WHEN KEVIN MET BOYD – LOOK WHO’S LAUGHING!

Share this:

Whilst Australians in Australia are struggling to get out of the Covid-19 lockdown phenomena, the Australians based overseas are away and running.

Kevin McNab and Don Quidam on their way to team silver at Tokyo 2020. © Hippo Foto - Dirk Caremans.

Click here to find out more about 4Cyte’s range.

Kevin McNab was so Australian that it was impossible to imagine that he would break away and pursue his eventing passion in the northern hemisphere based in England! Today Kevin is an Australian Olympic team silver medallist from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. That is amazing and what’s more he is on fire and going from strength to strength.

Back in 1996, I do remember Kevin, the 18-year-old Queenslander who came to the NSW equestrian centre where Rozzie, my wife, and I were conducting a 24-week live-in instructor’s course. At the end of the course all the students sat the Level 1 National Coaching Accreditation exams. Usually, there would be eight to 20 students per intake. They were always a handful! It was very, very hard work!

The 1996 student intake was memorable. Kevin very quickly became best friends with one of the other students who was skinny and tall and also memorable. His name was Boyd Martin, who today is better known for being on the American Olympic eventing team. Boyd just last month won the Maryland Five-Star Three-Day-Event at Fair Hill in the USA. Boyd has been outstandingly successful while Kevin has slogged it out in England for the past nine years and, although maturing into a top rider, he has not become the glamorous character winning lots of events that Boyd has turned into.

PROOF IN THE PUDDING

This friendship between Boyd and Kevin has stretched across the world for some 25 years and Kevin always points out that Boyd was always the lesser rider out of the two. This conversation always has Boyd falling about in laughter and Kevin, although clearly frustrated, also falling about laughing. Well, hello, hello! Boyd has gone very close to Olympic medals and has won so many major events, however, an Olympic medal is an Olympic medal and I am sorry, but an Olympic medal pretty much trumps other major events!

So at long last, Kevin McNab has realised his potential that he showed some 25 years ago in being part of the Australia’s silver medal winning team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Well done, Kevin. The Olympic silver medal must also support his longstanding claim that he is the better rider of the two boys.

Kevin McNab and Cute Girl took out the 7YO division at the FEI WBFSH Eventing World Breeding Championships for Young Horses in October. © FEI/Libby Law.

“At long last, Kevin McNab
has realised his potential.”

Success breeds success. Kevin had no sooner returned home from the Tokyo Olympics when he was off again to the FEI WBFSH Eventing World Breeding Championship for Young Horses in Mondial du Lion, which is in Le Lion d’Angers, France, and was held on 21-24 October. Well, guess what! The Queensland boy from the bush entered a horse called Cute Girl in the 7-year-old class and he won again.

Just for the record, Cute Girl is by Coventry who is by Connor who is by Casall, who is probably the best show jumping sire in the world today. Casall is also the sire of Shane Rose’s young mare, Easy Turn. Easy Turn was right up to the last minute one of the favourites to make the Australian team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

So Cute Girl is fabulously bred on the top side. She also carries the Contender blood which is a blue-chip jumping line in Germany and who is also the sire of Contendro 1. Contendro 1 has for the last few years been the number one sire of eventing horses in the world. On the dam side, Cute Girl is out of a Clearway mare. Clearway has nearly 30 offspring competing in 1.60 metre show jumping classes around the world; 1.60 metres is Olympic level show jumping.

Boyd Martin and On Cue won the Maryland CCI5* in October. © Shannon Brinkman.

“What will Boyd come up with?”

Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend on their way to fourth place at Pau CCI5*. © Solène Bailly Photos.

BET YOUR BOTTOM DOLLAR

So Cute Girl is so, so well bred, is clearly winning the young horse classes against the best in the world and has a rider in Kevin McNab who you can bet your bottom dollar is completely focused on a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

So, for 25 years, Boyd Martin has had the upper hand against Kevin since those long ago days when Rozzie and I nearly died making them practise coaching, being aware of safety, speaking appropriately, using conventional riding commands, learning FEI definitions and taking seriously the fact that they were expected to pass their National Coaching Accreditation exams. I can promise you Boyd will now be on full alert and Paris 2024 will be wonderful viewing for those of us aware of the history.

