Not one to let moss grow under her feet, Carolyn Lieutenant leaps into judging, coaching and competing after experiencing personal grief, travelling wide to further her inquisitive and competitive edge.
“She had an uncanny knack
of just knowing each horse’s
strong and weak points.”
The loss of Carolyn’s husband, John Lieutenant, was a sad time and to this day Carolyn misses him dearly. John was an inspiration to her and always hugely encouraged her riding and competitive career. Carolyn, true to her strengths, continued to the best of her ability and threw herself into judging for the following year, travelling around the east coast. She judged at major three-day events, the Warmbloods at Sydney Royal Show, the hacks at Canberra Show and at dressage competitions in Sydney and in the country in between. Of course, her love of coaching continued and seeing the improvement in her pupils and their horses was always a driving force for her.
Carolyn did not have a horse at this time to compete on and took the opportunity to go to England to see the European Championships at Goodwood where Australian Judy Mackay was competing on her Stock Horse cross bay gelding, Debonair. Carolyn always looks at the big picture and seeing the best of the best was inspiring for her to bring back the knowledge of what Aussies needed to do better to step up to the block.
Carolyn was one of the best when it came to test riding. She had an uncanny knack of just knowing each horse’s strong and weak points and how to make certain that every movement in the test was ridden with the view to getting the most marks possible. There’s probably a whole chapter that could be written on her ringcraft and test riding and how to promote your horse in the warm-up and the competition arena. Carolyn’s experience as a competitor in the hack ring was for sure an added bonus here. It’s not only about riding the test; it’s about being honest about your horse and his weaknesses and strengths. It’s about the shape, the symmetry, the balance and the overall look; winning a Garryowen was no mean feat and shows attention to all the facets of horsemanship, mindset and ability. I guess that’s a dressage rider!
The following year, Carolyn decided it was time to settle in and find a horse of her own. It wasn’t long before she found one at Clemens Dierks’ — Temuchin, a raced Thoroughbred that Carolyn described as a charming horse with a trainable and willing demeanour. He was found by a student of Clemens in a paddock in Scone where he was retired and not doing well. Carolyn took him home despite her feeling he was quite heavy-shouldered. Clemens’ property was close by, but she didn’t ride this one home! Tim, as he was known, started his schooling with Carolyn and they got on famously, but it was a few years before she would compete him. He did not have a highly expansive trot and took time to develop the strength to hold the cadence, but he was a trier and always the thinker.
At this time, she also acquired a black horse from a friend and pupil called ET, with whom she competed at Elementary and Medium. There was Lochinvar CDI at Rozzie and Heath’s establishment where the best came together. The New Zealanders used to fly horses over for the competition and stay with Carolyn and with Clemens, as he was also coaching them in NZ. It was always a lot of fun, says Carolyn, who loved to keep in touch with her Kiwi roots. That year also saw Carolyn go on a rose tour of England. Roses are a passion of hers, despite a constant war with the possums, first at Wasseiges and now at her current property in the Southern Highlands. Her house is always adorned with the most fragrant and fabulous blooms. Following the rose tour, she made time to travel around America as well, staying a while with old friends from Australia, Libby and Jock Anderson. Libby and her daughter competed a lot in Australia before moving to the US. On returning home it was time to celebrate her 50th birthday, which was a great affair hosted by her fabulous friend and standard poodle breeder, Philip Warburton.
“Tim had by now managed to get all
the movements of the Grand Prix together.”
It was in this year that Carolyn remembers well having lessons with German Siegfried “Bimbo” Peilicke. It was here that Tim learnt the last of the chain of movements with the one-tempi changes. Glennis Barry (nee Scott) trained in Germany with Bimbo and he would come out and give clinics. His English wasn’t great, and so he would bark out his instructions in German while Glennis would translate for the rider.
Tim had by now managed to get all the movements of the Grand Prix together, and for those who remember the wonderful brown horse, he had the most fantastic piaffe that Carolyn found one day in schooling where Tim was running through the bridle into the halt. She made the transitions near the mirror and chased the hind leg a lot when he came against the hand. What she saw was a great active hind end with a good ability to “sit”. Piaffe it was, and he never looked back. In fact, he would score some tens along the way for his piaffe.
As mentioned in Part 4, in 1990 the first World Equestrian Games were held in Stockholm. Carolyn wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to attend and combined it with a tour or Norway; as always, she returned home with wider eyes and more training ideas and an understanding of the modern trends towards higher marks.
The year after WEG, Carolyn and her brother David sold the family house in New Zealand and David came to live with Carolyn at Wasseiges, where he became a great help with the upkeep of the property. It was in 1991 that Temuchin competed a lot at Grand Prix, getting good scores and places having been very competitive the year before at Small Tour.
In the spring of 1991, Carolyn bought the mare Esprit from friend Eleanor Russell. Esprit was by the imported French Anglo Arabian Victorieux, from a Percheron-Thoroughbred mother. Carolyn did some work under saddle with Esprit but she didn’t really have the time, what with her coaching and with Temuchin at Grand Prix. Esprit was put in foal to Salute, an imported stallion of Heath Ryan’s, and produced a brown colt that was to become one of Australia’s best dressage horses — Victory Salute! More on this later. Esprit went on to have another Salute colt, Final Salute, a chestnut filly by Be Serious and another filly by Regardez Moi. The first foal was by far the best!
“She never gave
away a mark in
any movement.”
