Stuart Tinney is a man of many talents. When I caught up with him by phone yesterday he had just flown back from coaching in Perth, was picking up the horse truck from servicing and had some horses to gallop in the afternoon. As if life isn’t busy enough, the Olympic gold medallist is now adding the role of cross country course designer to his existing roles as rider, coach, husband, father to two up and coming eventers and barista (Stuart makes great coffee).
While the visiting course designing maestro, Mike Etherington-Smith, is designing the CCI3* course at the Sydney International Horse Trials at the end of April, Stuart will be designing the CCI 2*, CIC2*, CIC1* and EV105, mentored by Mike.
“Mike E-S is a very good course designer and I’m really pleased to be working with him” says Stuart “To be honest, I think we need more course designers which is one of the reasons I held my hand up for this. There aren’t a huge number of course designers and, as a rider, if you’re jumping tracks built by the same people all of the time, you’re maybe not experiencing as much as you could”
Obviously there are plenty of regulatory requirements for course building and even Olympic riders can’t just roll up and build a course. Stuart has attended seminars such as the Course Design/Technical Delegate seminar held at Tamworth in 2012 and has been helping Shane Rose design the courses for Equestriad at Camden for the past few years.
(L-R) Andrew Haddad, Stuart Tinney and Shane Rose at the Tamworth CD/TD seminar
“It’s really a development process as well as attending the courses” says Stuart “You start with the lower levels and work your way up, under the guidance of experienced course designers. When I was asked to work with Mike E-S at Sydney this year, I thought it was a great opportunity. Sadly the FEI seminar for course design was held in Adelaide during the Australian International 3 Day Event. Obviously, I’m usually competing there so can’t attend the seminar as well which means I’m not FEI accredited yet”
The combination of elite rider with course designer seems like a win-win to me and Stuart agrees that it helps in some areas
“There are many good course designers who haven’t ridden at international level or competed for their country but they are still wonderful course designers.
“I’ve walked a lot of combinations and ridden a lot of different terrains so the aspect of distances, especially in combinations, probably comes more easily to me. For some people it may not be such a natural thing but is more of a ‘tape measure’ issue.
“But getting the course to the right standard, not being too tough but also not being too easy, that’s the hard thing. To some degree you’re trying to get the right result so that the rider who deserves to win comes out on top. I find that those are the hardest elements to get right”
So, does designing the course at Horsley Park this year bring back memories of riding around the course at Sydney 2000?
Stuart and Jeepster, who sadly died last week, through the water at Sydney 2000 Photo: Barbara Thomson
“2000 was a long time ago” laughs Stuart “We only use half of the course now. We used to jump the water then head out the back so it’s really only half of the Sydney 2000 track and we use a lot of different areas in there now.
“The terrain at the venue is a big issue; it’s really undulating so that makes a massive difference to the complexity of it. You can build a normal track on that soft, undulating terrain and it ends up being very, very taxing on the horses, so you have to keep that in mind.
“It does feel like home ground though, we’re competing there so often. The facilities are wonderful and this year they’ve got the ground and going so much better than it has been in the past few years. It’s getting back to how it was at Sydney 2000 which is wonderful to see and great for the horses”
Although he enjoys the course designer role, Stuart isn’t thinking of hanging up his riding boots just yet. When he does, course design will be one of the strings to his bow but he equally views his future roles as being possibly in coaching or even sport administration.
“I think that, whatever I end up doing in the sport, what I learn from course designing and working with people like Mike Etherington-Smith will be invaluable” he says
Meanwhile, he still has horses to work as it is only two weeks to Sydney International Horse Trials where he will be competing the in-form Pluto Mio in the CCI 3*. Although Pluto will be Stuart’s only ride that weekend due to his course building requirements, there is no doubt he will be out to win as well as design good courses for others to ride.
Stuart and Pluto Mio are coming to compete at Sydney off a win at Albury
