{"id":9377,"date":"2012-10-18T14:24:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T03:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/?p=9377"},"modified":"2015-01-22T07:29:15","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T20:29:15","slug":"a-session-with-stuart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/2012\/10\/a-session-with-stuart\/","title":{"rendered":"A Session With Stuart"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I must confess, at times I\u2019ve found it hard to get a lot of words out of Stuart Tinney. He is not a naturally gushy sort of guy. This time I decided to try a new approach, cut straight to the deep and meaningful. And it worked! Stuart let fly with an interview that ranges far and wide and is packed with the sort of insight you might expect from the rider regarded by many as the world\u2019s best when it comes to cross country style\u2026<\/p>\n

Is cross-country riding ability something you are born with, or something you are born with to a certain extent and can improve on \u2013 or is it something you can learn?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Whew\u2026 Feel for horse riding is something you have or you don\u2019t have. Whether that is specific to cross country riding I don\u2019t know. I think it is probably for everything, and that comes to understanding horses, whether they need encouragement or a little bit of discipline. I think that is hard to learn, to get a feel for what they are thinking at the time, you\u2019ve got to be in synch with them. I suppose that is something that you have or you don\u2019t have. It shows up more in cross country riding, you can get away with it more in the other phases.”<\/p>\n

“Just going cross country can feel lovely, when everything is going to plan and the horse is listening to you and the round is nice. Other times it feels like you are getting around as best you can. I don\u2019t watch a lot of cross country but when I do it is very obvious the ones that are going with the whole thing \u2013 even correcting errors, because you can correct as you go around. If they drift over one fence, correct it. I think that\u2019s a big thing actually: going round the course doing each little correction that needs to be done to keep the horse learning and doing the right job \u2013 then when you get to the tough fences, it works okay. Sometimes that can be encouraging them because they might be struggling; the fence might be daunting, a bit big. You have to keep them confident \u2013 don\u2019t bustle them too much or do anything too quick or wild, because that just worries them more. You\u2019ve got to know that, feel that, so you can feel when they are a little worried, as opposed to them saying \u2013 I can\u2019t be bothered. You need to know the difference to know what you are going to do about it \u2013 that\u2019s not something you learn, I don\u2019t think\u2026 Well it is learnt through riding lots of horses and knowing horses, riding horses with this problem and that problem, and the more you can do that, the more you learn. The horses teach you and it is hard for someone to teach you that feel\u2026”<\/p>\n

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

Is effective cross-country riding also a function of the rider not being affected by the big adrenaline buzz? We know that horses can get too excited to concentrate on the job, but does the same thing happen to riders?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The big thing about riding horses, is that you are the trainer. If I am a 400 metre runner, then I have a trainer who manages me, tells me that I went out too early, or whatever \u2013 I think running 400 metres is a little complicated. You can probably do that yourself, but it is easier if you have got someone helping you. If your trainer is a bit wild, and can\u2019t concentrate and gets distracted every time you go to a competition, that can\u2019t be great. It is the same for the horse; you are the horse\u2019s trainer and even on the course, the more logical you are, the more focussed you are, the easier it is for the horse. It is easy for the rider to get a bit stressed.”<\/p>\n

Are you are very confident rider, or do you sometimes find yourself scared before going on a big track?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“More the nervousness of being at a competition, but you can get just as nervous before the dressage, it doesn\u2019t have to be the cross country. Anything can be bad. Being over-happy is bad because then you are not judging the situation correctly, being nervous you don\u2019t judge the situation correctly, being scared\u2026 The more your brain is like it is normally, the easier it is to focus. It depends on what you are sitting on \u2013 that can make you stressed.”<\/p>\n

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

Have you ever been scared?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Yeah, heaps of times. It is usually at a lower level, usually pre-nov, because I am on a green horse that doesn\u2019t know much about this eventing stuff, and I am coming down to a big tall vertical, thinking, \u2018I hope you can jump this\u2026\u2019 But when I am actually on the course I am not scared very often.”<\/p>\n

“Very rarely am I scared on cross country at all. I do remember at the Adelaide cantering down to that ditch. I wasn\u2019t early in the draw so I knew a bit of what was going on there. Thinking\u2026well can\u2019t wait to get there! But what it made me do was do everything BETTER. It was a downhill approach and I knew you had to ride ditches like I ride them \u2013 except more, I AM GOING TO GET RE-BALANCED going down that hill, and I am GOING TO GET MY STRIDE\u2026 I was going to do all that anyway but I just made it more so, and if that wasted five seconds, which I don\u2019t think it did, that was fine. Tex jumped it fine for me, but then while I wasn\u2019t nervous coming down to that fence, I wasn\u2019t saying, great I can hardly wait to jump this one\u2026 Like any time you want to take this out of the course!”<\/p>\n