With Temuchin continuing to get stronger in the trot tour and developing more cadence, his scores continued to progress. He was Big Tour Champion in NSW in 1993-94. To watch Carolyn ride the Grand Prix on Tim was an experience, as she never made a corner or a line that wasn’t spot on. She never gave away a mark in any movement and made the most of every movement to show the submission factor and the self-carriage. She rode as if she owned the arena and demanded the judges’ total attention.
The conditioning and presentation of her horses was always immaculate and in 1995 they were chosen in a team to go to the Open European Championships in Luxembourg. The team was Temuchin with Carolyn; Mary Hanna with the smart little chestnut Mosaic; Rozzie Ryan and Barrington Ock Tedi; and Maurice Bruce with Kensington, as Samoneinen had gone lame at Rotterdam. The team stayed at Stefan Van Ingelgem’s where they had Clemens Dierks as their coach and Kerry Brydon as Chef d’Equipe. They all went to a small competition in Belgium to get the feel of competition, and then a Rotterdam CDI before the championships at Luxembourg. As bad luck would have it, Temuchin pulled a tendon in the going that was a bit heavy in the competition and did not do any more for the entire time he was away. Then, lo and behold, he arrived home to Australia sound as a bell!
Carolyn loved travelling with the horses; she was always up for being involved with all the facets of the sport and flying and transporting horses was part and parcel of it. After Luxembourg, Tim was sent to England to quarantine at Newmarket. Carolyn then headed off to Denmark for a holiday, dropping in on Anne Thelander, a friend she had made in Australia who had returned to her homeland. Carolyn says she never had any intention of purchasing another horse… but found herself coming back to Newmarket, to then fly back to Australia with an extra passenger! She had purchased the beautiful big chestnut, Royal Dane.
When they all arrived back in Australia, Tim was sound and Carolyn gave a demonstration on him at the NSW State Championships at Clarendon. Carolyn remembers that it was pouring with rain and she rode into the arena to give a freestyle demonstration carrying an umbrella!! Tim was a well-travelled and experienced competitor himself by now and the confidence between he and Carolyn was obvious. Carolyn laments that John was not around to see Tim’s transformation from racehorse to Grand Prix champion.
Carolyn also gave several long-reining demonstrations with Temuchin and the mare Esprit, and used them in an article on the art of long-reining, of which Carolyn was a bit of a self-taught expert.
It was not long after that when Carolyn on Tim, alongside Tim Boland and Chris Chadwick, rode through Sydney from Mrs Macquarie’s Chair through the back of Sydney Hospital to the forecourt of Parliament House to deliver a petition to the minister. Tim was mixing it with buses and all sorts of traffic and distractions, but was very proud and passaged most of the way as he wanted to be in the lead not behind the police horses! He often remembered his race days!
“Tim was mixing
it with buses and all
sorts of traffic.”
In 1996, Carolyn had Tim competing at Grand Prix and Royal Dane at Prix St Georges, and they were having a great year’s competition. Royal Dane was ridden some of the time by Lesley Fitton, who was a working pupil for Carolyn. Carolyn recalls that Marcus Le Poer Trench had always wanted to ride a PSG test and so he bought Royal Dane and fulfilled his equestrian dream. He was a seriously uphill and attractive gelding with the most enormous front and such a beautiful type, but his spookiness often detracted from the overall performances. Despite this he certainly won a lot of classes!
At this time, Carolyn was president of the then NSW Dressage Council, a role she took on even though she was not totally comfortable with it. She was also the convenor of the judges’ subcommittee and a judge educator. With her wealth of knowledge and definite opinion, and an uncanny ability to ride at Grand Prix, her expertise at training up-and-coming judges was first class. Carolyn was never one to hold back and was not renowned for being tactful, but that was just how it was and she was always well respected and valued as a great asset as a coach and educator. Of course, she always took great pride in her flower arrangements that adorned the foyer at the CDI competitions at Horseworld!
A huge milestone in Carolyn’s equestrian journey came in 1997 when a great rider, good friend and judge, Judy Cubitt, turned her attention to the para-equestrian movement. She was tasked with seeing whether Carolyn would consider taking on the role of national para-dressage coach. Carolyn took a deep breath and thought, ‘How could I possibly do this as I have never, ever had anything to do with RDA or para competition?’ So, without further ado it was on to a plane to Europe and England to watch some of the bigger para competitions and get a feel for what the leading countries were doing. Carolyn was always up for a challenge, and with the sport being in its infancy in Australia, she felt it was important to see what was happening in international competition. She attended competitions in France, Belgium and England, including Hartpury. She wanted to learn as much as she could and watch the winners and see what exemptions riders at each grade were allowed. On her return she attended the National Para-Dressage Championships in South Australia, where she spent time with the classifiers and found the whole system so interesting.
As a result, in October that same year she was appointed National Para-Dressage Coach. What a whirlwind year it was and Carolyn was about to set out on a very interesting adjunct to able-bodied dressage — again, a woman on a mission. A woman with foresight and a will to win. That will to win was taken very seriously and logically with no stones left unturned in the quest to see Australia do the very best it could in a sport that was going to win gold medals. No other person would have put as much into researching her sport before committing to it as Carolyn Lieutenant, and like no is no… YES IS YES! EQ
Catch up on Part One of Carolyn’s story in our August issue here.
Catch up on Part Two of Carolyn’s story in our September issue here.
Catch up on Part Three of Carolyn’s story in our October issue here.
Catch up on Part Four of Carolyn’s story in our November issue here.
