This was always going to be a memorable year in the life of Amanda Ross. With a stable full of outstanding horses, Tokyo 2020 Australian Eventing team selection was a firm goal for the Sydney 2000 Olympian.

“When I saw this saddle
I actually nearly cried.”

Back in January, if you’d asked Amanda Ross to ascribe a colour to the year ahead, gold would no doubt have been her choice. However, as the Covid-19 cloud rolled in and cast unwelcome shade on all plans, Amanda discovered that the highlight of her year wouldn’t be a gold medal – instead, the surprise arrival of a custom blue Bates Artiste dressage saddle would be the event that made 2020 memorable.

Living on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Amanda is currently unable to compete as the area is subject to Stage 4 Covid-19 restrictions and all events are cancelled for the foreseeable future; as such, the saddle is yet to make a public appearance. However, being able to use her prized possession on a daily basis as she continues to train her horses at home is keeping a smile on Amanda’s face through these challenging and uncertain times.

As upbeat and positive as ever, Amanda is working on things she can control, such as her health and fitness, and her horses’ training structure in order to keep moving forward during lockdown. Before providing EQ Life with a sneak peak of her new Bates Artiste saddle, Amanda shared the strategies that have helped her stay focused so far in 2020.

“I think it’s really important to have a structure. We’re so used to having a structure and the minute that the structure is gone, I feel very lost. We don’t know if Tokyo is going to be on in 2021 or off, and we won’t know for a little while now. So the only thing that we can do is assume that it’s on, because if we’re prepared and it’s not on, that’s not ideal, but if we’re not prepared and it is on, well that would be awful!” Amanda explains.

“We have to reinvent how to manage the eventing horse, I’ve had to reinvent what my weekly program looks like. I don’t have any experience in the ‘Corona-five-months-keep-the-horse-in-work- but-don’t-do-too-much-of-it… but don’t do too little of it!’ program, so it’s been hard! However, there’s a famous saying by George Morris: that you are either training or de-training, and that’s very, very true – as I found out when I didn’t do flying changes on one of them for three or four weeks, then I went to do them and nearly got flung from here to next week!

“There are certain things that you need to keep doing and other things that will create wear and tear, like fitness work and jumping big fences, that just have to go by the wayside. But then, if you’re not jumping big enough, they probably don’t jump well enough. So I’m just going to start ramping it up again now and start jumping some bigger fences. Then once that’s good, I’ll give them a little break as there are no events, then go through this cycle again.”

Amanda rides up to six horses a day at home and, as a professional athlete, has permission to travel beyond the 5km lockdown radius. Fortunately, this mean her team of eventers can leave the property for some variety in their training – when the weather allows it – and Amanda has now had an outing to a nearby friend’s property for some cross-country schooling and fitness work. “The horses actually hadn’t been off the property for five months, and they needed to get off the perfect arena surface I am so fortunate to have, out on to the grass and the gravel and do a little bit more work so that their legs remain eventing sound. It’s been raining so much that we haven’t been able to get out too often, but hopefully I can go again soon!” Amanda enthuses.

When asked her thoughts on being unable to compete at present, while overseas based Australian Olympic contenders are back competing in FEI competitions, Amanda remains pragmatic. “Initially it was hard, but then I was actually chatting to our High Performance staff and said, ‘I’m feeling really left out down here in Victoria under lockdown! They said to me, ‘Look, in Europe they’ll be done by October. It’s going to be too wet and too rainy and muddy and they won’t be able to do anything. So they’ve got to get out there and do as much as they can now’. It was a good point; we may not have any horse trials here right now, but even if we can start showjumping over summer, we’ve got the right weather, particularly in Victoria, that it’s not going be too hot to be out showjumping. So, I’m hoping that unlike the European-based riders who probably can’t start up again until March, we can actually run the whole time through summer if we choose to.”

Without formal competitions to partake in, Amanda has been working on cross-country style fences on the arena, sharing her exercises and tips for jumping apexes, skinnies, related and curving lines on her popular YouTube channel, Amanda Ross Eventing Fit. More recently, she’s become particularly creative and run an in-house competition at which she was both the sole competitor and judge: “All three horses jumped clear, which was good, except I gave myself four faults for doing a circle on Huey because he actually spooked at the bike that was parked outside of the arena that he didn’t see on the first round, but he managed to see on the second round… so I’m a bit disappointed about those four faults!” Amanda laughs.