But it is important to control those emotions?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Absolutely. Because what a lot of people did was kick down that hill, which was not a good choice. If you happened to get a good spot, which was luck, good on you – and if you happened to get a bad one while you were kicking on, just look away\u2026”<\/p>\n

Do you do any mind games before a big event \u2013 meditation\u2026 visualisation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I go through the course, I visualise it, but I think you\u2019ll find a lot of riders do that. I usually fall asleep by fence six and have to wake up early in the morning to finish it off. I always sleep soundly the night before.”<\/p>\n

Is it the same with horses \u2013 is the ability to handle a four star track something they had the first day they stood and suckled their mother?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Yes, reaction is what is important. If you\u2019ve got a horse that doesn\u2019t react you have problems. You have to be able to say \u2018wait now, now go\u2019. There are some that you say go, and nothing happens and you have to train them to be better. You know that fairly early on because some of them don\u2019t go at all \u2013 some you say, now go and they learn and they are okay \u2013 but there are some that don\u2019t learn, six months down the track they are still not reacting to you and doing what they are told, or they do it after they go “\u2026whaaat?” Too late.”<\/p>\n

The first time you rode Jeepster did you say, wow this horse is going to take me round an Olympic Games course and I am going to end up wearing a gold medal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“No because he is not a great jumper. The more I rode him cross-country, yes, absolutely because he loves it and he is so easy to ride, so focussed and so good. It didn\u2019t take too many cross-country rounds before I realised that wasn\u2019t a problem for him at all. Showjumping was a little harder because he is technically quite faulty, and the dressage I always thought it was there, but after a year or so it was getting a bit boring waiting for it to arrive. Cross country it didn\u2019t take long to realise how good he was.”<\/p>\n

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

But he wasn\u2019t an easy horse to begin with \u2013 too nasty to other horses to race, too nasty to be a showjumper\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

“He\u2019s an exuberant thing. Like you will just be riding him around now and think he\u2019s older now, and he scoots off. When Karen rides him he turns it up a bit for her. She\u2019ll do a canter transition and he\u2019ll shove his head up in the air and nick off\u2026 It is quite often sound related. If someone makes a noise down in the yard, whoosh, he\u2019s off \u2013 then he can go into an Olympic Games arena and not care. So it is an excuse for him to do his thing and it is quite often nicking off with his head and his tail stuck in the air. That\u2019s why he used to do in the early days of his dressage, lots and lots of 8s and then 3s because he did something bizarre.”<\/p>\n

And before you got him he had been taught a bit of Spanish Walk and how to bow?<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I didn\u2019t know that when I bought him. I haven\u2019t found \u2018bow\u2019 but Spanish Walk I found a couple of weeks after I bought him. What is that! It\u2019s sort of a weird thing with only one leg, and then it became full on Spanish Walk\u2026 He gets confused with it. He used to relate it very much to letting go his neck. I\u2019ve found it with another horse, owned by a girl from Terrey Hills, that was also very tight in the neck, we had no idea but when you loosen it up \u2013 there it all is, Spanish Walk \u2013 and he\u2019s got bow as well. They get very confused. Jeepster would do the Spanish Walk while he was trotting while cantering! We would start canter and he would let go of his neck, and do Spanish while he was cantering, which of course you can\u2019t do, and he would fall over, then he\u2019d get worried. A nightmare and it happened every time he let go of his neck, so then he would hold this frame and he would be fine, except you can\u2019t move like that.”<\/p>\n

“To let go of his neck \u2013 it\u2019s really his back, he relates it to this Spanish walk thing. Even when he came into work this most recent time, when I asked for a bit more, out came the Spanish thing. I\u2019d just apologize and try to get it to go away, now I\u2019ve learnt to unblock him and he goes forward most of the time, but it has been a challenge.”
\nStuart like most of Australia\u2019s eventing stars \u2013 even ones who have won gold medals \u2013 finds that it is a financially demanding and difficult sport\u2026
\n“It is hugely important to have sponsors, without support you would be selling even more horses, even the ones you think are the potentially good ones, you would have to sell just to survive. All my sponsors contribute to that, and help keep the horses in Australia. Horseland and Bates have been with me for years and they have been a wonderful support. Coprice with the feed, and now Nature Vet with Pentosan\u2026 they are all wonderful!<\/p>\n

PS. And the best news? That horse in the photos is Jeepster \u2013 back on track and hopefully headed for a place in the Team at Athens.<\/p>\n

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

Feel for horse riding is something you have or you don\u2019t have. Whether that is specific to cross country riding I don\u2019t know. I think it is probably for everything…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9378,"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":[73,906],"class_list":["post-9377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eventing","tag-eventing-training","tag-stuart-tinney"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377","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=9377"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20745,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377\/revisions\/20745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}