Andrew Hoy hits the Jackpot

Andrew Hoy speaks about fatherhood,lockdown and how much he is looking forward to competing again

I would have to say that I have definitely not been one for holding other people’s babies or dealing with other people’s children – I would have said I’m not good in that respect. But once this tiny bundle appears and you are suddenly holding your own child it’s so different and you just get on and do everything that needs to be done. It’s very levelling. The one thing that is very special these days is that the children always greet you the same way. It always brings a smile onto my face when Philippa, who is 30 months old, walks into the stables carrying a balloon or leading a dog, it doesn’t really matter what she is doing it’s very good for interrupting my progress in a lovely way! Every night after Stefanie and I have put the children to bed I give her a hug and say ‘we are so privileged to have two such healthy children.’ This is something that every parent dreams of and we have certainly hit the jackpot at this point and time.

I get great joy in taking the children to competitions where they can experience different cultures ... They are learning Swedish, German and English

I have had so many years of international competition and travel and it’s all been about what I have been doing. Now, although I still do the same things and I still want to be very competitive, but we now bring a family entourage along. To do that it’s all about making sure you’ve got things in place so that my wife Stefanie and the children can be there as well, I think it’s really important that the children travel with us.

The thing that I have really learnt about children is they learn by example and I get great joy in taking the children to competitions where they can experience different cultures and different environments. We have a Swedish nanny for Philippa and Oscar (10 months) who is not only very experienced in childcare and the education of children, but she has also been involved in the equine industry. The children are learning to sing in Swedish along with speaking some Swedish, Stefanie can speak to them in German and myself in English. It’s just wonderful for the children to have those opportunities. I joke with Steffi saying ‘these children don’t realise how lucky they are’ but that’s not their fault they have just been so lucky to be born into this environment. As you get older and you realise how fortunate you have been with your life and what we are able to actually do.

Do you think it will be hard to get back into competition routine after spending a few months in ‘lockdown’?

I have definitely been privileged in the past few months, because being at home has allowed me to work with the development of each horse and spend time with the family. I have been speaking with my mother, back in Australia, on a regular basis and she gets to see the children on video calls which is just so special and something I never thought I’d be doing – I’m very lucky. Being at home has meant we’ve been able to sit in the garden of an evening and we didn’t realise how beautiful our area was going into summer evenings because normally we would have been on the road. So, in that respect it has been absolutely fantastic but I’m very much looking forward to competition.

We didn’t realise how beautiful our area was going into

summer evenings because normally we would have been on the road.

Click on the image above to see Andrew, Philippa and Toad doing some hill work!

It just so happens that just prior to Covid I had ordered a new truck and trailer that is now ready for me to collect and it is going to take everything to a new dimension! Not only have we set it up for the horses, but we have also set it up for us as a family. There is a sleeping area for the children, a totally separate sleeping and living area for the groom, also somewhere for the nanny and somewhere for Stefanie and myself. The truck was developed in an individual way to make the travelling for the horses more comfortable – in close discussion with Dr Rachel Murray, who works on the biomechanics on all of our horses. She has done some very interesting studies on travel and we have tried to adapt it accordingly into this new vehicle. High Performance is all about marginal gain – so I hope that the horses will be able to take this marginal gain of a more comfortable travel into the competition arena. It has also worked great to set it up for us as a family - Philippa is excited and asking to have a ‘sleep over’ in the new truck when it arrives.

I guess the children are already riding?

It just so happened that we had a miniature Shetland here as a companion pony before Philippa was even thought of and that was the pony that Philippa started riding on. Then a good friend of ours gave Philippa another miniature Shetland when she was born – we had the choice of a 3 year old stallion or a 16 year old mare. Funnily enough we didn’t think a 3 year old stallion was really suitable so we took the mare only to discover it came with a yearling. So, at the age of 30 months Phillipa has 3 ponies! Both Stefanie and I agree that the children don’t have to ride. We will not be pushing them into riding but equally if they want to ride of course we are in the position to be able to give them the opportunity. Philippa is quite funny at the moment because she will ride her pony and then when she gets off she hands me, or one of our team members the lead rein. I was thinking why is she doing that? But then I realised that’s what I do – I get off one horse, hand it over to a member of the team and get on the next one, so she’s following my example.

We have given Phillipa her own little tie up area where we tell her to groom her pony. At the moment that consists of brushing the forelock and the mane but because she sees other members of my team grooming horses properly, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before she gets better! Oscar is happy enough to sit on Toad (the coloured shetland) but one day when I was sitting on Vassily he was passed up to sit in front of me for a minute, something that Philippa loved to do but Oscar started screaming and he didn’t like it at all, so we promptly took him off. I love the funny stories that children provide you with and this one is from father’s day when I cooked breakfast and made Philippa a boiled egg. I was showing her how to peel the boiled egg which she was finding difficult until she sat back in her chair and said, ‘I haven’t got time for this!’ I don’t know where she has learnt that from because it’s not an expression, I use but she’s obviously heard it at some stage and picked up on it. On another occasion I was at a competition riding a horse who was jumping around while we warmed up for dressage and standing on his hind legs. Finally, he went forward but I came out of the arena not feeling that great and thinking ‘I don’t know what’s happening here’ when I looked over to Phillipa who obviously thought the whole exploding thing was fantastic and was giving me a standing ovation. It’s very interesting to see their perspective on things. We can have what we consider to be a bad day, but they are still so happy to see you and come running and give you a big hug and its really very special. As any parent would know becoming a parent doesn’t come without its challenges of sleepless nights and frustrating moments but when it comes to the love it is unconditional love.

Someone once said to me …

Just say you have a beautiful park and then a windstorm goes through and blows the trees over and makes a terrible mess and we are very upset but to a child that ‘mess’ is suddenly the best playground they have ever had.