With the World Championships just months away and Brisbane 2032 on the horizon, Heath Ryan believes that to preserve Australia’s equestrian success on the international stage it’s essential that we’re developing and managing young talent.

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON

Hello 2022, this year is the year of the FEI World Championships. Unlike the previous FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG) format, the Championships will be staged in two different countries over three different time periods.

On 6-14 August in Herning, Denmark, the Dressage, the Para-Dressage, the Showjumping and the Vaulting are all together. On 15-25 of September in Italy at Pratoni del Vivaro, the Eventing and the Driving will be held. On 22 October in Verona, also in Italy, the Endurance riding will be held.

Australians in the past were used to the luxury of all the FEI disciplines being held in one location over a couple of weeks. This was a brilliant way of planning an overseas trip and watching Australians competing in all of these horse disciplines plus Reining. Reining is no longer part of the FEI, so this year there are seven disciplines only.

Sadly, the disciplines are spread over 11 weeks in two different countries, which does make it quite a long time to be away from home and unlikely that Australian families and supporters can watch all disciplines and support all Australian competitors.

From a competitor’s point of view here in Australia, we are seven months away before the Dressage, Showjumping, Para-Dressage and Vaulting start; we are eight months away from the start of the Eventing and Driving; and we are nine months away from the start of the Endurance.

So, focusing up here on the Olympic disciplines, all the Australian riders in contention are this very moment in programs and training aimed at gaining selection for these teams, and then ultimately competing against the rest of the world and giving it their best shot on these previously mentioned dates.

All our Australian riders are full-on in a High Performance program focused on, firstly, being selected to make the Australian team and then secondly on a successful outcome at these fast-approaching World Championships. All of these High Performance programs are driven by the riders themselves, or parents or coaches.

THE ‘P2P2W’ SURPRISE

On the Equestrian Australia (EA) website, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games review has been posted. The Olympic review refers to a four-year planning strategy called ‘Prepare to Prepare to Win’ (P2P2W); this is a strategy that has been running for four years and the success of P2P2W was highlighted by the delivery of a Tokyo Eventing team silver medal and an Eventing individual bronze medal. I did read this with surprise, as it was the first time I had heard of P2P2W. One of my hopes for 2022 is to ensure that the EA High Performance panel produces this P2P2W program for all of us to see as quickly as possible or otherwise the lessons from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games review are of questionable value.

Certainly the reports from the Australian riders who made up the silver medal Eventing team are that the High Performance management provided a great service in keeping them all in touch with each other and basically allowing the riders to not be interfered with in their preparations going into the Olympics. This did result in the Eventing riders returning results that were close to their personal best performances and this was a breakthrough in management policy. This clearly was a success for the eventers – however, as we are now planning ahead, I am keen to test the claims of the P2P2W as being a contribution to Australia’s successes at the upcoming World Championships across the disciplines.

The EA High Performance management did project a similar success rate to Eventing for the Para-Dressage team. It’s unclear whether the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games review is intended to cover the Paralympics or whether a further review is still to come.

DEVELOPING YOUNG FIREPOWER

Young riders once dominated Aussie Championships teams, and we now need to foster the next generation as we head towards Brisbane.

The Tokyo 2020 Eventing team was comprised of riders who were very successful in their younger years – and remain just as successful decades later. Andrew Hoy launched his career out of the 1970s and based with Captain Mark Phillips and Princess Ann in England. With his Pony Club horse Davey from here in Australia in 1979, Andrew won the prestigious Burghley Three Day Event in England. Since then Andrew has had many amazing performances including his recent success at Tokyo some 40 years later! Andrew’s Tokyo teammates, Shane Rose and Kevin McNab, launched their careers out of the 1990s where they were part of the squads that were producing team gold medals in 1992, in 1996 and in 2000.

