I'm a professional showjumper - AMA

[showjumper]

As the title says

Feel free to ask me anything!

What is the worst injury you have had and have you ever lost your confidence?

@WhyDidIEatThat

What does your typical riding week look like - do you do lots of flatwork too or does someone else do that?

There is absolutely no such thing as a typical week 😂
Some weeks we are living out of our lorry from show to show, some weeks will be at home with a mid week show or show on the weekend. This week I'm very excited to be going away with DH for a few nights (no horses included!!).
Horses generally tend to have more flatwork and hacking at home than jumping, especially the older ones. If there is a particular problem or I want to try a new piece of tack for example, yes they will be jumped, but more often than not when they are home they are worked on the flat.
Younger horses will jump a few times a week at home.

I do the majority of my own flatwork

Do you view your horses primarily as work tools or as friends/pets. IE would you keep them around even when their jumping days are over?

Dapplegrey If I've understood your question right - we've sponsored people who, on the face of it had the determination and work ethic needed, but in reality preferred a night out before a show with the resultant disappointment. One who was blinking good at asking for the money but no good at providing any reports (that did not make the accountant happy!). One who had the skills but couldn't, for whatever reason, get into the competing mindset (we offered sessions with trainers etc). There was one who did well in all respects, but sadly her horse went lame.

It's extra work to be sponsored. Ine has to provide forecasts of competitions, gear requirements, write up reports, be on hand to talk reasonably well about both the horses and the sponsoring product/provider. They must uphold the ethics of their sponser. We found another rider, only she's already partially sponsored by a company whose ethics we don't agree with. They're much bigger than us and we wouldn't ask her to choose.

It's a bit of a mine field.

Sorry OP! Don't mean to derail the thread.

Thanks for reply 😊 when you have a spare minute can you give a virtual guided tour of your lorry - especially the living - and make me drool? What do you keep in there all the time that makes life easier?

Have so many questions! Have you ever had to borrow/buy essential kit for you or a horse at a show (eg: girth, boots 😳) because you’ve forgotten it? Who is responsible for loading it all?

@Frouby

What is your day to day life like?

Do you still muck out and do yard duties?

Do you school youngsters or do you have grooms do that?

What has been your favourite ever horse and why?

Do you own your own horses or just ride for owners?

And why sjing and not dressage or eventing?

I'm usually on the yard by 6.30am - 7am at the very latest however as it's been so hot recently, I have been getting up to ride a lot earlier before the heat.
Horses are all fed and checked then I'll start riding. I aim to ride 6 by 2pm. We then stop for lunch & will have a bit of a catch up. Afternoons - I will often teach if I'm at home, catch up on any chores ie clipping, pulling, trimming as well as ride any I missed in the morning. The horses get fed at 5.30pm. DH & I do our late night checks on them just before we go to bed at 10.

I don't muck out every horse on the yard every day, I wouldn't have time to ride! But I do still muck out, yes.

I do have groom who is excellent with youngsters but the majority of them I will school myself.

Ah that's such a tricky one!!! All of them are/have been special to me in some way & have been part of my journey. It's hard to pick. If I had to choose one, it's maybe a pony I had as a teenager. She was the definition of "moody mare", was genuinely an absolute shit and was passed around a bit as a result. We ended up with her and formed the most fantastic partnership. I did my first HOYs, Hickstead and team GB appearance with her. I owe her everything

I have a mix of my own and owners.

I have a huge amount of respect for dressage riders and eventers. As a child, I wanted to go fast and I guess I was addicted to jump offs. As for eventing - no, definitely not! I am petrified of xc!

@WhyDidIEatThat

Any specific exercises you can recommend for extremely green, extremely cautious horses to control speed going into a jump and limit broncing after?

Pole work, pole work and more pole work!!!

I would recommend going back to basics and really nailing trotting poles, canter poles. Get your canter right before you go any further. An exercise I often do with my babies is setting up a "course" of poles around the school - trot round it first, then canter. Work on keeping your canter in a good steady tempo the entire way around.

Slowly build up to fences.

Hope that helps! X

@DreamingofSunshine

I'm unwell and rereading Jilly Cooper's Riders so I'm going to pretend your life is exactly like that 

What is a typical day like for you?

What will you do once you can no longer compete?

I wish my life was like that!
I've answered questions about my typical day down the thread, hope you don't mind catching up to prevent me copying and pasting.

In honesty, I haven't really thought about it. John Whitaker is 63, many riders are jumping into their late 50's-60's so I'm hoping I will have plenty of time to plan. I might be fed up with horses by then 😝

Hope you feel better soon, enjoy Riders! Xx

@Flyingarcher

Are you a Whittaker or a Skelton? Or related to the Edgars? Honestly, for those who don't have a family background, how difficult is it to get up to elite level? Tell me John Whittaker (whom I idolised as a preteen - good old Ryan's Son) is less taciturn as he comes across. He does tend to embody Yorkshire monolsylabic grit.

No, no and no, unfortunately 😝

My family are horsey and my mum did compete to a decent level before she had my sister and I. It is difficult to get to an elite level but not impossible - my family are certainly not well known horsey folk!