With gyms closed due to Covid-19 restrictions, Amanda has also remained vigilant at home about her own exercise routine, something she finds critically important for both her physical and mental wellbeing. Having previously worked as a personal trainer, Amanda has an array of gym equipment that she initially set up in her indoor arena until winter set in, at which point she moved it into her living room, along with a Pilates Reformer rented from one of the places she usually trains at.

“Every morning, I get up – and there are mornings, believe me, that I feel very uninspired – but I just figure that you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other and at least do something, do some yoga, do whatever! And so, every morning I will do something for a minimum of half an hour up to a solid hour. And that is my sanity. If I don’t do that then I rot from the inside out! I feel awful. I feel physically very sluggish and a little stiff.”

Amanda’s enthusiasm when talking about her horses and her fitness is only eclipsed by the euphoric response elicited by any mention of her beautiful new Bates Artiste saddle. More than a saddle, it’s a work of art that represents many years of collaboration with Bates Saddles to develop a piece of perfection.

A Bates Saddles Sponsored Rider for over 20 years, Amanda enjoys a close partnership with this innovative company and her feedback, along with that from other Bates Sponsored Riders has been incorporated into the design, features and appearance of the new Bates Artiste, which launches officially on 8 September. However, earlier this year, Amanda was overjoyed to receive her own custom Bates Artiste saddle in Navy and Silver, a unique – and rather tiny – version of the saddle.

“It was like meeting a unicorn!” Amanda states emphatically. “I was always winding up the team at Bates Saddles saying ‘Can you do this, can you do that?’ when we talked about saddle design. And somehow the team at Bates Saddles have managed to convert my feelings into an actual saddle, with all the shapes and textures and grooves, and the perfect amount of squishiness! When people talk about unicorns, they’re these mythical things that are so wonderful but they don’t really exist. Whereas when I saw this saddle I actually nearly cried because we had been talking about this for so long that it seemed like a mythical unicorn. I can’t believe that Bates Saddles have actually built this saddle! They’ve also gone to all this effort for me, and made a one-off Navy and Silver version too! They’ve really stepped out of the box and created it. It was like meeting something that I never ever thought I was going to meet, and there it was, and all of it was so beautiful. Absolutely beautiful!”

It was a moment captured on film, and now shared on Amanda’s YouTube channel. Her excitement is palpable, and it’s impossible not to share her sense of delight and joy.

Traditionally, riders compete in black or brown saddles only, and there was some doubt as to whether Amanda would be able to compete in her new saddle. “I have a good relationship with a lot of the FEI stewards and I said to one of them ‘Look, I’ve just got this beautiful blue saddle, is this permissible for EA dressage?’ And she said, ‘Actually, I think you could probably use that in FEI! I don’t think there’s a rule’. So she sent a photo of the saddle and my question off to a very important FEI steward and they came back and said ‘yes you can’. So, we all – including the team at Bates Saddles – went bananas! We are all so excited! “Now I’m just working on getting a matching blue bridle organised!” Amanda explains.

Somewhat obsessed with the colour blue – and horse and rider outfits centred around or complementing the colour blue – Amanda has ensured that her Bates Artiste saddle in Navy with its smart silver highlights suits her extensive range of saddlecloths. “It actually has several colour combinations that look really good. Today I had it on Louie (Don Diablo) with a navy saddlecloth, then he had a cream fluffy and then the navy saddle, so the cream fluffies really broke up the two navies really nicely – and then with the silver highlights on the saddle too, it really enhances the edge and makes it pop! Then with the grey saddlecloths you can have a black fluffy with that, we’ve tried every possible combination, every single one!” Amanda laughs.

Whilst Amanda admits that initially the saddle spent three days in her house being admired and pampered, it has now made its way to the tack room and she rides in it every day. I ride in it every single day! It had a pampering this afternoon, got balsamed, and I absolutely love it! It’s amazing, everything I hoped it would be.”

Armed with a positive attitude and the most beautiful saddle she could imagine, Amanda Ross has faced 2020’s challenges, twists and turns with unwavering determination and a good sense of humour. Ranked 39th in the FEI World Eventing rankings, which are currently frozen due to Covid-19, this Bates Saddles Sponsored Rider has ensured that Victoria’s lockdown period will not halt her progress towards Tokyo selection and beyond. We look forward to seeing Amanda, her team of five FEI horses, and the Bates Artiste dressage saddle out in force in the hopefully not too distant future! EQ

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