Don’t wait for the selectors to come knocking, you have to take your destiny into your own hands, create your own personal high-performance program and plan for the long haul to reach the top. Here are my tips for your HP template.

With the World Championships over, the next opportunity to ride for Australia at a big championship is the Paris Olympics in 2024. I do keep banging on about how important it is for individual riders and mums and dads to take ownership of their own high-performance programs. Everyone, I mean everyone, just buries their head in the sand and prays that the Australian selectors and the Australian High Performance managers are going to come around and recognise what a nice person you are and how much exciting talent you represent. Everyone dreams of this talent-finding process finding them and then incorporating them into a high-performance program that will lead them to the Olympics.

The truth is that is just never going to happen. If you think you have something to offer Australian history and the Australian Olympic Team, you do have to take control of your destiny and put in place appropriate high-performance programs. Your potential starts with you dreaming of riding for Australia. That is a great start. You do not have to be a great rider yet. You then do need to put together a high-performance program which will guide you safely into a position where you can take part in Olympic or World Championships selection trials. Qualifying your way to the top levels with your safety and the wellbeing of the horse prioritised is the pathway to the Olympics. Winning classes at the lower levels has little to no value in the big picture if you are bound for the Olympics and the Australian team.

So, this month I will attempt to produce a high-performance template that can be adapted to deliver a program for eventing or show jumping or dressage.

GROUND RULES OR CONSIDERATIONS WHEN SELECTING A HORSE FOR A HP PROGRAM

A high-performance program completely revolves around an appropriate horse which is to be your partner. You do need to purchase or link up with a horse which you are going to invest your life and emotion in through thick and thin. This horse needs to be selected carefully.

If you are eventing, the horse needs to have three really good paces: 1) a walk which is four-beat and has a march rhythm with good over-track; 2) a trot which has bend in the knee and the hock and again has a nice rhythm; 3) a canter which is uphill and naturally balanced and light. A temperament which is quiet is a luxury, however, if you are young and fearless you can take on horses that are a little more “out there”. You need to be very wary, however: do not take on something that requires so much of your resources just staying alive that you then don’t have so much to give to producing your very best effort in the competition arena. If you manage to get hurt by a difficult horse at this stage, there is no high performance.

Today, eventing horses have to be super careful when it comes to show jumping. Good training and good riding certainly improve a horse’s ability to jump clear rounds. But in the first instance before any jump training is done, the horse has to be inclined to be very careful of rails. When it comes to cross country, the eventing horse needs to be able to average 570 metres per minute whilst jumping 40 cross country obstacles. To average 570m/min, a horse will need to – in opportune moments – be running up around 700m/min. That is flat gallop. Well, not really flat gallop by racehorse speeds but very fast, and just keep in mind that at the top level of eventing our horses will need to maintain these speeds for almost 7000 metres, which is well over twice the length of the Melbourne Cup.

When purchasing a prospective eventing horse, I would be nervous if it had a resting pulse rate of over 34 beats per minute. It is tough at the top and it is possible to have a superstar eventer in the lower grades and on shorter courses who do not have enough endurance and so do not measure up at the Olympic level. A low pulse rate is a good indicator that the horse is likely to have endurance.

“Today, eventing horses
have to be super careful.”

If you are planning on being part of the Australian Dressage Team your horse needs to have again three really good paces. All of the very best horses at the Olympics and World Championships are a product of recognised dressage bloodlines. These horses are bred for it. No exception. You can, of course, have the very best-bred dressage horse and it is not a champion, but you cannot have unrecognised dressage genetics and against all the odds be a dressage champion. If you plan to be a dressage superstar then you just have to accept that a well-bred young dressage horse is essential to your high-performance program for you to realistically have an Olympic future. Keep in mind that some of the most successful Olympic dressage bloodlines, such as Donnerhall, rarely perform well in the young horse dressage competitions. As the sport evolves and the genetics become more and more capable, this phenomenon may well change, but right now this is just a fact.

