This article has appeared previously with Equestrian Life. To see what’s in the current issue, please click here
Lyndal Oatley’s Sandro Boy tribute
© Lyndal Oatley Instagram page
On the 1st of June 2018 the dressage world lost one of the most highly decorated stars in Australian dressage History. Sandro Boy, known fondly as ‘Nissa’, combined with Lyndal Oatley, represented Australia at the Olympics, World Equestrian Games and World Cups. This article, by Roger Fitzhardinge featured in issue 43 of Equestrian Life Magazine, just over one year ago. We thought we would share this article with you as a tribute to the extremly talented and kind-hearted, Sandro Boy…
By Roger Fitzhardinge
If you are lucky and in the right place at the right time, and it is meant to be, there comes along a special horse who simply ticks all the right boxes. With understanding and careful and considerate training with an empathy that understands the inner horse, a partnership develops. Who knows where this partnership will end up.
To take the ups and downs and what comes and goes without competitive expectations, but purely to ride to develop a joy and a common interest between horse and human is something very close to the soul. It is a relationship that only a rider who has grown to be one with that special horse can understand. For sure and certain these words pertain to Australian dual Olympians Lyndal Oatley and her horse Sandro Boy, who passed away just over one year ago.
For sure this was the case with these two, who without expectation rode together and ended up at the 2012 London Olympics and then at the World Equestrian Games in 2014 in Normandy — then again at the 2016 Rio Olympics and in the World Cup Final the same year. They were the highest placed Australians at both the London and Rio Olympics, and held two Australian Grand Prix records and were very successful at one of the most prestigious international shows, CHIO Aachen. It was on 1 June 2018 when this partnership ended with the untimely, unexpected and sudden death of Sandro Boy, who simply had a massive heart attack and passed away in a few moments. He went from seemingly totally healthy and enjoying his light exercise to no longer being alive. For sure, death is inevitable; it’s just the timing that is so often unfair, and for Lyndal not a truer word could be said.
It’s a good moment to look back at the road that Lyndal and “Nissa” (aka Sandro Boy – Sandro Hit x Argentinus) trod, and to retrace the story leading to a dual Olympian’s rise to fame from a modest beginning to the heights of two Olympic competitions.
Despite the grieving, Lyndal has been kind enough to open her heart and share with EQ Life the joy she felt when she first found Nissa and what drew them together; what lit her fire when she first saw him. It was recommended to Lyndal’s husband, the Swedish Olympian Patrik Kittel, to go and have a look at Sandro Boy as a sale horse, and for some weird reason Lyndal had a ride when they went to view him, something that was quite out of the norm. She remembers him as being so sweet and felt he had much more to offer. He ended up in the stables at Patrik’s to be sold and competed Small Tour for him and won at Lingen, Germany. Lyndal recalls that he was quite a cute horse with a trot that was initially modest, but with good training and riding from Patrik he soon started to develop the strength to really move. In the beginning at the stables he was considered quiet and introverted in nature but underlying all that was a horse with a quirky and cheeky character.
Lyndal and Sandro Boy in the competition arena
© Roger Fitzhardinge
Clients of Patrik and Lyndal’s became interested and after Lyndal begged to have another ride. She remembers so well the feeling in the trot and was soon giggling to herself — and the next thing he was hers. He was the horse she had dreamed of. They simply clicked and Lyndal saw him as such a sweet horse with a fire that wanted to always challenge his inner ability, a trait that was so endearing throughout his life and career.
His first few competitions were for sure not all perfection. As talented as he was he needed exposure. He was not overly self-confident and found it hard to focus on his work rather than that what was going on around him. His first Inter II test was at Annum and he managed to walk through every piaffe and a 61%. He went to Munster and the same problem arose and Isabell Werth laughed and proclaimed that he would never be able to do the piaffe. The next show it was crunch time and to carry a whip and organise the piaffe steps in the ring, but it meant that the canter tour to follow was going to lack a submissiveness and generous demeanour, and so, sure enough, that happened! But he did piaffe and the canter tour that followed was hardly soft and pliable. It was only a few weeks later when they went for their second international competition at Hagen that they went along and gained over 70%. Lyndal admits she cried and cried – and this pair’s lives quickly changed. It was exciting times ahead and all the hard work and dedication was paying off.
“He was quirky and cheeky and would express his opinion clearly and convincingly but it was always combined with a cheeky grin,” Lyndal recalls. “He liked to play and I loved riding him when you played with the transitions and power forward and back — he thought that was great fun. He always tried as best he could and seemed to know when it was really important and would fight for you even harder.