As I have pointed out in recent Equestrian Life articles, the top event horses at the Paris 2024 Olympics are more and more going to be purpose-bred and certainly Kevin McNab seems to have exactly that in Cute Girl. What will Boyd come up with?

Just before we went to press was the Pau CCI5* in France over the 27-31 October weekend. So no prizes for guessing where Kevin McNab was that weekend. At this Pau event, Kevin rode a horse called Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend. Wow! How could you name a horse that? Scuderia 1918 is an Italian clothing and shoe manufacturer where the shoes are handmade and can cost up to €290, which is approximately A$450. Great riding apparel but again, so, so expensive! Anyway, the horse Kevin rode at Pau, Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend, is very good; prior to the event, I said that with Kevin in such great form I thought he was well worth backing with a small amount of money. My prediction was that the horse would likely be in the top six after the dressage phase. He was in fifth on 26.2!

The cross country historically has caused some problems, however when Kevin is able to go clear this is a top-of-the-range competitor; at Pau, they were clear and under time. In the show jumping phase, Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend is outstandingly good and has a very good record going clear. At Pau they unfortunately had the last rail down, however out of 35 combinations that jumped on the final day only five went clear – so one rail wasn’t a bad effort. Overall, Kevin and Scuderia 1918 A Best Friend were fourth on 30.2, adding just the four faults to their dressage score. If they’d left that last rail up, it could have instead been a second place behind winners Tim Price and Falco, but nevertheless a top effort.

Hazel Shannon and WillingaPark Clifford. © Michelle Terlato Photography.

KNOCKING ON THE DOOR

Also competing at Pau were Hazel Shannon and WillingaPark Clifford. Hazel travelled with Kevin so she would have got a lot of very experienced and valuable information from him. Despite a competitive dressage score of 31.2, Clifford was unfortunately not his usual self prior to the cross country; in the horse’s best interests and on veterinary advice, Hazel withdrew from the competition.

WillingaPark Clifford was scheduled to come home again post-Pau, but now one of the obvious considerations will be a possible change of plans and for him to stay in England for the northern hemisphere winter. Wouldn’t it be great to see Hazel and Clifford at Badminton early next year!

Without being disrespectful, the Australian Olympic team riders from Tokyo 2020 all had their origins in decades long gone. In other words, they are an ageing team and it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that in the near future we are going to have to introduce a whole bunch of younger Australian riders into our Olympic teams. Hazel at the moment would have to be the face of that new Australian generation.

At CCI5* events such as Pau, the winners are usually all finishing with 26 to 30 penalties as their final score – however at Pau, Tim Price was even more impressive with his winning score of 22.5. For all of us interested in promoting Olympic gold medals for Australia in Paris 2024 or Los Angeles 2028, or perhaps most importantly Brisbane 2032, we do need to know what sort of horses we need to be focusing our best efforts on. An Olympic eventer capable of contributing to an Australian gold medal, has to be able to go better than 70% in the dressage, has to be able to jump clear cross country and gallop under the time, has to be able to show jump a 1.30 metre show jumping round and not touch a rail. Simple! EQ

Cheers,

Heath

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ PREVIOUS EDITIONS OF RYAN’S RAVE:

‘Watch Out For The Brits, Germans & Swedes’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, October, 2021)

‘Breeding for Brisbane: What Tokyo Taught Us’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, September 2021)

‘What Went Right (& What Went Wrong) at Tokyo’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, August 2021)

‘How the Aussies Stack Up for Tokyo’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, July 2021)

‘New Era for Australian Dressage’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, June 2021)

‘Selection Difficulties for Aussie Dressage Riders’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, May 2021)

‘Take #2: Brisbane Olympics 2032 Dressage’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, April 2021)

‘Start Planning for Brisbane 2032 (Eventing)’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, March 2021)

‘Vale Di Schaeffer, Warrior of Australian Eventing’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, February 2021)