Following is a great story which appeals to my sense of humour and is actually something that happens often enough amongst our really good Australian riders and their families.

Clearly, being a really good rider is dependent upon how good your coaches are or how good your mentors are. Often a rising Australian superstar is blessed with parents that get this part of the equation just right whether they themselves are great coaches or whether they recognise this important ingredient and seek out a great coach for their kids.

I have always believed in the Australian coaching system, and I still think that it does have the potential to reach out across the Australian bush and produce riders that the world has never seen. My vision revolves around the initiative coming from Equestrian Australia and its accredited coaches. I do worry that right now the coaching accreditation scheme is drifting off track.

Craig Barrett worked for me so, so long ago. I was at the Denman One Day Event just recently on 1-2 July and ran into him whilst he was frantically strapping and organising for his two sons, Oliver and his younger brother, Jesper. Craig was actually dashing past where I was camped and I yelled out “Hi Craig”, and he yelled back something similar and then did a mighty high-speed U-turn and came dashing over and said, “I have the funniest story for you – well funny now, not so funny at the time.”

I love real life stories and I knew this was going to be one. Here it is.

At the moment, Craig does not have a groom working for him and he is working something like seven horses a day that he has to tack up and untack and hose and put away by himself. Of a morning, Craig teaches. Put that all together and it is a very big day. Anyway, on this particular day, Craig was doing afternoon feed-up, which takes over an hour to complete and, as he had to also pick up Jesper from the school bus, Craig had started feed-up early.

He was halfway through it and was about to feed a big young mare in a small paddock when he realised that the feeder had water in it. Craig has a pet hate of putting feed in a feeder that already has water in it. The fencing is two strands of electric fencing and normally Craig would go to the gate, open it and shut it and go into the paddock in a civilised fashion. Well, time was short, and he broke all the rules; using the plastic dipper to hold the bottom wire down, Craig stepped over it and under the top wire.

“You can see exactly what
is about to transpire…”

MONTY PYTHONESQUE

For those of you that have watched Monty Python, you can see exactly what is about to transpire. It had been raining and the plastic dipper slipped off the bottom wire whilst Craig was straddling his way through. Kabang! Craig gets the biggest electric shock he has ever had right between his legs. He launches himself through the fence landing in an ungainly, unbalanced mess on the other side and is struggling to stand up. He says he had never felt anything so painful in his life and he was staggering to stay upright. In the corner of his eye, he realised that in his completely distracted state he had charged in very close to the mare he was intending to feed and the mare, although not running away, was very uncomfortable at this hysterical intruder.

Some horses are really quiet, but when it comes to feed-up they will occasionally lay their ears back and go through the motions of being aggressive. Some horses can actually be downright aggressive at feed-up. The thought did cross Craig’s mind, “Don’t you dare decide to kick me!” Well yep. The mare gave a very accurate double-barrelled kick which caught Craig in the shoulder and in the ribs. Craig says it was the weirdest experience because everything went into slow motion and he realised he was flying through the air parallel to the ground, heading back the way he had just come towards the electric fence at a fairly high speed. He hit the ground and his shoulder hurt and hurt and hurt and he believed his arm or shoulder was broken. The pain between his legs had miraculously disappeared and Craig said he was screaming like a madman. The pain was so bad.

He got hold of himself and held the arm to his chest and worked out his options. The most sensible option was to go and find Prue and inform her that he needed to be taken to hospital and that she had to finish the feed-up and collect Jesper from the school bus stop. However, Prue was at that moment teaching a lesson and he knew that this would go over very badly with her. Craig studied his arm and thought, “I think I can finish this feed-up first and then sort out picking Jesper up and going to the hospital.” So, he did finish the feed-up. It was very awkward and took a good deal more time, but he did finish it. From there he went up to the house and told Prue that she had to pick Jesper up and that he was going to drive himself into Singleton hospital.