“You always knew what sort of a ride you were going to have from the first step of trot in the warm-up. Some days were so easy and others he was strong and cheeky and liked to flirt with control and his very own version of it. Needless to say, it was always fun and every ride was one of interest and joy. It was all about staying mentally in tune with him and working him around to my way of thinking as well. He taught me a lot, bless him.”
Lyndal and Sandro Boy at Aachen
© Richard Dunwoody
At competitions Nissa needed a definite routine and he was not so easy to prepare the morning of a competition. Everything from three hours before the class was timed to the minute as he needed to go to the bathroom… and he needed to make sure his muscles were ready and warmed up. To come so far and then make it on to the Olympic team for London was an amazing step for this perfect pair.
“I was so proud that we had made it to an Olympic team to represent my country and my heart was huge at the thought, not to mention Nissa who seemed to realise the accolade,” explains Lyndal, “and it was thanks to him for his amazing heart and effort. He seemed so proud to be on the team for London. We were at Compiegne in France for the final selection trial and my whole family was there. We have this photo with him basically looking like he is saying ‘I did so good, hey!’ He liked to play it up when he knew he had been great!
Lyndal and Nissa soaking up the atmosphere at Aachen
© Roger Fitzhardinge
“I always knew he would fight for me in the arena and he loved the big arenas. You could never attack a test with him but had to feel him and his thoughts for every movement. If he was hot in the canter, then the canter strike-off and changes were like trying to sit on a kangaroo — so then I would have to ride the piaffe and passage conservatively. But he would snort in the piaffe before the canter strike-off sometimes and you knew the canter would not be the easiest.
“He had a huge, giving heart. He always knew what I was feeling. If I was struggling with something emotionally he would give the best cuddles and give you a look like he knew and he would be there, he was very special like that. He always had to know he was my number one and wasn’t thrilled if other horses had success or had a good training ride — that fired him up!”
The pair looking great in the warm up at Aachen
© Roger Fitzhardinge
Lyndal certainly had some ups and downs with Nissa. “Having huge paces and being energetic and being so gymnastic with those famous trot half-passes were not always to his advantage and he stressed his body. The utmost care was taken to make sure he was always supple and fit before any serious Grand Prix work as he was always willing but often tried too hard and stressed himself. He had all the movement in a small package with long elegant legs and built slightly bum-high, which made sitting for him a challenge and for me.
“I had a groom who so loved Nissa dearly and I let her sit on him one day and she could not stop laughing trying to sit to his huge and elastic paces. He was so bouncy and you needed great core strength to cope. I was at the gym and Pilates a lot and he taught me so much about my position and balance and the need to be able to control your own body to enable effective riding that allowed him to really move in balance with me. It was a challenge and one we together mastered.
The duo competed at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games
© Eric Knoll
“Nissa loved his paddock and loved to bask in the sun and to sleep outside. He loved above all his hacks in the woods. He was his own person with his own set of rules and he liked the other horses around him, but his focus was always on me no matter where I was. He was always ears and eyes to me. If I had been away in Australia, on my return he would punish me by making me feel out of the loop by ignoring my presence, but would then give me the look of ‘it’s okay, I really missed you’. It may sound weird but it’s true. He was really a controlling type of character who was actually a super softie and would come over for a cuddle when he thought he had punished you enough.”
I asked Lyndal what was her and Sandro Boys biggest moment and which occasion made her feel the proudest? “Oh, so many but all for so many different reasons,” she says. “He went above and beyond in Deauville (France) in the Grand Prix to win and break the Aussie record for the first time. He just felt so in form and focused and happy with everything he was doing — that was a special moment.
All smiles after a great test
© Roger Fitzhardinge
“But I don’t have a moment that I am most proud of as with Nissa it wasn’t the tests, or the championships but the whole journey — we did everything together. I only had a groom at the big comps otherwise I did everything with him. That was the type of horse he was and that suited me perfectly as I love to be with him and do the hard miles with my horse. I slept in front of his box in winter when he was sick — I think if he could he would have done the same for me. He was just extra special and it’s that journey I am most proud of as we grew together and achieved more than I ever dreamed. He was my mate and that I can never thank him enough for and hope he knew how much he was loved and appreciated.
“Nissa was my life. He made my dreams come true and together we went on the most amazing journey that went above and beyond. Horses like Sandro Boy leave a massive hole in your heart when they depart us. I can’t pinpoint one particular thing I will miss most, as he was one of those horses on and off the arena that was larger than life, comical, loving and kind… he was a one-off. Rest in peace now as you have made my life so amazing. Words fail me. I loved you Nissa.”
