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Perfect Partners: Alanna Richards & France

from Equestrian Hub Magazine November December 2021

by Equestrian Hub Magazine

from Equestrian Hub Magazine November December 2021, page 106

Article from: Equestrian Hub Magazine November December 2021

Young Rider: Amy Gotts-Wheeler

PERFECT PARTNERS

Alanna Richards and France

Show rider Alanna Richards tells SONIA CAEIRO ALVAREZ of her long obsession with a handsome Warmblood that fortuitously led to a remarkable partnership both in and out of the arena.

Many perfect partnerships begin with first impressions and Alanna Richards describes her first meeting with France, a Warmblood bay gelding, as magical. “I’d never ridden an animal that size and from the moment I sat on him I felt like a queen,” she tells me. “We worked well together from the get-go. At 17 hands and 790 kilograms, he’s a big horse to put together, and just the most impressive, exquisite horse I’d ever seen.”

Alanna explains that she had always keenly followed France, and then a friend alerted her to his potential sale. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “I mean, no way! Not that horse? I was obsessed with him.”

She high tailed it to Melbourne and spent the next two days riding him. At the time France was still competing for

Queensland at the EA Nationals, where Alanna watched him win the top prize before taking him home.

It was a reluctant sale of the much-loved gelding but even his then owners could see the special connection between Alanna and the horse. “They said that as soon as they saw us together, they knew they’d have to sell him,” Alanna recalls. “They knew he was going to a very loving home, and that for him to continue to do well was the most important thing. I could never have dreamt of riding a horse like that. It was very surreal to have him at home in the stable. I’ll never forget it.”

After two years with France, a stroke of good fortune occurred when an Adelaide Hills property adjacent to showing champions Chris and Vicki Lawrie’s Oakbank Farm was placed on the market. Alanna now calls the verdant 82 acres home, and runs a boutique pre-training business, Palm Equine, with the Lawries.

Already a prize winner and competition favourite, Alanna continued France’s career trajectory and the pair have competed together since 2017, notching up Royal Championships, Reserve Championships, Reserves at Grand Nationals and two Reserves at EA Nationals along with many Royal Show wins and placings, including National and Royal Show Childs Champions, and HOTY titles.

However, for Alanna the standout years followed France’s 12 month break away from competition after emergency colic surgery in early 2018. Relocating from Sydney to Adelaide in June of that year, their first show in August earned France Reserve Champion at the Adelaide Royal, followed by wins in Melbourne, Canberra and the Nationals. “Within a year of the surgery, he had two Reserve Champions and a Champion,” Alanna says. “We’ve had many amazing experiences in the arena, but this period is really notable for me. His recovery and his performance were incredible.”

A particular highlight was the 2019 Canberra Royal Champion Show Hack, where the self-described “emotional girl” burst into tears when she was called out in first place. “Winning was the best feeling in the world,” she says. “After all the hard work that we had been putting in after France’s surgery, a move across the country to Adelaide, a move into the Oakbank team, and having Chris and Vicki as my mentors – to then come out with France feeling, looking and performing at his best was overwhelming.”

Alanna tells me of a charming peculiarity the pair share when preparing to enter the arena. “His previous owner used to sit at the side stressing out because when she rode him, she’d always walk him around to prepare,” she explains. “But I always choose to go last, and we just stand there, quiet and still. Then we reverse four steps, I feel him underneath me as he lifts up his wither in a ‘Mum, I’m ready’ signal, and we just go.”

France’s champion line is shared with a full sibling who also shows, and a half sibling mare that Alanna tried to buy. “If there had been any offspring, I would have tried to buy the bloody lot of them,” she says.

In a moving example of the deep connection in this partnership, Alanna recalls an incident that still saddens her. “France was a best friend and stall neighbour of another of my other horses who died last year,” she says, with a catch in her voice. “I was heartbroken and just sobbing. France turned his body and pushed up against the paddock fence to let me climb down onto him. I lay on his back crying for a good hour, he never moved a muscle. I feel like I’m at home with him. He’s incredibly special to me. He tries so hard and can do no wrong. I love him so much it’s hard to explain. He really is my best friend.”