Lucinda and Clayton Fredericks are two of the world’s top eventing riders, they’re Olympic medallists, run Southern Stars Saddlery, conduct clinics in various countries around the world, manage a large team of horses and have a young daughter. How do they do it?
We had scheduled an interview with Clayton and Lucinda Fredericks at their home in the UK, but a last-minute phone call from Southern Stars Saddlery in Australia advised that the appointment would have to be changed. Instead, we found ourselves at the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials in the very large and comfortable truck that is the Fredericks’ family ‘home away from home’ to gain a behind the scenes insight into the lives of this successful and remarkably busy couple.
Clayton Fredericks is one of those amiable people who immediately make you feel at ease. Having had to reschedule the interview, he has tried very hard to find a time during the event at Blenheim Palace when we can meet. He is not riding at this event, but Lucinda is competing in both the CCI*** (which happens to also be the regional qualifier for London 2012) on Nysa de Petra and in the CIC*** for 8/9-year-old horses on Latina 43. After some phone calls and scurrying around, we meet up at the allotted time but, as the team members have been called for a quick jumping session under the watchful eye of Prue Barrett, we watch Lucinda put the horses over a few fences before heading to the truck.
Despite not competing at the event, Clayton has been driving back and forth each day from Rosegarth, their home in Devizes, to support Lucinda and help out on the Southern Stars trade stand. As this was Friday and the end of the school week, he had worked his horses at home before picking daughter Ellie up from school and heading back to Blenheim for their version of a family weekend. Seven-year-old Ellie has known no other life but that of her parents’ top class eventing life and she happily settles in to the routine of another weekend at an international competition with her parents, friends and extended family. Her only concern is that Dad may not have packed the correct outfit for the dance she hopes to attend. Astonished, she asks her father why he has brought her ballet tutu and Clayton ruefully admits that packing clothes for his young daughter is not his forte. Burgeoning businesses there is no doubt, however, that Clayton possesses many other skills. Not only is he an Olympic silver medallist (Beijing 2008), but he has had a riding career which includes many high profile
championship wins such as individual silver and team bronze at the 2006 World Equestrian Games and winner of the FEI World Cup in 2005 and 2008. He has been in great form in recent times and is a likely contender for London 2012, having so far qualified three of his horses—Be My Guest II, Bendigo III and
Dunge’s Laurent RoseÅL. A horse-training and competition career at international level is a full time job for most riders, especially since it also entails looking after owners and making sure they are kept fully informed about their horse, but Clayton manages to combine this with a heavy schedule of clinics plus a hands-on management position in the ever-growing Southern Stars Saddlery. Clayton originally started selling a third-party saddle many years ago as a sideline, but soon saw the potential of developing and marketing his own range of saddles.
Having owned riding schools in Australia, he had an understanding of the retail side of business, so when a friend offered to introduce him to saddlers in the renowned area of Walsall, UK, he decided to use his experience as
a rider to develop a new saddle. In more recent times his brother Kelvin, who also has a marketing background, has come on board at Southern Stars Saddlery to help manage the company’s increasing product range and their growth in Australia, the US and the UK.
For Clayton there is a drive to develop a business which is viable long after he and Lucinda have hung up their riding boots. He has a passion for business and a flair for marketing; even Lucinda fell prey to his sales talents when he told her “I manufacture a shampoo that can get those stains off your horse’s legs” at Bramham Horse Trials in June 1993. That grey horse has a lot to answer for, as the couple were an item by the end of
Burghley Horse Trials in September of that year and were married in 1997.
As Clayton fills me in on their romance (I can only divulge that their first kiss was by a cross-country fence at Blenheim and that he claims Lucinda used to muck out her stables using a miner’s helmet with a torch on it as she rented stables with no lights before she met him!) he tops up my drink (the bottles are kept in the dishwasher—apparently, the only thing this amazing truck does not have is a bar) and we are joined by his mother, Pauline. Pauline would be well known to many in Australia as both Clayton’s mother and a welcoming
face at the Southern Stars Saddlery trade stands at horse events around the
country.
On this occasion, she has flown to England to help Clayton manage the stand at Blenheim because Kelvin is in the US running the Southern Stars trade stand at the American Eventing Championships. Th ere is no doubt that
the family ties help to bind this successful and growing business and enable Clayton and Lucinda to maximise the potential of Team Fredericks.
