The Tour de France and WEG - my ultimate dream
I have finally found some time to write my first blog. Obviously I have been very busy this year attempting to gain selection for London Olympics and along with that William started his first year at school and I have been busy expanding my business. But the main reason I have put off writing my blog is that I'm dyslexic and I’m not convinced my writing is funny or interesting … so hopefully I will not bore everyone with my ramblings.
The eventing team has been named (or at least nominated) and I'm not on it. Understandably I'm disappointed as this had been a four-year goal since 2008 when I went to watch the Olympics in Hong Kong. It was an ambitious goal as at that stage I hadn't even ridden Adelaide Hill in fact Matthew hadn't even finished breaking him in. So in many ways we have achieved a lot in a very short period of time.
But I'm very confident that 2014 will be our turn and plans for the next two years are well under way. Besides I prefer France to the UK anyway. How can you not love Paris. Maybe I could arrange it so I get to watch some of the Tour de France and compete at WEG in the same year. That would be my ultimate dream. To the riders who have been selected, congratulations and I wish you all the best of luck.
The other downside of not making the team is the disappointment for my family, owners, sponsors and the support team of Team Bates. I'm well aware that the people behind the scenes are the ones who make my success possible. They too have made sacrifices in my quest for selection and their unwavering support is much appreciated.
Since Melbourne I have been reasonably quiet. Adelaide Hill, Delago and Corambo are all having a holiday and I have been focusing on the young horses. I have a new four year old Thoroughbred (Gunbarrell) who will be having his first competition at Denman, then onto Quirindi the following week. Gunbarrell came from a local trainer at Hawkesbury Racecourse, the same trainer also trained Lord Windsor. So he's another exciting prospect for the future. I currently have the rides on Double Vision owned by Claudia Graham and Kung Fu Panda owned by Ali Foye.
I have also managed to enjoy some long overdue family time. We had a lovely weekend in Sydney with dinner in the rocks and brunch at Bondi. William had a friend stay for a weekend, which kept us very busy. After that I’m pretty sure I won't be going back for a little sister or brother for William, two five year old boys was very tiring. The only person who seems to be over the moon about Mummy and Adelaide not being selected is William. He told me at Melbourne “I don't won't you to win this weekend because I don't want you to go to England.” He's so right to see that the upside of not being selected is that I don’t have to be apart from my family.
Wiliam was the one person who was glad I'm not going to London
William’s words got me thinking about the future of our sport within Australia. It would seem basing yourself in the UK might become necessary to get selected on the team. Not something that I would particularly like to do. Sending our Elite riders over to the UK might mean everyone is competing on a more level playing field, hopefully meaning that there would be one selection event that all riders attended, which in turn might make the team selection a little more transparent, but in reality I don't think this is possible. Secondly, what happens to the standard within Australia if all of our elite riders are overseas? Would this not lower the standard here in Australia? What example would we be setting for our younger riders? It would be interesting to talk to the New Zealanders about this as they sent their potential team riders to the UK last year in their bid to gain selection for London. I wonder how the riders and organizers in NZ have coped without riders like Clarke Johnstone and Jock Paget (pictured below) attending their events. Has this been detrimental to the future of the sport in NZ? Not necessarily for right now but for the next five to ten years.
Don't get me wrong, I think the standard of our Elite riders in Australia is world class. Here are a couple of examples; Chris Burton was a leading rider here in Australia prior to moving to the UK. After settling in over there his form this year has been on a par with his results in Australia. He was winning here and he is now winning there. Secondly at the last Olympics and World Championships Australian based riders have been the highest placed out of the Australian team. So, clearly, being based in the UK doesn't automatically make you more competitive or a better rider despite many people arguing that being exposed to more events and competitions will do just that. The other side to that argument is when there are so few Three Day Events in Australia every single event counts. The pressure to perform is immense because we don't have the option to go to another 3DE down the road in a couple of weeks. That's why we perform so well at championships, we know it's got to count.
Chris Burton won over here and is winning over there - so he was obviously 'up to standard'
As an Elite rider based in Australia I know I put back into my sport in my country as do several other riders. Can the same be said for our Aussie UK based riders? The sad part is I feel the divide between Australian based riders and Aussie UK based riders is even greater now after the nominations of the London team, yet we are all trying to gain selection on the same team. For the sport of eventing to keep moving forward I really think some changes need to be made.
What if we don't win a medal? I believe we will lose even more Government funding which would jeopardise the future of 3DE in Australia (especially the future of Adelaide) thus making it even more impossible to get selected on a team. I feel right now Australian based riders are in a no win situation and the future of our sport is in an extremely dangerous situation. This seems somewhat odd considering this time around we could've easily had two competitive teams at London, unlike WEG two years ago when we were struggling to fill a team.
I'm not sure what the answer is, but stay tuned … I'm working on it.
Photos - Thanks to LIbby Law
