X-Country
Chat with a Champion - Trudy Boyce
Article written by Mike of SHNZ - June 2004
At the close of the 2003/04 South Island Autumn Horse Trials season (one which was marred by the cancellation of two of the eight trials held in the south, notwithstanding that of the remaining six held - two were on the same dates at different ends of the Island!), Trudy Boyce - former New Zealand World and Olympic Representative Three Day Event rider, headed south to impress on local event riders what it takes to get to the top of their sport.
Trudy with riders during
Christchurch Clinic at McLeans Island
Day one of the two day clinic, held at the end of April, was over showjumps at Astek Stud in Burnham, Christchurch. The brisk autumn day saw 13 combinations line up to receive some top advice from the rider who many will probably remember best as the "girl" who, at only 22 years of age, aboard her incredible "Mossman" put up a brilliant performance to take home the Silver medal from the 1986 World Championships held in Gawler, South Australia. These Championships saw the New Zealand contingent suffer more than their fair share of misfortune - including all time Kiwi Eventing greats "Todd and Charisma" (who took a ducking x-country during their only tilt for the title together), but for Trudy marked the beginning of a career which has seen her go on to become regarded as one of the most successful event riders and best exponents of style and ability across country that New Zealand has ever produced.
The main
emphasis of Trudys' teaching was placed on the importance of presenting
the horse to "EVERY!" fence in balance, and making sure it was following
a straight line on its' way to and away from the fence. In doing this,
the rider is giving the horse every chance to prove his honesty and boldness,
and of his willingness to jump the fence in front of him - In Trudys'
words, " Sooner or later, if you continue to ride your horse on any line
to a fence that you happen to find, you are going to get caught out -
and Don't go looking at the horse!".
Trudy encouraged
the Riders to think more about the way their riding was influencing their
horses way of going, and to ride a little more "softly" and in better
balance to encourage the horse to use himself more classically over the
top of the fence. As soon as the riders tried this approach, a big improvement
in their horses' form not only over the fence but also travelling between
the fences could be seen.
The
second day was held at the South Island National Equestrian Centre at
McLeans Island, over the x-country course. Trudy was highly impressed
with the amount of effort that has been put into developing this once
barren wasteland (she last visited early in the Eighties!), effort that
has seen the "Island" develop into the excellent competition and training
venue it is today. Boyces' teaching manner and vast depth of knowledge
was widely appreciated by the riders, she not only introduced new ideas
into each riders training plan for their horse, but managed to make what
some trainers turn into rocket science completely obvious even to the
greenest of riders!. During the x-country training, her advice from the
previous day over showjumps for the riders to pay attention to the straightness
of the horse on the way to the fence proved its worth when a number ran
into a varying range of dilemmas that mostly concerned rider error.
X- Country schooling is a little different to riding out on course when both horse and rider are full of speed and adrenalin. Accuracy and a forward thinking rider were the order of the day. Other comments Trudy made after viewing some of the x-country fences that are regularly used in competition at McLeans, and after hearing tales of other fences encountered on the Southern circuit by the riders, were that " It is no wonder you South Islanders are so good when you come up North - these fences are tough!". Her words came true a few weeks later when the South Islanders had an outstanding weekend at the National One Day Champs bringing several titles home south!. Well done Guys!
All of the riders that took part, thoroughly enjoyed the clinic (which is aiming to be held on a reasonably regular basis), and have declared that spaces on the ensuing clincs will be hard to obtain!
Meanwhile Trudy heads to China to prepare a team of Chinese riders who - as Trudy describes them are " Four lovely Boys with great attitudes and really nice horses who happen to have never jumped a x-country fence before" . The Boys' are preparing for the first CIC* to ever be held in China. The competition takes place in four weeks time! Best of luck Boys - you're in great hands!