John is a real character. I have struggled on occasion to make out what he is saying 😂 he has the biggest heart and is one of the nicest in the industry.

@Twistella

We event so make absolutely no money 

Could you ride a full up xc course if you had to? And what would you say a horse needs to be a showjumper as opposed to an eventer? (we always have horses that are great xc but sj is our weakest phase by far)

I'm pretty sure that's horsey people in general, welcome to the club 😝

I would like to think I have the ability but as for the balls bravery and confidence you guys have, no chance. I did a very low level unaff HT with a horse I had in for schooling a few years ago - did pairs with an eventer friend. We did the 80. It terrified me 😂😂😂

In honesty, I think carefulness. I have had horses who have not been quite careful enough for pure showjumping that have made fantastic eventers. For you, sj is just one phase you have to perfect and there is always going to be a weaker phase. Jumping a brush vs jumping a set of delicate poles is so very different and I do believe some (although definitely not all) horses will become complacent and therefore occasionally clumsy.

Fab, thanks so much. I’m inspired to try it today!

(I saw a horse die at the RC national HT championship on Sunday, they were only doing the 90, stumbled at the step into the water - awful freak accident but sobering reminder of the risks)

@bigsighall

Hi
What’s been your worst injury?

What would your best advice be for someone like me who wants to jump but doesn’t have the nerve (and is rubbish at it!)

My worst injury is very outing so I will leave that out, if that's ok it involved me falling over (literally tripping over my own feet) whilst leading a horse to the field and the horse ended up standing on my hand!

I have broken my collar bone, leg, ribs, toes, arm... bruises tend to appear everywhere all the time lol.

Who says you are rubbish? Everyone has to start off somewhere!

I would try to find a reputable trainer to work with. Watch other riders, constantly. Horse and country TV always has top level competition - watch and learn.
Practice - over poles to start. Get your flatwork right and build up. Try a teeny tiny x pole - what's the worst that can happen? Get a horse you can trust 100%.

Hope this helps!

@LEMtheoriginal

What is the worst injury you have had and have you ever lost your confidence?

I've just answered the injury question to a pp. As I mentioned, it's a little outing

Yes, who hasn't?! Bottom line is, I trust my ability and I trust my horses ability

Great thread, thank you!

Do you agree with the FEI rule about disqualifying anyone who breaks a horses skin with their spurs?

@Sunnybeachbabe

Do you view your horses primarily as work tools or as friends/pets. IE would you keep them around even when their jumping days are over?

This is such a hard one. I'd say it's a fine balance - the horses on my yard are very much treated as family members (DH and I got married recently, and the table numbers were replaced with names of our horses for example). However if a horse has reached a limit with me or an offer is put in that I cannot refuse or a more suitable "job" comes along for one, they will leave me.

Yes we do I have a 29 year old 13.2hh pony who I won EVERYTHING on as a kid out in the field. I also have a 19 year old who retired last year who owes nothing and will live out his days hacking out as a nanny (an escort an my non horsey MIL calls him ffs 😂) with our young horses.

@WhyDidIEatThat

Thanks for reply 😊 when you have a spare minute can you give a virtual guided tour of your lorry - especially the living - and make me drool? What do you keep in there all the time that makes life easier?

Have so many questions! Have you ever had to borrow/buy essential kit for you or a horse at a show (eg: girth, boots 😳) because you’ve forgotten it? Who is responsible for loading it all?

I am on hols at the moment 😝😝 but will do when I'm home on Thursday.

It's a home from home for me so I have all the essentials - at stayaways, my George foreman toastie maker and my slow cooker are my absolute heroes. My mum, bless her, will put on a spag bol in the slow cooker first thing in the morning and by tea time it's a nice, filling no fuss meal.
For the horses, I have a special grooming kit that's always kept in the lorry, same with buckets etc as I'm so forgetful.

Yes!! This happened two weeks ago - I took a few of the horses schooling before a show and realised we had forgotten the saddles.
My aunt was in the mounted police & her unit actually forgot to load the horses before

In terms of who is responsible - my head girl is superwoman and she will usually do most of the loading however I do like to do a final check especially if we are heading off abroad!

@WhyDidIEatThat ps great to hear you are inspired, please please let me know how you get on 😝

@Sarahlou63

Great thread, thank you!

Do you agree with the FEI rule about disqualifying anyone who breaks a horses skin with their spurs?

Thank you 😁
A tricky one but yes I do. There are instances where horses do have very sensitive skin and the smallest graze will bleed however the FEI have put that rule in place for a reason. Obviously there are times when it is unfair - Bertram Allen a few years ago springs to mind. My horses usually wear a belly band when clipped to eliminate the chance of this happening.

😂😂😂 how does anyone forget the horses?! Did they just see that the ramp was up and assume someone had already loaded them? Actually crying . . . 😂

That really helps thanks! Great thread :)

To become better at jumping for a novice, what balance would you recommend between flatwork and jumping practice? I love jumping (if you can count 60-70cm as jumping ) but technically could/should spend 100% of my time on improving my canter work. But that would be less fun!!

Great thread btw

@MrsMozart not at all 😁 your response to @Dapplegrey was really interesting.

No worries if it's too outing but what type of business do you have? What level riders were you supporting?