Young rider success in the past extends beyond our Tokyo heroes. At the 1992 Games, 28-year-old Matt Ryan was part of the gold medal winning team and claimed individual gold. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, 21-year-old Wendy Schaeffer led the Australian team to a gold medal courtesy of her outstanding performance that should also have won her an individual gold medal had the FEI not altered the format. In 1998, 19-year-old Olivia Bunn rode on the Australian team at the WEG in Rome and came seventh in the world with GV Braveheart. Olivia repeated this placing four years later at the WEG in Jerez de la Frontera with GV Top Of The Line. In 2000, Stuart Tinney rode on the Australian Olympic team and like Wendy at Atlanta, won a team gold medal and would have won an individual gold medal had the FEI not altered the format. Stuart was 36, which was on the older side for the Australian team in those days but still some seven years younger than the youngest rider on our Tokyo team.

So, the point I am making here is that young Aussie riders – particularly in Eventing – were very successful on the world stage in years gone by. Now, our top performing Australian riders are those who were produced some 30 or more years ago; I would suggest that we are nearing a cliff edge. There is huge firepower in our younger Australian riders and High Performance planning needs to develop programs to support and to produce this next generation. The definition of a generation is 25 year, and in my opinion we have lost a whole generation of potential Olympic riders. While this sentiment is most pertinent in relation to Eventing, it does also apply to the other disciplines.

MANAGING HURDLES

The EA Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Review did clearly mention the Jamie Kermond anti-doping violation in the Showjumping discipline that resulted in his disqualification and the resulting disqualification of the team. I have a very different perspective on this. Firstly, let me say that I am not across all of the Showjumping performances, politics and exactly what it is that makes up a team that is capable of punching above its weight. What I do know is the Australian Showjumping team at the 2018 WEG, which included Jamie Kermond, was not considered to be the strongest we had ever mustered – however, in the end they were one of the best performing teams we have produced to date with their heroic sixth place.

For me looking on from the outside, the Showjumping discipline is a more social sport with a reputation for parties. The Australian Showjumping riders are pursuing a sport and a way of life that they love. Good reason to do a sport. Upon talking to many, there are lots of different views about who should have been selected, but we need to now look ahead and get selection right next time. Personally, I feel that from a High Performance management perspective we need to recognise that perhaps younger people in the Showjumping world need to be more closely managed once they are identified as a potential Olympian – particularly from the time of team selection and competing at the Olympics.

Just like Eventing, there is serious firepower among Australia’s young showjumpers, some of which have recently travelled overseas to gain experience on the international stage. This is very exciting, and we look forward to following their progress. We were sixth at the WEG in 2018; there is no reason why we can’t replicate this or achieve even better results at this year’s World Championships.

FUNDING

We in Australia have lots of money being thrown at our High Performance program by Sport Australia/Australian Institute of Sport to the tune of $11.1 million (according to Sport Australia’s published investment allocations) in the four years to June 2020 leading up to the Tokyo Olympics (original dates). As we prepare for the World Championships this year, we need to know where the money was spent and whether it achieved its goals. It will help us all if we can get more detail figures about how the EA High Performance programs work.

Honestly, I think our performances at Brisbane 2032 will rely on supporting young talent now if we are going to do Australia proud in 11 years’ time. The good news is we have enough time to implement a program that can change our future. EQ

Cheers,

Heath

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

‘Building for Brisbane 2032 Starts Now’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, December, 2021)

‘When Kevin Met Boyd – Look Who’s Laughing!’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, November, 2021)

‘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)

‘Back to the Future’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, January 2021)

‘A Busy, Busy, Busy Christmas at Ryans’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, December 2020)

‘Hit the Reset Button for Tokyo 2021’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, November 2020)

‘Olympics Full Steam Ahead’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, October 2020)

‘A New EA For All Of Us, Hopefully’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, September 2020)

‘EA Administration & Hopefully a Future’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, August 2020)

‘EA’s Voluntary Administration’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, July 2020)

‘What I Look For in an Eventing Horse’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, June 2020)

‘Novel Way to Deal With Lockdown’ – Ryan’s Rave (Equestrian Life, May 2020)