Feature: Eventer Jade Findlay

FEATURE

Cross country and the fab four

A full time eventer and EA coach who has trained and competed horses to the top level, JADE FINDLAY talks to us about all things eventing.

Five-star event rider Jade Findlay attributes much of her knowledge and success to the fantastic early start she experienced under the guidance of Christopher Bartle while in the UK on her gap year, and then with Stuart Tinney when she returned home.

And armed with that expertise, she’s the first to agree that one ‘ideal’ event horse may look quite a bit different to another. But when we dig deeper it’s clear there are a few boxes you can tick when looking for your next star. Jade says the two most important things are type and temperament. “When considering type, I aim to select a horse with a naturally balanced body: it has a nice length of rein; it’s uphill in its wither and neck; shorter in the back with a nice, round bottom; straight legs; not too long in the pastern; nice, long forearm; short cannons; and good feet – all of those things are important,” she says.

While she may have in the past, she would no longer buy something that wasn’t conformed well, purely because she knows how much easier it is to train a horse when the horse also finds it easy. But for Jade, even more important than type, is temperament.

Temperament

Temperament can be tricky to talk about, because the temperament she likes may not be right for every rider, so it’s worth trying a few horses out to discover the temperament you’re likely to work best with. “You really want to select a horse that wants to try for you, that’s important for anybody. A horse that doesn’t want to try is a very hard horse to train and will break your heart,” she says, adding that not every horse will suit every rider and ultimately, whatever you decide is the best temperament to match your personality is what you have to look for.

Jade’s personal ideal type is something a little bit tough and a little opinionated, with a bit of sass – ideally a mare. All of Jade’s four horses are mares, her daughter rides a mare and most of her clients even ride mares. Jade reckons the girls have it for sure. She says she finds mares to be more difficult at the beginning, to gain their trust and respect, but once you have that, a mare will give you her heart. Mares are so tough and they try so hard for you and, for Jade, a horse that tries is more important than anything else.

She believes you have to ride a mare a bit differently to a gelding – remember the old adage ‘ask a mare, tell a gelding’? – and you have to be ok with that: “I won’t always be winning with those young horse and lower level classes, because at that point my girls still have a bit more to say than I do,” Jade laughs, but she is adamant that once you ‘get’ a mare, they are just phenomenal.

Dealing with nerves

We wanted to know if, even though Jade is a successful 5* event rider, she still gets nervous. The answer is yes, absolutely. However, it’s all about how you manage and deal with those nerves. She recommends a great Ted Talk called ‘Zoo Tiger, Jungle Tiger’: “It’s all about how you can condition yourself to act in certain situations and how you can become better at that conditioning in a way that benefits you,” Jade explains.

In a nutshell, it talks about how if you live a ‘zoo tiger’ life, and never put yourself on the edge of your comfort zone and experience stress, or nervousness, or discomfort from time to time, then you’ll never get better at dealing with those states. You have to put yourself in ‘jungle

tiger’ situations: being uncomfortable, not knowing what’s going to happen and getting out on the edge of your comfort zone, to be able to grow and become a better rider and competitor.

For Jade, the ‘jungle tiger’ approach has been critical: “Now, even though I do get nervous, I’m used to dealing with those nerves. I know to expect them, I know they’re coming. I know the feeling and I embrace them as a good thing, not a bad thing.” She firmly believes nerves never go away and, in reality, if you don’t feel some level of nerves, you're probably not taking it seriously enough. Nerves can keep you sharp, but you have to teach yourself to turn them into a positive attribute, rather than a negative.

Now, even though I do get nervous, I’m used to dealing with those nerves. I know to expect them, I know they’re coming. I know the feeling and I embrace them as a good thing ...

Cross country know-how

Jade cross country schools her horses, in some form or another, at least once every fortnight – although when she has younger horses coming through she increases that to every week. “It’s really important to school cross country. Sometimes people can get caught up schooling mostly in jumping and dressage, but cross country is an equal phase so you have to train it. You can’t just assume it will be ok,” she explains. In saying that, Jade doesn’t train at a cross country course every time. She has some portable solid fences she can bring into the arena or move around, plus she points to the benefits of using show jumps for cross country training, as it’s the lines and the technique that need to be practised. For example, you can set

ABOVE: Acing the dressage phase at Wallaby Hill on Wasabi.

up an apex with a drum and two poles, which enables you to school the accuracy of the line, teaching the horse how to read the front rail on that fence type.

When schooling, Jade is goal orientated. She always works towards ensuring the horse is relaxed and confident in

what it’s being asked to do, rather than relying on the horse to jump from an adrenalised state, as is the case when you’re riding in a competition.

The fab four

Jade has four types of cross country fences that she religiously incorporates into her training. The first are related fences on angled lines. “Even from the 80cm classes, these fence types are often included, so you need to make sure your horse understands how to jump this question,” she says.

Next on the list are arrowheads, which usually appear as you go up the grades. These make up some of Jade’s portable cross country fences. Sometimes she’ll set up an oxer show jump to an arrowhead, on either a straight line or a curving line, or perhaps two arrowheads together, each time set at different distances. There are options aplenty to prepare for this commonplace obstacle. You don’t want to leave teaching your horse to read a narrow fence until you’re on the course.

Apex fences also make the top four list because it’s the only fence where you teach the horse to jump an angled face, rather than squaring up to the front rail. Jade mentally bisects the apex through from the point of the triangle to the middle of the wide side and jumps that ‘straight’ line. She recommends always starting with one that’s not very wide, initially jumping it like an oxer, and as you slowly widen the angle, the more precise you have to be on your line.

The final fence type to make the high priority list, of course, is the water jump. “No matter what, every single time I go out cross country schooling, no matter the level of the horse and no matter how good they are with water, I always, always school the water jump," Jade says. Something she has recognised is the need to actually teach a horse how to canter through the water. She elaborates: “For example, I will canter a 20m circle through the water, until the horse regulates its canter and doesn’t worry about the splash, doesn’t accelerate or decelerate, but just stays together, then you can start to increase or decrease the canter while in the water. If you can’t regulate your horse’s canter speed in the water, you can’t jump out of the water off a good distance to a fence out.”

And here’s some final wisdom from Jade: successful schooling is all about building confidence and teaching the horse to be calm and relaxed when faced with all the scenarios they may encounter on course. A well-trained horse is more rideable which, invariably, is more likely to lead to eventing success.

ABOVE: Jade’s pupil Courtney Cusack schooling her horse in the water. BELOW: Jade and Piks Dancing Queen safely over the roll-top at the Sydney 3DE 3*.