Ego’s too Big!!!
Ego’s too Big!!!
I joined Amy Graham and her team for the autumn edition of sunshine tour in Vejer de la Frontera, Spain. We had a good journey down from Normandy, France with a team of 16 horses, eight people, and five dogs. We have been jumping in Spain for the past two weeks. At the beginning of the tour I started training with Amy Grahams trainer, American Julie Ulrich, Julie teaches in a similar way to Georgie Morris. Like George, Julie has a very detailed approach and also adds a dramatic flare to her teaching. I am very happy with the progress made under her system on my 7yo “ET”. He has come so far in a short space of time and finished off jumping some great rounds in the young horse classes. It has been a little more difficult to adjust with my older horse Upsilon, but I think long term it will really pay off.
A great quote from Julie “Your ego is too big! You think you are the one that needs to fix a difficult distance for the horse, just leave him alone he can work it out better than you” I was very confused when she first said I have a big ego!? Then she explained the part about thinking “I” the rider is the only one that can make the right decision about a difficult situation, when the horse can easily correct himself. She also gave me some great feedback and was very happy with how fast I changed my ride on ET. She highlights that all the training we do needs to be what is best for the horse. She looks into every little detail to try and make the horse as comfortable as possible. I am really loving listening to all her stories and trying to take in as much as possible.
The last time I was in sunshine tour was nearly 5 years ago back when I was working for Bruce Goodin at Riders cup stable – based in Denmark. Last time in sunshine tour was much more intense as we had to travel all the way from Denmark and also had a big team of 21 horses! It really was a full on 6 weeks. Now all I have to worry about is my own two horses, it’s like a holiday! Bruce is also here again and has a much smaller team of three horses, I think he must feel the same. Bruce had a great two weeks with some clear rounds in 1.35-1.40 classes with Collin M and ECS Chacco Blue JR. Bruce also had some great rounds with his best horse Backatorps Danny V including 5th place in the ranking class last week.
Amy Graham also had a great start to the tour with a win and many placings. She has a bigger team of 10 horses so it’s not like holidays for her! There is a week off this week then another two weeks of jumping before we head off on another adventure – destination unknown.
