Based at Krefeld, Germany, Maree Tomkinson has just wound up a particularly busy few months. In August she was actively supporting our para dressage team at the FEI World Championships, and last month was in the saddle at the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses. When Paralympian Emma Booth was looking for a mount for the FEI World Championships earlier this year, Maree came to the rescue. She and the co-owners of her horses Friday IV (Fürstenball x Diamantina IV) and Furst Deluxe (Fürstenball x Rosario) agreed to offer Emma the chance to qualify. Emma flew to Germany and started to train on the two horses, giving her a genuine chance of giving her best shot at Herning. Between Maree and Emma, they actually qualified both Friday and ‘Fursty’.
What followed was the debacle with the Australian selectors electing not to send a para dressage team to the World Championships – a controversial decision that was only overturned by the Equestrian Australia board after a public outcry.
Emma and Fursty were immediately selected and headed to Herning in Denmark, where they produced great Team and Individual tests to gain a start in the final Freestyle competition, where they had another great performance.
On returning from Herning, Maree continued working her horses – this time to represent Australia at the FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses in Ermelo, the Netherlands, with Friday IV. They contested the six-year-old classes, scoring 7.2 in the qualifying round and then placing 12th in the Small Final on 7.72. It was a remarkable effort by Friday to have competed at the World Young Horse Championships and gained qualification for the World Championships for para dressage, all in the same year – a rare feat!
Coming off the back of this whirlwind of activity, Maree was gracious enough to share her insights into her experiences in Europe this year, and offer her candid views on the reality of European-level competition and where Australia could do more.
ROGER: So, Maree, what was it like being involved with the para equestrian team for the World Championships?
MAREE: Well, I’m all about experience and variety in life. And that’s what it was for me, it was a really wonderful, enlightening, and rewarding experience. I was particularly proud of my horses, the way they stepped up – and the “perfectness” of those two horses was just something to behold. The way they just let Emma do what she needed to do with them, and adapted to what they needed to do, it was just outstanding. It was wonderful to see the two of them do that, I was so proud. And then of course Fursty going to the World Championships.
Fursty’s like a perfect horse, he really is. He’s got those rock star looks, great character and three beautiful gaits. And with pretty Emma on top, it was a beautiful picture. It was very humbling and rewarding to be part of, and it was something I am very glad I’ve done.
ROGER: What did you take away from the experience?
MAREE: If you put the amount of effort and time into riding dressage every day as you do into working on the ground with horses, you can train them to do remarkable things. With my horses and Emma, it was really just a small tweak. I mean, they both have a response to be forward off the whip and they just had to learn that the tapping with the whip meant move a little left, move a little right. It wasn’t a massive change; it was just a slight tweak. It worked really well and it wasn’t difficult to do at all.
You don’t need to be strong to ride horses; the thing I think that is most important is the consistency and commitment. I think that’s what a lot of people miss out on. You have to be very consistent and committed to the process. I try to work my horses every day at the same time; and it doesn’t mean that I ride the same movements or the same workout every day, but every day I ride the first one at 9 o’clock in the morning. I might mostly canter on Monday, mostly trot on Tuesday, Wednesday is just a stretching day – sometimes it is just a walk day – Thursday again canter, Friday trot and then Saturday, if I’ve got a test coming up, it might be a day to ride through the movements; it also might be a day to just go outside and walk around.
But every single day the horse is being trained, and it’s trained from the ground as well. I often say to the people that help me with the horses, ‘don’t un-train my horses’. They should stand still when you’re putting the rugs on, pick their feet up in certain ways, even leading them to paddock… you are always training and it’s important it’s done the same way every time so it becomes normal for them. Like Monty Roberts said, the kindest thing you can do for a horse is to train it well.
ROGER: The competition for you at Ermelo… what are your thoughts about your rides and the competition at the World Young Horse Championships?
MAREE: It was actually a great competition, probably one of the nicest competitions I’ve ever been a part of. Jayden (Brown) and Simone (Pearce) were fabulous teammates, we all had a very nice time. They were super people to be involved with. One thing I noted was none of us had a coach there, so that’s a little bit problematic and probably something that we need to address.
Simone’s just a genius and did a fabulous job with her horse Fiderdance in the CDI3* classes – the fact that she wasn’t there riding young horses is criminal because she’s unbelievably good at it. Both Simone and Jayden I admire tremendously, what they have been able to achieve. To have the support behind them that they have now through hard work and good riding – it’s just a credit to them. Jayden was delightful to be around, and his team. He also did a very good job on the young horses that he had.
Friday is a little superstar. The first day I think I just over-rode her – she’s very small. Las Vegas, the beautiful horse of Emmelie Scholtens (who finished fourth in the final), is two hands taller than Friday – like she’s tiny. And I think I just got on her the first day with all these big horses and tried to over-ride her and rode her out of her rhythm a little bit.