Traditionally, soundness and good conformation have always been critical considerations when selecting a young horse with Olympic aspirations. Personally, I feel that soundness in your horse is promoted by your management. If you were to do a study evaluating conformation of proven Olympic horses in eventing and dressage, you would get a real shock. Many of the top Olympic horses have very poor conformation with twisted legs, pigeon-toed, turned-out feet and club feet. At the Olympic level, almost invariably these horses have been managed by trying not to interfere with how they have been born. No corrective shoeing. Just leave them how they grew up. In my experience, Olympic horses almost invariably are shod accepting how they were naturally born. For a horse to make the Olympics, this philosophy of non-interference seems to be a common denominator. Recently, the Swedish have had enormous success in the show jumping discipline with team gold and individual silver medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and dual gold medals at the 2022 World Championships with a policy of no shoes. Barefoot!!

Prior to these recent successes, the last time Sweden won a show jumping Olympic gold medal was 98 years ago at the 1924 Paris Olympics. At the 2022 World Championships in Herning this year, Sweden won the individual gold medal and the team gold medal in show jumping. This is the first time ever Sweden has won a gold medal at the World Championships for show jumping. Again, no shoes. So, when selecting a horse, for a high-performance program I really think that soundness is often simply a result of good management. I would be very cautious about traditional theories on soundness and how they relate to conformation. I think one of the critical recent contributions to soundness and longevity in the Olympic horses is the advent of top-of-the-range arena surfaces at home and in competition. This has changed everything in the soundness world.

HIGH PERFORMANCE PROGRAM TEMPLATE

Just for this exercise, this will be an eventing high-performance program revolving around an eventer called Bluey who is four years of age.

I would be suggesting that a HP program includes at least one lesson a week with a professional coach. The coach for dressage may well be different to the coach for cross country which may well be different to the coach for show jumping. The coaches would need to be aware of the high-performance program and be coaching at a rate of progress that allows each year for the horse and rider to move up smoothly to the next pre-determined levels.

2022

• Bluey will have competed at Preliminary dressage levels this year. Bluey would work 20-40 minutes 6 days a week. Bluey’s dressage work would include a little leg-yielding and some conservative lengthened strides in both trot and canter.
• Show jumping at local club days once a month in 60cm classes. Bluey would school show jumping twice a week. These sessions would include rails on the ground up to fences around 80cm. Between these rails doing various adding and deleting of extra strides. At this stage, just adding strides, not taking any out.
• Eventing having competed in three or four 45cm classes during the year. Once a week, Bluey would do cross-country schooling jumping tiny ditches which can be walked over if necessary, muddling through a water jump in walk, trot and canter. Sometimes just cantering through a small pond with a really good base. Trotting and cantering up and down a really small bank and jumping a really small apex. This cross-country routine would be almost identical for each session.

2023 – Bluey is now five years of age.

• Dressage – Bluey would do all the Novice dressage prerequisites including counter canter, lengthening the stride in both trot and canter, leg yields which are a little steeper and 10 metre trot circles.
• Show jumping – Bluey would move up to the 80cm and 95cm classes. At home, Bluey would be cantering around 1.05m fences confidently and happily.
• Cross country – Bluey will be jumping little houses on the angle with related distances, apexes which are slightly more challenging, little bounces probably not higher than 60cm. Small ditch palisades and small brush arrow heads. Bluey would compete up to 80cm eventing.

2024 – Bluey is now six years of age. This is the Paris Olympics year and without doubt this program is about your daughter or son representing Australia at the Olympics. Paris would be a great cultural experience and I would just say that to go and watch is part of this high-performance program from a big picture point of view and inspirational point of view. If you don’t plan to succeed, you plan to fail!

• Dressage – Bluey would now be schooling all the Elementary work, which includes shoulder-in, travers, walk to canter, canter to walk transitions, steep counter canter, baby rein-back and turn on the haunches.
• Show jumping – Bluey will be jumping down through related lines, doubles and trebles. Bluey will now be very comfortable over 1.05m in competition and at home schooling 1.10m and up to 1.15m.
• Cross country – Bluey will be schooling apexes on related curving lines. The cross-country fences will now be around 90cm to 1m in height. Bluey will now be competing at 95cm eventing and by the end of the year moving up to 1.05m (1* classes).

