Dressage rider Greg Smith, pictured here riding young Dutch import Panegro MI, currently works for Mulawa Performance. Image by Kate Farrell.
His name may be ordinary but as a person he is exceptional. In his 48 years, Greg Smith has undertaken a raft of diverse challenges – and he has thrived.
New Zealander Greg Smith began his equestrian career as an eventer. Image supplied.
If you haven’t seen Greg Smith at a show in his riding gear, you might have glimpsed him on a Crowded House video wearing a wolf suit. Or you might have spotted him running in one of the world’s major marathons. Greg is as fit as a flea.
He grew up in Whangaparāoa, on the Hibiscus Coast north of Auckland, where he excelled as a swimmer, successfully competing around New Zealand.
“I was quite good,” he recalled, “but not good enough to make it big – and I really wanted to ride.” Finally, his parents relented and bought him a horse, which he took to the nearby Pony Club. (“It’s now been turned into a golf course.”) He spent these formative years with a buckskin going up through the eventing grades and he did well.
When he left school, he worked in a relative’s fashion house. “I wanted to be a designer. I learned to sew clothes, be creative and progressed to being a production assistant.” He did this for 10 years while training his horses after work. (An example of his creativity is an equestrian-inspired range he designed in collaboration with Fabuleux Vous Jewellery, Auckland.)
“She was going to Badminton
Horse Trials and asked if
I would groom for her…”
During his time eventing, he became good friends with elite NZ equestrian Heelan Tompkins.
“She was going to Badminton Horse Trials and asked if I would groom for her,” said Greg. “My boss kindly gave me the time off and it was a great experience. Then Heelan was selected for the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Jerez. Again she wanted me to groom, and again my boss let me go.”
After the World Equestrian Games, Greg received a call from Derek Harrison asking him to come and work for his daughter Sasha at the family’s eventing yard.
“I knew very little about her, so called [NZ Olympic eventer] Blyth Tait, who told me she came from a lovely family. My fashion boss, who I still see to this day, told me to follow my dreams, wished me good luck and I went to Ireland.”
He stayed there for five years.
“I worked all the young horses assessing their potential, travelled around the circuit and we’d frequently go to the UK. Sasha would work with international dressage trainer Pammy Hutton, at Cirencester’s Talland School in Gloucestershire. In 2004 Sasha competed at the Athens Olympics, and during the pin swap I came across Carl Hester; we quickly became great friends.”
Greg with good friend Carl Hester. Image supplied.
When Sasha married, she wound down competitive eventing and thought she would concentrate on dressage; who better to find her a horse than Carl himself.
He found a little black stallion named Uthopia.
“He said it was a bit small for him, better for Sasha; she loved him, so the Harrison family purchased him,” said Greg. “He was four and could be a bit fresh. On one occasion he bucked her off, jumped over a fence and returned to his stable. After about a year of owning him, Sasha got pregnant, so Uti headed back to Carl’s, and, when Sasha gave up eventing, I soon followed. I moved in with Carl when Uthopia and Valegro were five and six and got to watch their progress from those early days; it was an incredible feeling to be in the stands in 2012 to see them both get gold medals at the London Olympics.”
A HUMAN CANNONBALL
“While I was at Carl’s he often called me the human cannonball, I think it’s even said in one of Carl’s Masterclass DVDs,” laughs Greg. “Carl would put me on Tomato, Valegro’s half-brother, who after a hack out would throw me on the ground for no reason. Eventually, he came out the other side and he became a good horse. Often you just have to give them a bit of a chance; some take longer than others.”
Greg had brought a couple of the Harrison’s eventers from Ireland to the UK and benefited greatly from lessons with Carl and Charlotte.
“Carl would often ask when was I going to stop eventing because of how dangerous it was. I did really enjoy the eventing, but as I was mostly on my own, I decided to move over to competitive dressage.
Greg with the great Valegro. Image supplied.
“During that era, we rarely wore protective headgear, but after one of the riders at the yard had a fall, everyone wore helmets. These days when I’m riding a breaker, I always wear my cross-country vest as well.”
Finally, after eight years on the other side of the world, Greg decided to return home where he rode, coached, completed an interior design diploma, and took part in the occasional marathon.
So far, he has completed marathons in Belfast, New York, Auckland, Aitutaki, (Cook Islands) and Sydney (“my fastest time”).
In New Zealand Greg created his business Greg Smith Dressage (GSD) where he coached, rode for clients, did some more eventing and trained JL Champs Elysee and Avante Garde (a.k.a. Breeze), reaping title winning successes at major national competitions through to Small Tour level.
These days Greg’s focus is firmly on dressage. Image supplied.
“He was the foundation
horse in the FV Jewellery
‘Breeze’ collection…”
“Breeze was known to be a bit of a difficult character, so I was lucky that meant he was in an affordable price range for me. At first he played up but we worked through it and he did very well. He was the foundation horse in the FV Jewellery ‘Breeze’ collection. Today he’s retired from competition but he’s still active, my blind nephew loves a ride on him, and his everyday rider Angela Tovey takes him for lessons with coach Phillip Oxenius.
“I spent a few years on and off eventing back home; the last horse I rode was a little Thoroughbred called Secret Runner, owned by my good friend and fellow dressage rider Caitlin Benzie, who also organises my clinics now (virtually my PA at this point!) when I head back to New Zealand. Hank was a team effort between us in the behind-the-scenes riding, with me then competing him; the partnership culminated in placings at almost every show and a win at the Eventing One Day Nationals.”
GOING TO THE MOVIES
In the early 2010s a company, who provided horses for film, approached Greg to work with the horses as a wrangler and riding double on The Hobbit. This led to Greg’s participation in many movies, TV shows, commercials and a recent music video of Crowded House’s track The Howl – hence the wolf suit, which features on their latest album Gravity Stairs.
More of Greg’s film involvement will be revealed in a forthcoming Horses & Movies article, which appears monthly in Equestrian Life.
Greg, pictured here in a wolf suit for Crowded House’s track ‘The Howl’, has participated in many movies, TV shows, commercials. Image supplied.
“Since being here I’ve been
able to ride and compete some
beautiful young horses…”
Six months ago, Greg was in Sydney on holiday and messaged ex-pat NZ dressage rider John Farrell-Thompson, who with his wife, Katharine, is training and competing the Farrells’ dressage performance horses at Mulawa Stud in Berrilee on the outskirts of north-west Sydney.
“They had just had a job come up, so he suggested I come over to work for them. I sold my car, my float, half of what I owned, and now here my horse and I am in Australia. Both of my horses are sired by Swarovski, who was owned by one of my closest friends Renai Hart; I left the mare at home to have a foal, and bought Swarovski Gold CFH over here with me. Since being here I’ve been able to ride and compete some beautiful young horses owned by Mulawa Performance, an opportunity I’m very grateful to Greg, Julie, Jane, Kate and John for providing me. In my spare time I’ve started to build up my teaching clientele over here, which I’ve been really enjoying. The future at Mulawa is looking super exciting as we start building towards some of the major championships for John, and I just can’t say enough how fortunate I feel to be part of the team.”
And so begins an exciting new chapter in the life of Greg Smith. EQ
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