Feature: Coaching and Collaboration

A Chef d’Equipe is traditionally the team manager and sometimes also a team coach. Prue Barrett has worked in both capacities and spoke to CHRISTINE ARMISHAW about life as an Olympic Chef d’Equipe.

Employed by Equestrian Australia in a full-time role from the beginning of 2011 to the end of 2016, Prue Barrett managed and coached the riders of the Australian eventing program all the way through to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, where the team won bronze. She managed both the domestic and overseas based athletes, with two other coaches on board as dressage and show jumping trainers.

I asked Prue for a glimpse into her life as an Olympic Chef d’Equipe, a role that included organising training camps, and coaching: “I chose the dressage and jumping trainers and then I worked with the team on their cross country. The Chef d’Equipe role entails managing the other trainers, as well as being the overarching person who organises the whole training schedule,” she tells me.

In Prue’s opinion, it’s a people management job. “To be a good Chef you have to be really good at herding cats,” she laughs, “but you also have to understand what everybody’s roles are, you need to be a people person and understand the pressures on each individual on the team.”

The Chef’s job starts long before the Games even appear in the distance. As we all know, anything can happen with horses, so the pool of people and ponies preparing is initially large, before the numbers are gradually whittled down to the final team. “It’s more involved than people realise. Even though you might only have four or five athletes at the actual Games, you would tend to have seven to eight leading into camp, and you would have managed around fifteen combinations prior to that,” Prue explains.

To be an effective Chef takes a whole lot of skill, and the more useful experience up one’s sleeve, the better. And that’s what Prue has in spades: “I was fortunate that I had been an athlete at a major championship, I had coached at a major championship, I’d managed the program, and I understood the management structure of the program. That entire skillset came together in what ended up as me being in the Chef d’Equipe role for the Rio Olympics,” Prue tells me.

The Chef might also sit on the team selection panel. Prue started off as a selector, then for the next period wasn’t a selector, then was again. She says she prefers to be involved in the selection of the team she’ll be charged with managing at the Olympic Games, and for good reason: “Being so involved, you’re probably the person who knows everything about everyone,” she says.

The Chef d’Equipe is responsible for each combination’s training from the early days in the cycle, right up until the Games. So just how detailed does

the Chef’s training program have to be and how specific to each rider? “We have to work on individual performance planning,” Prue says. “It’s not so much ‘dressage today, show jumping tomorrow’, but more of an overarching plan, working towards twelve months out, then six months out and so on. Considering things like which horse is going to which event, what they’re going to do at that event, how fast they’re going to run at that event.”

Towards the pointy end, closer to selection, it’s always a balance between what the horse needs to do and what the selectors want to see. “With eventing, there are about two longformat events a year, so you only get a couple of stabs at this. It really is an eighteen month process,” Prue tells me. “Saying right, well this is what we need the horse to do to be selected, so what do we need in the management of the horse, in its development, leading up to that point? Then you select the events accordingly. With eventing, there’s always a plan B and a plan C!”

The last six months before the Games is where it all starts to ramp up. Uniform fittings, meetings, and nominations from the eventing selectors turning into official athlete selections by the Australian Olympic Committee.

Each Olympics has their own nuances and getting packed to go to Rio was no different. Quite some time before the event, every single item a rider planned to take had to be itemised and added to an inventory. “Getting all that information from riders and grooms, making sure all feed, supplement and equipment lists are submitted and signed off, it can be quite a nightmare,” says Prue. And what’s more, this includes all the riders on the long list, some of whom won’t make the final cut.

The lists had to be carefully reviewed to make sure everything required was added. “Finding the things that were missing was harder than reading all the stuff that was listed,” says Prue. I asked her what happened if someone wanted to change something on the list. Her answer was simple: “they can’t.”

Managing riders across two hemispheres adds an extra layer of challenge, but all the athletes attend a major training camp before the Games. “Once you get everyone there, things are a bit easier,” Prue tells me. While training is in the name, the purpose of this camp is more about getting everyone in one spot and co-ordinating transport, working out how much storage will be needed and so on.

And as far as flying the horses goes? “To Rio, that side of it was actually quite easy. We just got the flight times and when we had to be there, the transport

company organised the details,” Prue explains. The trickiness in this situation was centred around the classic drop-off and pick-up: “Not everybody can fly with the horses. We halved the riders and grooms, some staying behind to assist in loading them all, while the others flew ahead to be there to help unload them at the other end.”

Once there, the grooms and riders at Rio were accommodated in separate quarters, about 45 minutes apart by bus. So there was a lot to factor in, with getting people to the right place on time, on the right bus, to course walks, to physio appointments, who was working with the jumping trainer, and who was with the dressage coach. “Riders couldn’t just stay on the venue, walk out, do what they liked then come back to have a snooze in their truck like at a normal event,” Prue says.

Riders also found it challenging to arrive three days before the competition started, because they all just wanted to get into it. But once underway, everybody knew their job.

Planning for the unplanned is right up there on a Chef d’Equipe’s repertoire or, if they’re caught unawares, they know how to deal with it. Interestingly, each athlete is personality profiled way back in the early stages before the Games. It’s done as a team, so everybody knows everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and what buttons to, or not to, push. It’s very beneficial because it helps the Chef know how best to assist each athlete as an individual. For example, how they cope in high-pressure situations: “Someone’s horse throws a shoe, so that person’s not going to make their 9:00am lesson. So I have to find someone to swap with them, but I don’t go and pick the least adaptable person in the team,” Prue explains.

It doesn’t matter where you sit on the equestrian ladder, beginner or elite, it’s all about confidence. The Chef d’Equipe’s role in helping to create that mindset is important, and includes working with the riders to help them see their own potential. “It’s a collaboration, not a dictatorship,” she says. best riding in a certain spot in the team, Prue will have them ride in a different position at a lead-up event. When they have a good result, it helps give them the confidence to take ownership of that position and ride well in the same spot in the championship. “It all revolves around getting the best performances out of them on the day,” Prue tells me, “and the Olympics are no different. People are people no matter what level they ride at.”

On top of all the months of planning, training and unwavering commitment to the cause, creating a winning mindset is the golden key to being a great Olympic Chef d’Equipe – and Prue’s bronze medal winning Australian Eventing Team is a testament to her ability to do just that.