2025 – Bluey is now seven years of age.

• Dressage – Bluey would now be schooling shoulder-in, half pass in both trot and canter. Counter canter needs to be very established and flying changes will now be started. Medium and extended paces are now starting to be developed. Bluey will be competing at Elementary dressage and looking to go up to Medium level dressage.
• Show jumping – Bluey will now be jumping 1.20m to 1.25m in competition and schooling up to 1.30m.
• Cross country – Bluey will now be looking at moving up to the 2* class halfway through the year, depending on how many eventing starts are possible and this is also pending the correct qualifications (Minimum Eligibility Requirements – MERs).

2026 – Bluey is now eight years of age. The World Championships are this year and I personally would be encouraging Mum and Dad to organise a special family tour to watch the World Championships in whichever country they will be in. It would be money well spent anyway, but realistically it’s a dry run well worth every cent for what is to come from this high-performance program.

• Dressage – Bluey will be fairly established with the flying changes and will now be schooling canter pirouettes and all the two-track work in both trot and canter. Bluey will be confident and ready for Advanced level dressage. This is as high as the dressage schooling needs to go in terms of reaching an Olympic level for eventing. So, schooling changes here at this point, where the program does not have to keep introducing new movements and greater and greater difficulty in the gymnastics. From here on in, the program starts working backwards and forwards over what has already been taught in the dressage training in terms of scrutinising which dressage movements can be done better and so ultimately produce better scores in competition. Until this point, winning has not been a priority. Keeping the horse confident and schooling to the Olympic level and then qualifying has been the priority. Now, as the program changes focus and looks to consolidate and seek out personal best performances, the competitiveness of the whole program starts to sharpen up. I would recommend that the competition is still just against yourself where you keep trying to finish with a better and better score than you did the time before when you competed. Clearly you can see how this philosophy will, just by nature, evolve into being a result which is competitive and likely to win against the other riders.
• Show jumping – Bluey will now school up to 1.40m and be competing at 1.30-1.35m. Just like the dressage, this is now at a level which is compatible with the show jumping course at the Olympics. Personally, I don’t jump more than 1.40m; from here it is just keeping the horse really confident, riding more and more accurately and studying the show jumping so that clear rounds become more and more likely in competition. At this stage, I would think it critical that you are getting help from a professional show jumping rider/coach. The goal is to produce clear rounds at the eventing competitions. So, in a way, again this is just a competition against yourself. If, however, you can produce clear rounds on a regular basis as this level, you will start winning. Simple as that!
• Cross country – Bluey will now be 3* eventing. The cross-country schooling will be over fences that range between 1.10m and 1.20m. I don’t jump cross country any bigger than this. This is as big as you have to jump in competition at the Olympics. The whole schooling thing changes now with how well you can do these fences. It is really important that you can gallop round a competition at 3* level and not touch one cross-country fence. So, schooling between 1.10-1.20m is bigger than you need for 3* level. Nevertheless, 3* is big enough that if you are to hit some of these cross-country fences on a regular basis, you will end up damaging your horse. Three-star is just below the Olympic level which is 4*. You need to start practising competing and jumping the cross country beautifully and so as not to damage or interfere with your horse’s longevity. At 3* level, galloping around under time is still not a priority for me. To gallop under time at this level, you will win or place highly. It’s a very tempting aspect to take on. Personally, I think it is really important to always keep the big picture foremost in your mind: the Olympics or the World Championships and riding for Australia. You are going to have to take on the time and galloping really quickly around these courses, but that is without question the most dangerous factor of the whole high-performance program. So, let that be the last consideration to add to the ingredients of the recipe for the final production. Three-star is all about really being on top of a good standard and riding your horse beautifully around a pretty tough level of competition without him even getting a scratch.

