Putting in some practise over corner fences
While competition season is still in winter hibernation, that doesn’t mean free weekends and lie ins on Saturday. For me it’s time to use the free weekends to squeeze in extra teaching and there’s plenty of other horse related activities to be involved in.
From 2005 to 2008 I took part in the Young Ambassador of the year training weekend. In 2008 I was named Eventing Young Ambassador of the year, which led me to a spot on the 2009, 2010 and 2011 organising committee for the weekend. This year I was honoured to be offered the position of selector and coach for the eventing discipline. Being a finalist and on the committee for so many years I really believe in the value of this weekend for young riders. As well as their riding lessons the finalists take part in seminars that vary from year to year. These sessions range from personal training, inspirational guest speakers, media training, public speaking and many more. The finalists also have to prepare a speech on a given topic and speak in front of their peers, parents and selectors. Another beneficial and unique aspect of this weekend is that all five disciplines (eventing, showjumping, dressage, show horse and now even vaulting) are able to meet and interact with each other.
My fellow selectors, Lucy Kolomanski, Katja Weimann (both previous winners and pictured above), and I had a tough job on our hands as our top ten finalists were outstanding. We had decided that as well as wanting to test the riders skills on the flat and in the jumping phases, we wanted to also check they had an understanding of how to ride different movements and exercises, and the effect of these exercises in training a horse. We did this by discussing different aspect s of their training and also setting up different exercises and asking a few trick questions. Talking to the riders about their training also gave us a chance to see how well they interacted with other people and gave them a chance to tell us a little about themselves and what they do at home. This started to give us a better idea of where the riders were at, who is ready to represent their sport, and who perhaps needed a little more time. We were also keen for the riders to enjoy the riding sessions and come away from each lesson with something, which hopefully they did.
The Eventing Finalists from the front
... and from behind!
On the Saturday night we listened to the finalists in separate debates on different topics. It was good to hear how well they spoke in front of other people, but also how they worked in a team with other riders, some of whom were from a different discipline and who they had never met before. On the Sunday we finished off their lessons and then had the awful task of picking a top three. In the past I had thought it a bit of a cop out when selectors had picked a top four, thinking ‘surely you can narrow it down to three! ’ Now the shoe was on the other foot. All our finalists were so deserving it was proving very difficult. After careful discussion Katja, Lucy and I were happy with our decision. Our top three Finalists were Molly Barry, Teegan Ashby and Elysha Walles.
The weekend gave everyone the opportunity to meet riders from other disciplines outside their own
If we thought picking a top three was hard picking a winner was going to be agony. Apart from the responsibility of picking the right person we had also formed a relationship with the finalists and didn’t want any of them to be disappointed.
The 2013 EV awards night took place On Saturday 10th August at Werribee race course. Katja and I (Lucy had her engagement party on the same night so we were communicating by phone) arrived earlier to interview our top three finalists. We decided on a few questions we thought would demonstrate our finalists involvement in the sport beyond their own competition careers and also get them talking. Although the girls were quite nervous they all gave fantastic answers. They let us in on their plans for the future (one particular dream we all seem to have in common) and in some cases demonstrated knowledge they had gained in their other sessions over the weekend. I found that some who seemed quite shy over the weekend really opened up in their interview, showing that this is a valuable part of the process. Finally we managed to agree on one rider who had impressed us not only with her riding skills, but also with her overall interest and participation in the sport and her plans for the future.
From jods and wellies to glamourous gowns!
We were very proud to announce Teegan Ashby (pictured above second from the right) as this years Eventing Young Ambassador.
Meanwhile my boys are back in work, my weekends are full of teaching clinics, I’ve managed to find some dry ground to cross country school on and its full steam ahead with Friends of Werribee event in two weeks. Stay tuned…
Edith
Photos with thanks to Molly Barry and Derek O'Leary
