It’s 7:30am on a Thursday morning and I am heading out to Canberra’s Equestrian Park to cover the second day of an Andrew Hoy clinic. It feels quite strange heading out to see a clinic through the week but all the riders were more than willing to take the time off work for the opportunity to be coached by an experienced horse man like Andrew Hoy
Natalie Blundell (who organised the clinic) with Andrew
Upon arrival I spoke to Anna Stevens from Yass who had brought her beautiful TB gelding Mack. This combination has been competing in pre novice for some time now. Anna was excited to be getting a lesson with a rider who has so much knowledge and experience. “I hope he passes on a little bit of his wisdom” she said while putting on Mack's bridle.
Not quite sure what Andrew is saying here - but you can bet it was useful!
Down on the cross country course the lesson is about to start, but before it does, all the riders line up and Andrew asks them what they learnt from their lesson on the previous day. Each rider spoke of his or her individual element that they had to continue working on.
As the lesson began it was clear that each combination had very different problems. Some were rushing, others were continually hitting deep spots while some horses needed pushing to the fence.
After the warm up was done Andrew spoke to the entire group. He simplified jumping to an “elevated canter stride” telling the group they were complicating riding too much. “The only things you can help the horse with when jumping is distance, balance and rhythm. When the horse jumps you need to let the energy absorb into you.”
“I never force young horses I only guide them” Andrew said directing his advice to Megan Bryant who was riding Stacey Grovenor’s four year old WB Cooramin Éclair. The clinic was this young horse’s first time on a cross country course and only his second outing, Megan and Stacey told me after the lesson.
Before moving on Andrew told the riders what he feels is the key to riding well.
“Four things: Forward, stop, go left and go right. We teach horses aids, we do not teach horses how to jump or how to do flying changes they can do all that out in the paddock as a foal. If there is a bad experience it is usually because those four fundamentals are wrong.”
Toby pops up the steps
The next exercise Andrew had for the riders was one which would reinforce control and balance. Using the hills around the water jump he planned the small course for the riders. They had to ride down the steps, around the water jump, back up the steps, then change rein and jump down the hill over the small roll over. To make things a little harder the riders weren’t allowed to sit in the saddle while going down the hill.
“Don’t touch the saddle going down, keep the horses head up; keep your upper body tall and away from the saddle. When riding down the steps look at each one individually as you would if you were walking down stairs yourself, take it one step at a time. The drop fence is purely the landing side of a jumping effort,” Andrew said.
Kelsey and Patches put in a big leap
After all the riders had completed the exercise Andrew made a slightly bigger course for them. Once they had done the steps the group had to ride across to a log jump then turn left, ride up the hill and jump the line of fences all going downhill before finally riding through the water.
After explaining the course to the group Andrew asked if they knew where to go; Toby Farraway, the only male in the group was told to lead the girls around. To which Toby was delighted saying “I’ll show them how it’s done” with a grin.
The group ran through the exercise well with Andrew needing only to critique small issues like heels down and upper body position. “Remember a secure lower leg allows you to have a secure upper body” Andrew reminded his riders.
Megan stays focused
Andrew took two of the girls, Megan and Anna, who did not do the last course down to the water. This was to let them ride through the water and get their horses used to it. He gave Megan some valuable advice to help with training her youngster.
“Don’t keep going once they get tired, you cannot work on technique when you or the horse is tired. For a young horse an introductory course is like his Olympic Games,” he said once the lesson finished.
Andrew's favourite part of running clinics is seeing people gain knowledge to improve and realise how valuable fundamental skills are. “I enjoy seeing people going away having knowledge to improve their skills. It doesn’t matter what level it is, basics need to be 100%.”
Toby Farraway from Bathurst was very happy with everything he had learnt over his two lessons with Andrew. “The lessons were interesting and to the point and I’m sure they will help me improve out of sight. I am thinking differently how I approach things, I think that’s a big thing for a coach or teacher to be able to do [change your train of thought].”
Toby rode his horse that he has had for about a year, GV Ryans Rave, an 8 year old gelding he purchased from Olivia Bunn's GV stud. The combination are competing at a preliminary level while also doing a lot of dressage at medium level.
Toby with GV Ryans Rave
Toby’s sister Sarah was lucky enough to get a few days off school to travel down with her brother to the clinic. Sarah rode her TB gelding, George, that she has owned for two years. The combination are currently competing preliminary but hope to move up to pre novice in the year. Sarah and George will be competing at the interschool competition in Sydney.
Sarah and George head towards a fence
Sarah enjoyed her lesson with Andrew. “It was fantastic. I learned heaps. But it wasn’t what I expected, not in a bad way it was just different to what I thought it would be” she said before going to hose George off.
Kelsey Szczevanik (above) from Yass was also looking forward to the Interschool completion in Sydney on her mount Patches, a 7 year old Trakehner she has ridden for around 18 months. The combination will be competing at Prelim at the Interschool and plan on also going to Scone and Albury.
Andrew will be back in Canberra at Equestrian Park later in the year. If you want to get a lesson from Australia’s only ever athlete to compete at seven Olympic Games you should definitely keep an eye out for when he is back.
Article and photos by Elizabeth Habermann
