F E AT U R E
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.
F
ive-star event rider Jade Findlay attributes much of her knowledge and success to the fantastic
discover the temperament you’re likely to work best with. “You really want to select a horse that wants to try for
early start she experienced under the
you, that’s important for anybody. A
guidance of Christopher Bartle while in
horse that doesn’t want to try is a very
the UK on her gap year, and then with
hard horse to train and will break your
Stuart Tinney when she returned home.
heart,” she says, adding that not every
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
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.
are a few boxes you can tick when
Jade’s personal ideal type is something
looking for your next star. Jade says the
a little bit tough and a little opinionated,
two most important things are type and
with a bit of sass – ideally a mare. All
temperament. “When considering type,
of Jade’s four horses are mares, her
I aim to select a horse with a naturally
daughter rides a mare and most of her
balanced body: it has a nice length of
clients even ride mares. Jade reckons
rein; it’s uphill in its wither and neck;
the girls have it for sure. She says
shorter in the back with a nice, round
she finds mares to be more difficult at
bottom; straight legs; not too long in
the beginning, to gain their trust and
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
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
Temperament can be tricky to talk
still have a bit more to say than I do,”
about, because the temperament she
Jade laughs, but she is adamant
likes may not be right for every rider,
that once you ‘get’ a mare, they are
so it’s worth trying a few horses out to
just phenomenal.
38 | E Q U E S T R I A N H U B J U L Y / A U G U S T 2021
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