2027 – Bluey will now be nine years of age and moving up into four-star. This is a great achievement to have a nine-year-old running at this level, and if you stick to the program Bluey will be comprehensively schooled and doing it really well. In this day and age, with proper care and horse management, you can look forward to 10 years now of riding at 4* and 5* levels. That is at least two Olympics and two World Championships. The only thing that you need to begin addressing in 2027 with Bluey is starting to reduce the time taken on the cross country. If it takes you a year to get the time down to be negligible, that means you will have a 10-year-old horse super competitive at this Olympic level. So, schooling does not necessarily move up any notches on what you are doing in 2026.

• Dressage – I personally feel that it is always entertaining to move your eventer up to Prix St Georges/Intermediate 1 level. Once you have reached Advanced, which I feel we could easily have done by 2026, it is just a very natural, easy progression to Prix St Georges and Intermediate 1. It’s really just fun, and as far as the eventing is concerned the dressage is all about fine-tuning the competition presentations. You do not need the advanced moves of PSG and Inter 1. You already have all the moves needed for an Olympic Games.
• Show jumping – Bluey will again not need to increase the height of the show jumping schooling from last year. Once the fences are up this big (around the 1.40m mark), the impact of landing after the fence is considerable and this has to ultimately over time impact on ongoing soundness. The maximum show jumping height in 5* and Olympic Games is 1.30m. In 2027, you are completely focused on the horse’s confidence and likelihood to produce a clear round in competition.
• Cross country – Bluey will now jump down lines of apexes where the front rail is at quite a severe angle and inviting a run-out. For Bluey, these sort of challenges have to be something that she is completely comfortable with. Similarly, skinny brush arrowheads on curves and around blind corners have to be automatically targeted and zeroed in on. This is just practise, practise, practise. Jumping the corners of box square oxers and galloping down three long strides to another corner which is so oblique it is really difficult to get a read on it until the last minute. These are the 5* challenges and demand to be worked on each week. Running time down is now a major challenge and learning to land after a fence and not even have to look at where you are going to, intuitively just steer and kick for the next most direct line to the next fence. This is dependent on how well you as a rider can walk the course and visualise exactly where you are and exactly how you are going to react at exactly each spot on the cross-country course. If you can shave off one second per cross-country fence, just on the lines you take, that will convert into 40 seconds as there are 40 jumping efforts in a major championship course. 40 seconds equates to 16 time penalties which can make the difference between winning and coming 20^th. Riding at this top level is all about sleight of hand and just the smoothest and most accurate execution. It’s an art.

• So, 2028 is the Los Angeles Olympics, and I would suggest that Bluey at 10 years of age is a very likely candidate for the Australian Olympic team at Los Angeles.
• 2030 – Bluey is now 12 years of age and an experienced Olympian, very likely to get selected for the World Championships.
• 2032 – Is the Brisbane Olympics and Bluey at 14 is and is still young and would probably be considered Australia’s best chance of an individual gold medallist in front of a home crowd. That would be the ultimate.

This high-performance program is something that parents can pick up and take ownership of, and I promise the results will be very different if they do as opposed to what the outcome would be if they don’t. I would think this program is suitable for kids as young as 12 years old, which makes them 22 by the time we get to the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. This program is equally suitable for professional, really good riders of all ages. If you can be really methodical, and not panic and yet keep a clear vision of the big picture, it will return results that some of those riders have just not managed to find until now. For me, the two most important considerations are always your safety and always looking out for the best interests of your horse. I really think that you, yourself, have to take ownership of the big picture and your high-performance program.

In executing this program, I think it is really wise and effective to use coaches who you feel are capable of delivering good advice for the standards and achievements required at each phase. I think if you become just a disciple of your coach, that is not you taking ownership of this program. You have clear outcomes you need to achieve in a clear time frame. I would argue it is very possible, and probably the biggest threat is people receiving inaccurate information. As long as you keep watching the big picture, and then weighing in your performance during the time frames, you can work out if your coach is delivering or if you need to get a second opinion. Getting a second opinion is all about you trying to take control on your own destiny. I wish everyone lots and lots of luck. EQ

Cheers,

Heath

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ BY HEATH RYAN:

Eventing Results: Disappointing but Promising! – Equestrian Life, October 2022