Team Fredericks
When he first started to make his saddles, Clayton thought that the market— which he believed at that time would just be his friends and fellow competitors—would not want to ride in a ‘Clayton Fredericks’ saddle, so he created the Southern Stars brand. Over time, however, the products found a much larger market it also became obvious that Lucinda and Clayton were a brand in their own right. And it isn’t just a marketing ploy; the phrase
Team Fredericks was coined by some of their supporters in recognition of their ability to make everyone involved, from owners and sponsors to their vet, grooms and lorry mechanic, feel a part of their success.
Team Fredericks has its own theme tune called The Will to Win, thanks to Clayton’s other passion, his rock band, Snatch (you can even buy it on iTunes!).
They have also produced their own training video series for Horse & Country TV and instructing is a large part of their work. Despite being high-level riders themselves, they have no qualms about teaching riders of all levels, both at their own facilities at home at Rosegarth, or at one of the 30 or so clinics they conduct
around the world each year.
“There’s a standing joke with some riders I teach in Hong Kong that I’ve actually learned more from them than they have from me,” laughs Clayton.
“They say I should pay them for letting me see all of their mistakes and learn how to avoid them.”
Team Fredericks is obviously a well-planned brand that promotes the Southern Stars Saddlery and emphasises that the products are designed or tested by riders for riders. This means that Clayton, in particular, tries to attend as many trade events as he can, which again is a big demand on his time.
Eventing Parents
Towards the end of our chat, Lucinda joins us having quite rightly put team commitments before an interview. Despite having ridden two horses, she is looking fresh and is much prettier than she sometimes looks when riding, when she often wears a look of grim determination.
There is no doubt that Lucinda and Clayton are very competitive people and Lucinda recognises that this trait has passed to their daughter.
“It’s terrifying,” says Lucinda. “She’s very bold, brave and gung-ho; just like
I was at that age. She’s fearless on her pony and all she wants to do is jump higher and go faster. She’s also very determined and competitive which, with us as parents, is probably not surprising.”
(Clayton interjects here with the realistic comment of a seasoned instructor that his daughter is ‘effective but without much style’ which will probably make him as popular with her as the tutu did.)
Having a young daughter has added an extra layer of complexity to their lives and Lucinda says it was easier when Ellie was younger, less mobile and “we could just pick her up and go”. Now, as Clayton discovered during the packing process for this weekend, Ellie has her own ideas about how things will go and their life must take into account her needs. But Lucinda wouldn’t change it for the world, as Ellie brings a new perspective to their life and a balance that even the most competitive of people need at times.
“We’re slightly unusual because we’re both competing, whereas with other riders such as Paul (Tapner) or Bill (Levett), it’s not both parents competing, so their partner manages that side of things.
I love having her here though, because if you have a bad day, you get over it so much quicker by just having her around.
I remember competing at an event when she was about two and Clayton and I both had a really bad day on the cross-country course—we had really messed up! I gave her a big hug and thought ‘That is just a competition—this is the most important thing in your life’. It really helps you get over disappointments much more quickly and puts things in perspective.”
“Once we’re at an event, it’s actually quite easy because she has a lot of friends and the families at events tend to club together, so the kids go into one lorry one day and another lorry the next. I think it’s actually a very healthy lifestyle for her, although probably not academically as she never does any reading, writing
or homework, but she does meet lots of people from many countries and walks of life which I hope will be of benefit to her later on.”
Much of Lucinda’s success has been with the wonderful mare Headley Britannia (Brit). Together they won a team silver medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, won Burghley CCI**** in 2006, Badminton CCI**** in 2007 and Rolex Kentucky CCI**** in 2009. Lucinda hopes to bring the mare back into competition in 2012 but, in the meantime, Brit has created another avenue of business for Team Fredericks by producing two embryo foals by Jaguar Mail.
“I never really wanted to be in the breeding game,” says Clayton. “But if you’ve got a mare like Headley Britannia, it’s a bit of a responsibility to do something with that. With embryo transfer, it’s much more feasible and I’m
even looking at cloning now!”
Lucinda and Clayton have taken the unusual step of syndicating the two foals (a colt, Britannia’s Mail, and a filly, Little Brit) that were born in 2008. Fifty shares have been sold in the syndicate that includes both horses and the plan is to produce them towards the British Young Horse classes and aim them for Le Lion d’Angers as 6 and 7 year olds. As for Headley Britannia herself, Lucinda also has plans.
“I hope that in four years’ time, Ellie will take the ride on Brit and do her first season of BE Eventing!” she says with that look of determination there again, but this time with a smile.
