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well I\u2019ve been in the sport for quite a while now and I think sometimes you realise that you need luck, which didn\u2019t really happen for me at WEG. So I just knuckle down and work harder to get the results. Sonja Johnson gave me some useful advice, Sam, you\u2019ve just got to concentrate on what you\u2019re doing and try and pay Australia back and go well at your next Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

And how has your season been since then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI was really pleased that at the first big show after Kentucky I ended up coming fourth. That was Badminton. So to bounce back from the disappointment at Kentucky to prove that the horse and I could still perform at a high level was really pleasing. I then went on and did Aachen and then did Burghley, where again, we did very well. I was first to go so that makes things tough and you won\u2019t win it from first, but he put in a really solid performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

I saw you in Aachen, in 2011, were you on the team there too?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I think we had a solid team performance at Aachen. It was the first time under new management, with Prue Barrett. I came away from that feeling really positive and thinking the team was going in a good direction. I think we\u2019re only going to get better!\u201d<\/p>\n

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

You mention team management, what\u2019s it like being based in the UK?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe still feel very supported. It\u2019s unavoidable that the distance makes\u00a0 things tricky but Prue is implementing some things to keep an eye on us and I think that side of things is working well. As a group, all of the Australian riders tend to stick together over there. So we do feel like we\u2019ve got Aussie support. The EA give us good funding and stay in constant contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who do you get help from in the various phases?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we\u2019ve had a few different coaches in recent times. Seeing that I\u2019m here at Equitana now, I\u2019m hoping to run into Brett Parbery and convince him to come into the UK a bit more! Where he bases himself in Holland is so close to the UK. I\u2019ve also done training with British rider, Carl Hester, the current European Dressage Champion, who\u2019s fantastic. This year I\u2019m planning on heading over to Germany to go to Gilbert B\u00f6ckmann\u2019s place for some showjump training. Again, through EA funding, we\u2019re able to take a group of horses from the UK to go and do some training and some shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the mention of Carl, I\u2019ve gone all green eyed!! It\u2019s lucky I\u2019m sitting down because Uthopia makes me weak at the knees\u2026 It\u2019s sad to think that after London this special partnership is likely to split.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nice choice of coaches!! Wow! \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, they\u2019re World Class aren\u2019t they!\u201d<\/p>\n

How were the lessons with Carl?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGreat. I\u2019ve been lucky enough to train with some great trainers and I think the common thread is that they keep things really simple. Carl keeps things really straightforward, but pays attention to detail and has a great knack of explaining things. He\u2019s a pleasure to work with and really good fun! I could always have a laugh with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

You say attention to detail, what sorts of things does he pick up on?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThings like your halts. Sometimes you think it\u2019s pretty good but he wants them to be perfect. Just little things like that. The other great thing about Carl is that he\u2019s an out-and-out horseman; he trains very much with the horse being first and at the forefront. The only trouble with Carl is that he gets booked up and doesn\u2019t often train us eventers. I got in through the back door,<\/p>\n

one of the ladies who owns my good horse, Happy Times, is great friends with one of Carl\u2019s owners, so my connections helped me out. I would like to try and do some more with him, but because Carl is so difficult to get a hold of, I\u2019ve done a bit with Charlotte Dujardin [Carl\u2019s star pupil, rider of Valegro and fellow gold medal team member at the Europeans]. She comes and trains us, and she\u2019s quite tough! Oh yeah!! She whips us into line! She makes you very disciplined as a rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2011 season has drawn to a close, you were saying you\u2019re pretty happy with how the year progressed\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Happy Times is back! I\u2019ve got another lovely eight-year-old mare who did her first three star out at Boekelo in Holland and I think she\u2019s a super horse. I just need to get her a little bit better on the flat but she\u2019s a great jumper and one for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tell us a bit about the atmosphere in England at the moment leading up to the Games\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s real enthusiasm! Like out here when we had the Sydney Olympics, there\u2019s a real buzz. The British riders are feeling pretty confident on home soil and they will be hard to beat, but hopefully we\u2019ll give them a run for their money\u2026 I\u2019m sure we will actually!\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you seen Greenwich Park?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes I rode in the test event there. It\u2019s surreal because you\u2019re right in the middle of the city. You walk out of the stables and there are pubs and shops and restaurants. You really feel like you\u2019re right in the city. I think it will be an iconic event. There will be photos of people jumping with the London skyline in the background. That will be pretty cool!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words by\u00a0Alexandra Bruggisser & Photos by\u00a0Kit Houghton It\u2019s no surprise that the person Sam Griffiths would most like to meet is Don Bradman, or that his most admired sportsperson is Steve Waugh because Sam was actually touring the world on cricket teams before he turned his hand to eventing! These days, the dream of winning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8958,"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":[1244,554],"class_list":["post-8957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-eventing","tag-sam-griffiths"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8957","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=8957"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20760,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8957\/revisions\/20760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}