Anyway, once Craig started to take his jacket off he realised that there was lots and lots of blood. Actually, the blood was still streaming out of his shoulder. It was really messy and really scary. Craig said he just couldn’t get a bandage on it by himself and so he had to again solicit the help of Prue to come and bandage his arm. Prue turned up and the arm was bandaged! So, into the car got Craig and he drove himself to the Singleton hospital. The arm was X-rayed and nothing was broken! He had a nasty cut on the shoulder which took six stitches; however, the X-ray of his ribs came back positive with six of them broken. Craig then drove himself home and went back to work.

The moral of this story is, don’t ever straddle an electric fence! And it so did appeal to my sense of humour.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNT

However, I did ponder the story. I have just finished my Equestrian Australia Coaching renewal. I have been an EA coach since the very, very early days of the National Coaching Accreditation Scheme (NCAS) system pioneered by Major Tor Burman in 1979. Initially the coaching qualifications were considered to be prestigious and worthwhile, especially as it qualified an EA coach for insurance. The system was also reasonably tough and direct and in touch with reality. In my opinion this program had the potential to be spectacular and to make a very serious contribution to Australian Olympic discipline standards and also be a great conduit to encouraging more and more people to become members of the EA.

All systems have their ups and downs and unfortunately the EA at some stage decided to not continue to be a member of the NCAS system and to break away with their own system. They did dismantle the NCAS coaching system and then really didn’t ever put it back together again. Anyway, it has continued to survive and flounder along for these past couple of decades. Interestingly, the coaching aspect of EA is one of the few EA things that is a financial success.

Recently the EA Coaching Committee was disbanded, on 17 April 2023, by the Chair of EA, Mr Mark Bradley. Ironically, the EA has not yet taken the coaching committee down off its website! It is my understanding that in the absence of the coaching committee, Jill Taylor, who is the EA National Participation Manager, has also taken over the role of the coaching manager.

Thinking about Craig Barrett’s misfortune with the electric fence and the recent tedious and long coach renewal process, I couldn’t help but think that EA coaching accreditation is drifting further and further away from being effective and positive for EA members in terms of promoting riding standards and helping riders and horses achieve their goals.

I feel that the EA coaching renewal is generic and to me:

• It does not ever address the welfare of the horse. In my opinion, the horse is the key to everything, and coaches should be prioritising the wellbeing of the horse at every opportunity. The horse makes our sport very different from volleyball or soccer or netball or water polo etc. These other sports have equipment that can be bought. Equestrian has the horse that is the result of years and years of nurturing and training and does take a large part of the rider’s life. The horse is pretty much irreplaceable. Looking after the horse should be one of the critical priorities in a coach’s efforts to develop our sport.

• The coaching renewal also does not recognise that the horse also has the potential to damage riders, which is unique to our sport. A volleyball or soccer ball does not really have this potential. Coaching in the equestrian disciplines, is all about developing knowledge and discipline, which is completely critical for rider safety. In our sport, understanding the horse, and how to handle and train the horse so that a rider can achieve his or her goals is unique to all equestrians.

Both of these points need to be fully developed and dominate coaching renewals and coaching accreditation. In my opinion, neither of these points receive any real recognition.

So, this is a family who work really hard and can clearly pass on their knowledge through their coaching techniques. What was also clearly illustrated by Craig’s “funny story”, was the recognition of looking after their horses properly in less than comfortable circumstances. Of a reality to keep going when the going gets tough, and also that wonderful Australian characteristic of being able to laugh at yourself. I do think the Australian coaching program does run the risk of drifting away from recognising and advocating these qualities that are necessary for success.

Cheers,

Heath EQ

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE TO READ BY HEATH RYAN:

It’s All Happening Overseas – Equestrian Life, June 2023

Exciting Times for All Of Us – Equestrian Life, May 2023

Will Enzinger a Potential Game Changer – Equestrian Life, March 2023

A Dressage Adventure – Equestrian Life, February 2023

The Big Picture for 2023 – Equestrian Life, January 2023

Heads Up Next Gen, Brisbane Awaits – Equestrian Life, December 2022

Planning for Paris, Leading to LA, Building for Brisbane – Equestrian Life, November 2022

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