Equestrian Hub Magazine July August 2021

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