A Dressage Dream

This article first appeared in Issue 6 of Equestrian Life Magazine.

Brett Parbery’s very personal account of an Olympic dream, staving off frostbitten fingers and toes in arctic European training conditions to keep selection hopes alive and what won’t be delivered in London.

As a young boy growing up in country New South Wales, I dreamt of one day becoming an Olympian.  I became fascinated by the Games as a school boy in 1984. I begged my mother to let me stay awake to watch my Australian heroes at the Los Angeles games. Being from a professional horse family, my interests naturally leaned towards equestrian sports, but at that stage I was just a sports crazy kid who didn’t really mind what he was watching, just as long as it had an Australian in it. And, it was even better if they won a medal! Now, 28 years on and the fascination is still as strong as ever. In 2012, I still feel like that excitable kid.

I once heard five time Olympian and modern day rowing champion, Sir Steve Redgrave, say that “competing in an Olympic Games is one of the most addictive sensations that one could ever experience” and I can only imagine this to be true. At times I will chat with equestrian greats such as George Sanna, Wayne Roycroft or Mary Hanna, who have many Olympics between them. The mere mention of the Olympics makes their eyes brighten and their voices grow with enthusiasm. I suppose it’s the combination of the four year cycle, together with the deep history, that makes the Olympic Games so special. For me, the Games have provided memorable sporting moments and messages that have become ingrained.

This year I have the chance to play a very special part in the Australian campaign.  Currently, I am the dressage coach to our beloved eventers, one of the most successful sporting teams in Australia’s Olympic history with three gold medals and a silver from the last five Olympics. In addition to my coaching role, I still have a very small chance to become a team member in the Australian Dressage Team - a dream I am putting in every effort to achieve.

If you were to ask anyone on the street what they know about equestrians, they would give names such as Andrew Hoy, Matt Ryan and Kibah Tic Toc, and Gill Rolton who so courageously fell and broke her collar bone and still finished to give Australia the team gold in Atlanta.  However, the modern Olympics are now taking a different direction. Today, the Olympic Charter is more focussed on global participation rather than grouping the greatest athletes of the day.  Everyone would remember Eric ‘the Eel’ Moussambani, the swimmer from Equatorial Guinea who gained entry for the 100 metres without meeting minimum qualification standards via a wildcard draw. Eric was an example of Olympic efforts to encourage developing countries into the games. He won the crowd’s heart in Sydney, taking twice the time set by the gold medal winner, to reach the finish. Eric was one of the first participants in the elite sporting arena under this philosophy, which is ongoing today.

From an equestrian standpoint - specifically in relation to dressage - the format of qualification for countries within today’s Olympics tends to ‘water down’ the event. This makes the competition less in-depth than you would see at say, a World Equestrian Games or even a European Championships.  In London, we will see individual riders from ‘exotic countries’ riding in the dressage competition, while some of the world’s best are eliminated from competing simply because their country was the ‘weakest’ of the strongest region. I’m not sure if this is good or bad for the sport. While it has significant commercial benefits for the sale of television rights, many of the paying public want to see the world’s best in action. Frankly, under this system, the Olympics don’t deliver.  Of course, the top countries will still be there and the top 20 riders will be the same under any circumstance.

In Australia, we form part of the South East Asia and Oceania region and Australia and New Zealand are the two teams that have won the right to compete. Australia will field a team of three riders, chosen from two nominated selection events in Mannheim (GER) and Compiegne (FRA), to be held during May and June. The selection process is clear cut and simple.  Firstly our Federation, which does a fantastic job for equestrian sports, has selected seven performed horse and rider combinations, who will be nominated to attend the two selection events. At the end of the second selection event, the three riders with the highest aggregate score over the two events will be chosen. In the case of a tied result, there’s a panel of expert selectors that will select the appropriate combinations.

So far, my personal Olympic campaign has been one of peaks and troughs. In December 2011, my dear horse and number one Olympic hopeful, Victory Salute, fell ill and had to be put down. It was a very traumatic time and has taken us some months to recover. At the time of writing, I had just learned that he is to be inducted into the Equestrian Australia Hall of Fame to recognise his efforts as Australia’s best performed international dressage horse.  With this tragedy behind us, I have gone into overdrive to do everything possible to try and make the team on my next Olympic hopeful stallion, Lord of Loxley.  My team, captained by my wife Mel and mascot son, Jake, together with our staff and our wonderful horse owner, Clyde Wunderwald, have given me ‘free rein’ to do whatever I have to, for the best chance to make the team. As I write this article I have just returned from two months abroad and competing in four international dressage shows. The first was at the beginning of February in Wroclaw, Poland and was an absolute necessity in my Olympic campaign. While I can think of many places more pleasurable than Poland in the middle of a winter cold snap, my results there served as two important milestones.  Firstly, to prove to myself that the inexperienced Lord of Loxley was ready for the challenge of international Grand Prix competitions and to show my selectors that he is capable of being considered as an Olympic possibility.  So, after a 1,200km drive through blizzards and Siberian weather conditions, we arrived late at night in Wroclaw. 

To say it was cold is an understatement – minus 30 degrees c might paint a clearer picture.  The horses had the warmest place on the grounds and working them in woollen blankets became the norm.  Performing to your best became less important the longer we were exposed to the conditions, with survival of fingers and toes taking priority.  After two consecutive shows, Lord of Loxley proved that he is ready for the challenge. We gave the selectors confidence to consider him moving forward.

On arriving back in Holland, where I have a full time base with my coach, good friend and current world champion, Edward Gal, I declared that I would never return to Poland - at least not until the memory of this trip had dwindled. Lord of Loxley and myself were on the map, but there was a lot of work to do and only a short time to do it. A quick trip to England was enough to refresh the enthusiasm and then it was off to Vidauban, a quiet rural village behind St. Tropez in the south of France.

Vidauban is one of the first and finest outdoor competitions in Europe and signifies the end of the winter season. During the two days and 1,800kms to Vidauban, I formed an expectation of what I was about to take part in. And, Vidauban did deliver. The weather was perfect for the the show and riding conditions were truly world class. Being the first outdoor show of the year brings a separate set of challenges with many of the higher spirited horses distracted during the first competition. Unforseen distractions, such as ponies in the distance, contributed to a below par performance and left me scratching my head as to how to turn it around. The decision was not to change anything too drastically and my groom added another two hand walks to his daily schedule. On return to Vidauban, I felt the plan had worked and Lord of Loxley did feel calmer and rejuvenated in his surroundings. At this stage, the seven hopeful combinations are Rachel Sanna with Jaybee Alabaster; Lyndal Oatley and Potifar; Hayley Beresford and Bellissimo M; Mary Hanna with Sancette; Chantal Wigan and  Ferrero; Rozzie Ryan with GV Bullwinkle and me and Lord of Loxley. It is going to be hard to make the team for London, but with these people all vying for three spots, you can be assured that those selected will be the best we have and that in true Aussie spirit they will give it everything they have.