First week down - three to go!

I have now been back in Europe for a week....and counting.  Counting not for the fact that I am home sick, but because we are planning our assault on the Three Day Event at the 2012 London Olympic Games to the minute.

I have spent the week working with our beloved eventers at a two day preliminary training camp at the Unicorn Equestrian Park, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. The camp was quite big, larger than what will eventually become our Olympic camp, because we used this opportunity to work with some of the future squad combinations as well as beginning our preparations with all of the Olympic team members.

Our Olympic combinations trained well, very well in fact. We also had the chance to do some team bonding over a few meals and a few games of touch rugby.

All of our horses look great, with all horses looking to be in career best form.  From a dressage perspective I could not be happier with the way it is all going.  On Tuesday we kick off camp proper with a small competition in nearby Cirencester, which has been arranged for all interested parties attending the Olympics.  The test to be ridden will be the 4* B Short Version Olympic Games Test, and from what we have heard most other countries will be attending.  This will be a great way to kick things off as it gives us a chance to rehearse our Olympic preparations and start the fine tuning process.

After the competition it will be back to the conference room to review the tests and start working out the best program for each combination.  Everybody has their own plan and it is my job to know their plan and help them to fine tune it.  Knowing each riders plan is important because it allows me to know when to intervene and when not to.  When working with these elite riders, my philosophy is that they here because they are good and I must be respectful of that.  But elite riders are also good because they are great students and no matter how good someone is, they can always be better and I must help them to reach their own personal best performance at the Olympic Games.

Lengthy video analysis, extensive visualization and concentration training are some of the skills we will be working on in camp, aside from the normal everyday training.  This is the modern equestrian sport and we must move with it, and even try to move in front of it.  We have a few tricks up our sleeve but it would be unAustralian to expose those before show time.

Please everyone, the more you support us, the more you send good vibes and wishes, the better we will go.  So as we move closer and closer, get behind team Australia and lets go!

Aussie Aussie Aussie.....

Cheers

Brett