Excel Talent training camp day 1

The training camp that had been much anticipated by fellow Australian Tess Harwood and I had finally come around, the 27^th and 28^th of November. Tess and her mum and dad were kind enough to take Julius and I to Leicester with them in their lorry (transport/drivers is still a bit of an issue for me!) so I arranged for my trainer Sue to bring Julius to Talland, where they are based, and we left from there at about lunchtime on Sunday. The squad has been slightly Aussie-dominated by us (we provide them with 20% Australian-ness!) so we have a great time doing things the ‘Australian’ way (ie being louder than anyone else in the aisle, throwing typical aussie slang into sentences, having the floor outside the stable invisible from our unnecessary amount of gear). The camp was to feel just like old times back in Sydney!

After a 3 hour journey (not nearly as far as you might have to travel to a training camp in Australia!) we arrived in FREEZING Leicester, luckily just before dark. Once the boys were fed and tucked in to their stables cosy and warm (and a slight rearrangement of a horse that Julius was having neck-biting games with over the small stable wall), we ventured off to find the hotel. No, we are not wimps that are scared to sleep in the lorry and get cold (ah hem), all four of us could not actually fit in the lorry to sleep so we had no choice but to head off to the lovely Red House which gave me two solid nights sleep in pure warmth and a very full stomach after a 3-course meal!

Monday was the first day of action. We arrived early to feed, muck out and hand-graze and were ready to start at 10.30 for a sports psychology talk from Nichola Kentzer. She made us think about who we admire and look to for inspiration, and what qualities they have and which are most important to us. We learnt to distinguish between intrinsic motivation (waking up at 5am because we love to see our horse’s bright eyes pop over the stable door and his soft whinny as we start to feed) and extrinsic motivation (waking up at 5am because we are paid to do it, or it lets us spend the rest of the day doing something else we would enjoy more). The key was to have a lot more intrinsic motives as they are the ones that keep us going longer and give us more satisfaction, and thankfully we all did have mainly intrinsic motives. We learnt about goal setting, which we are all pretty expert at otherwise we wouldn’t have been sitting there, but in particular how to use goals to improve performance by devoting them to self-improvement rather than just outcomes.

Next on the agenda for me was my private session with EIS nutritionist, Chris Rosimus. Nutrition is extremely important to me (although I’m not obsessed enough to refuse a block of galaxy!) so I was interested to hear his advice. I had to give him a food diary of three typical days, which he is going to look at more in depth soon for feedback next time. I asked him all my burning questions about what to eat for recovery (I was still sore from Friday’s strength and conditioning session with James!), how to keep my energy up (don’t be afraid of good carbs Casey, they are friends for energy!) and he gave me a list of super foods and the ‘dirty 30’. I was satisfied to read that most of my diet had superfood in it and I rarely ate any ‘dirty’ foods. I guess that comes from the idea of eating ‘clean’ for optimum muscle growth, repair and condition. I always try to think, would I feed my horse ‘dirty’ feed, even if he is craving it? No. I learnt that a Yazoo chocolate milkshake is just as good as a high-tech protein shake for recovery because it provides the perfect balance of protein and carbs. Well great, my new protein shake and dextrose was waiting for me at the door when I arrived home and I could have just bought a huge supply of chocolate milk and saved £30. From now on I also need to make sure every meal can be divided into thirds – one third low GI carb, one third protein, one third vegetable/antioxidants. Oh yeh something else interesting I learnt, vegetables are vital for recovery after exercise because they contain antioxidants which help get rid of the free radicals that are produced in the body during exercise. So after my next workout I’m hitting the blueberries and capsicum!

At 12pm I brought Julius out to be assessed by the farrier, Ben Benson.  His feet haven’t been the best since being on box rest from colic, but they are much better now and since having Matt Price as my farrier he hasn’t lost a shoe (which he used to be prone to doing!). Ben was very impressed with how he was shod and he said he moved fine after watching him trotted up. He gave me advice on how to keep his feet clean and free from bacteria, which was Hi-Bi scrub twice a week with some anti-bac put on every day. He said that topical treatment was much more effective than a feed supplement with biotin in because by the time the supplement goes through the digestive system and gets absorbed into the blood stream and goes all around the body before reaching the hooves, which have poor blood supply anyway, most of the supplement’s goodness is gone.

Finally, after lunch (which was admittedly having a forkful of baked potato with beans and cheese every 3 mins whilst tacking up) it was time to ride in my lesson with Gareth Hughes. I didn’t want to freak him out by telling him that it was a dream come true to finally have a lesson with him, but I have always admired his ability and good nature to the horse and his approach to training. I first met Gareth at the 2009 Youth Olympics in Sydney where he was the team trainer and Charlie Hutton rode Julius, winning an individual silver medal and team gold (my pony Vinnie was also in the GB team ridden by Emily Cousins). So Gareth had taught Julius before, but a long time ago. It was good that he knew Julius and his ability already so kind of god a head start.

The first thing I was made to realise is that I work way too hard on the horse and need to let the horse do it for himself. Because Julius isn’t the most athletic horse and takes quite a bit of suppling, I tend to believe he can’t do it so try to do it for him. Gareth helped me learn to ask for suppleness and show him the way by flexing left and right, then giving and allowing him to be supple by himself and in self-carriage. I also have to supple him when he is up in his frame and not always take his head down to soften him, because it is up there that he needs to learn to be soft and not think down means soft and up means stiff. He picked it up really easily and was soon it great self-carriage making my life so much easier! Strange that all my riding life I’ve been told to ‘ride ride ride’ and that I was never working hard enough, and now I’m being told I’m working too hard and need to let the horse do it! I think it’s definitely a balance, and at the higher levels you just HAVE to have the horse doing it for himself because it is a lot more exhausting to run around a PSG in comparison to a Prelim/Novice.  

Keeping all this in mind we worked in the canter, pushing it forward and bringing it back, and then did traverse on a 15m circle decreasing and increasing the size to get adjustability. Julius loves his canter pirouettes and quite enjoyed pirouetting around Gareth, who ensured I spoke to him softly and gave him lots of pats (very much a Pammy Hutton thing too) to give him confidence that he is doing it right and well. That is a big theme of Gareth’s training – giving the horse a confidence that whatever you ask of him is possible and you will help them and be there to support them but they have to try and do it by themselves at times too. I love Gareth’s way of explaining things by acting out what he would say to the horse if he was riding, making it a hugely sympathetic approach to training.

At the end of the day we had two group presentations on shoeing/feet and sports nutrition. It was summed up that if we improve every five things by 2%, we can make a 10% difference to our performance. So, improving my nutrition, my horse's nutrition, shoeing, my strength and condition and sports psychology by 2% could put my scores in the 70% area. Yes please!!