Then the second day I just rode her the way that she is, and that was much better. And look, 7.72 on a 15.3 hand ‘pony’, it’s not a bad score. She came 12th on the second day, which – you know it is a World Championship – is pretty good. For sure I would like to be in the top 10, but it is the World Championships and she’s not a million-euro purchase, she’s a homebred. I was very proud of her, like always she never ever does anything wrong. She’s a remarkable, super-talented little horse. She’s got fantastic gaits, and she’s beautiful looking. I had people message me saying “wow, what a beautiful horse!” and we have been offered a phenomenal amount of money for her.
I really wanted to take Imagine II (Ibiza x St Moritz). I really think that’s somewhere where she could be truly outstanding. I tried to see if I could get Imagine to the five-year-old class at the Championships (a change to FEI criteria meant Australia was only afforded a quota of one horse per age group this year). I wrote numerous letters to the selectors and asked them, but to no avail. You have to give it your best shot, don’t you? We’ve just got to move on now.
My issues with the selection for the young horses? It is about selecting the horses that will perform the best at the competition in question. The selection policy should make it discretionary; that gives the selectors the discretion to interpret the scores a little bit. German selectors watch tests and they choose who they want for the young horse. They don’t even take any notice of the scores, because they know they can be speculative and they know that young horses can be some days shy or tired… that’s what young horses do. The scores in Australia – I know this will probably be contentious – but I believe it is easier to get better scores in Australia. You can’t always compare the scores you are getting in Australia to the scores you’re getting in Europe, and that’s the selectors’ job to interpret that difference.
ROGER: So, where’s Imagine II going from here? What’s next for her?
MAREE: We’ll just work towards the six-year-old classes. We’ve only just got changes, but they’re very easy for her with that amazing canter of hers. And I hope to qualify her for the Bundeschampionate (German national championships for young horses) next year and then the World Championships, but we (Australia) can only take one horse (per age group) so you just don’t know. I mean, if Simone has something beautiful that can get a 9.4 (laughs) it is what it is, right!?
ROGER: What about your Grand Prix mare, Donna Elena?
MAREE: I love Donna. She’s good. She probably did a few too many competitions earlier this year; the vets all said that you might get her back to full strength, but it wouldn’t last (a few years back Donna Elena had a reaction to a routine procedure and then underwent colic surgery). So hopefully I’ve given her a rest now and I’ll start again. Touch wood, she’s still ticking along. I definitely was only riding her at half-capacity and I have got to try and think: do I want a Grand Prix horse that can sit in the high 60s or do I want to try and get her back to where she was and getting 70s – and risk her not staying strong enough? So that’s something I am wrestling with.
ROGER: How are you going with feeding since being overseas? I know you are a big Barastoc fan and you leave no stone unturned when it comes to your horses’ nutrition… your horses always look amazing!
MAREE: I have been feeding the horses Barastoc, as you know, for a very long time and they have very graciously agreed to continue feeding Diamantina (Maree’s now-retired 2014 World Equestrian Games horse, and dam of Friday IV) for the rest of her life. They are taking care of Diamantina in Australia, which is fantastic and very, very generous of them.
It was very hard to find a suitable and equitable feed over here, and I worked with Barastoc to try to get the horses on the right feed since relocating. Barastoc have been a really great support for me; I still wear all their jackets and shirts!
ROGER: Looking forward, now that you’re an “Australian European”, what are your thoughts about the way forward for Australian dressage heading towards Paris?
MAREE: Well, in my heart I will always be Australian, there’s no question about that! I’ve spent 50 years of my life there and I’ll always be Australian; I love my country and it’s the best country in the world. It’s just challenging; the sport is challenging to compete internationally because Australia is just so far away on many different levels.
I do think the whole sport needs to be more professional. You know that. I wrote that in 2014, I wrote that in 2016; I’m still saying the same thing. I think there’s a lack of confidence and knowledge at the top of the sport.
Also, if you say that a horse needs to be more uphill and more forward, or is not through enough, then it’s not. If you want to compete in the international sport you need to face reality. If you want to stay at home and ride nicely and enjoy your life and go to the odd competition and enjoy the ride, then that’s fine too, you could absolutely do that, no problem. But if you want to compete internationally, it’s tough. If you want to compete in the international sport, you need to drink a cup of concrete and toughen the hell up! You know?
So, my opinion is that we can do better at everything and we have to have a more professional approach to it. That’s why I am here in Germany.
I think moving forward to Paris, we just have to get used to being tough, and I think that everyone, the riders, the High Performance team… everyone just has to be tougher, stricter, follow the rules, have higher expectations and stop being too afraid to tell people that we need you to do better.
We need to start looking at it like that, and being okay with talking about it like that – how we get riders on a better horse, or in a better place – not being afraid to ask the questions. Then we’ll move forward. EQ
This article was written in conjunction with Barastoc. You can find out more about their product range here.
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