01/11/08 - Georgia Bruce at the Paralympics - "The Horse Magazine"

Left: Georgia Bruce Riding Victory Salute, with Mary Longden (National Coach) on left and Carolyn Lieutenant (Owner & Coach) on right.

This story was written by Georgia
for the November 2008 edition of "The Horse Magazine".



I have known Carolyn Lieutenant for ten years. I first met her back in 1998 at the RDA National Championships when she was National Coach for the Paralympic Preparation Program Squad. At the time Judy Cubit was also on the team as the Chef De Quip (Team Manager) for the PPP squad. It was Carolyn and Judy who first gave me the opportunity to compete internationally. Then a young rider, they took me with the team to the RDA Trans Tasman Challenge in New Zealand. In the years that followed I learned so much about dressage from both Carolyn and Judy. I tried to soak up every word they said. In fact I remember the very day when I first learned to ride a half pass with Carolyn. I did not make the Paralympic Team in Sydney 2000. Though I tried to stay in touch with them, and they would often turn up at Paralympic Training camps in the years that followed. Carolyn had just got into breeding horses and I always asked her how her young horse Victory Salute was going. As it turned out, Victory Salute, more affectionately known as Sam, went really well. Over the years I followed his progress and results with interest as he progressed through the grades, with first Mathew Dowsley, then Rodney, and more recently with his rider Brett Parberry.

In December last year, I had pretty much given up all hope of finding a suitable horse to ride at the Paralympics in Hong Kong. I had achieved qualifying scores, at the necessary lead up competitions and World Championships...but I was resigned to the fact that I was not going to find a horse and would have to just focus on training my young horse and working at the Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve. It was at this time I sent out some Christmas cards, I also sent one to Carolyn. As it turned out she had also been thinking about me...she rang me up and asked if I had found a horse for the Paralympics, I said no...then she asked if I would like to try Sam... I was shocked and honoured and amazed that Carolyn was willing to offer me such a wonderful opportunity to ride her beautiful horse!

Sam was being ridden by Brett Parbery and they were doing really well, it even looked like they had a chance at being selected on the Olympic Dressage Team. Being a keen supporter of Paralympic Dressage for so many years, Carolyn thought that if her horse was to be in Hong Kong anyway, maybe it could stay there and be ridden in the Paralympics as well? Her only concern was that Sam was so big...nearly 18hh and she wondered if I would be able to cope riding such a big horse. Anyway she was willing to give me a go and see how it worked. So the plan was for Brett to finish the Olympic qualifiers in Australia. Then I could come and have a few rides on Sam before Brett and Sam flew to Europe to train with Hubertus Schmidt and prepare for their Olympic campaign in Europe.

I was elated...just when I had given up...along came the best opportunity ever!
So Sam and Brett competed in Australia in the Grand Prix, their marks kept getting better and things were looking good for them. Preliminary selection trials were held at SIEC in March, Brett and Sam ended up in first place, a great way to start their European campaign. Sam was going to be worked lightly before he headed for Europe, so Carolyn could not see any harm in me coming and having a few rides on him before he went away.

Sam and I got along really well from the start. At this stage the Paralympic selection trials were also underway. Due to EI, we could not hold a single qualifying competition. Instead the selectors and judges travelled around to each horse rider combination and they rode through their tests that way. The timing worked in perfectly, and after just six rides the selectors and judges all came to watch me ride through the grade four Paralympic tests on Sam.

If Brett was selected for the Olympics on the horse, I would start training on Sam immediately after the Olympics, not a lot of time, but we thought it could still work. The selectors however were not convinced, they thought this would not be long enough to train. If Brett did not get selected, then hopefully I would travel to Europe and get 4 weeks to train on Sam. With so many unknowns the selectors put Sam and I on the Reserve list.

Carolyn was a little annoyed...after all this was an Olympic standard grand prix horse she had offered to the Australian Paralympic Team! The selectors had chosen four riders but had not made up their minds on the fifth rider yet. So they chose three reserves and delayed the decision on the final rider until June. It was dissappointing and a relief all at the same time. I had not made the team...but I was still in with a chance. It would be a nail biting few months waiting for the final decision.

I went back to north queensland and spent the next few months training, competing and getting good results on a variety of horses just to prove to the selectors that I would be ok even if I only got to ride Sam in the short period after the Olympics. Sure enough they eventually took a risk and in June they decided to put me on the team.

The team included:
Jan Pike - Grade 1A - Riding the stallion Northern Griffin, owned by Terrina Fairbrother. Nicole Kullen - Grade 1B - Riding her own imported horse Nikshar Nomination.
Grace Bowman - Grade 1B - Riding Yarra Valley Mount Batton, owned by Liz Wright-Smith.
Sharon Jarvis - Grade 3 - Riding her imported gelding Applewood Odorado.
Georgia Bruce - Grade 4 - Riding Victory Salute owned and bred by Carolyn Lieutenant.

So the next phase of my Paralympic journey began. Waiting to see if Brett and Sam would make the Olympic Team. I really did want them too. How fantastic it would be for a horse to compete in both an Olympics and a Paralympic Games in the same year. What a remarkable horse that would have to be...
I had a feeling that Sam could be that horse. He was going so well. With each update from Carolyn I heard that Sam and Brett were getting better and better. Hubertus had really helped improve their basics and they were starting to be real contenders for selection. They were starting to show moments of brilliance in their tests. However unfortunately their competition results were not yet consistent enough and in the end the Olympic Team selectors decided to go with the steady and reliable performers…with Heath and Rozzie Ryan taking the final two slots on the plane to Hong Kong. Sam and Brett were selected as non-travelling reserves. Still an awesome achievement, but this meant Sam would not be on that first plane to Hong Kong. As it turned out he was almost not on any plane to Hong Kong. He originally had two flights reserved, a flight to the Olympics and a flight to the Paralympics. When Sam did not make the Olympic team his name was removed from the computer and both flights were. Apparently someone forgot that he still needed a flight to the Paralympics. For a brief moment it looked like Sam may not get on a plane at all. The flights out of Aachen were full.

Brett could have gone into quarantine in Aachen as the non-travelling reserve but he decided not to. Rozzie was already a reserve and it was unlikely that two horses would go lame in the brief period before the games.

It was the end of July, the phone rings and it’s Carolyn, "how soon can you get on a plane and come to Germany to train with Sam?", she asks. Keen to get as much time with Sam as possible I packed my bags and in a few days headed off for the experience of a lifetime.

I arrived in Germany and travelled to Bad Salzuflen to stay with Peter and Matina Hufendiek where Sam, Carolyn and would stay and train for the next two weeks.

The Hufendiek's are the nicest, most accommodating people I have ever met. They made us feel very welcome there and it was great to have a nice stable for Sam as well as an indoor and outdoor arena to train in. The Hufendieks’s son Hubertus Hufendiek, competes at Grand Prix level dressage and works as a bereiter for Hubertus Schmidt. His partner Anne-Lenne also lives there, trains the horses and competes at Grand Prix level. So the whole family are into dressage and are very knowledgeable.

On my first ride on Sam, I could immediately feel the benefits of five months of Brett's training with Hubertus Schmidt. He felt much stronger in the back, straighter, better in the contact, more supple and definitely was moving a lot freer than he had been when I had ridden back him in March.
My lessons with Carolyn were fantastic, and I also enjoyed getting help and advice from Anne-Lenne and the Hufendiek's.

Carolyn and I knew we had to have Sam in quarantine by the 18th of August. Two days before this date we still did not know where Sam would be flying from or where we were going to do the quarantine. There was a possibility of travelling to England to do quarantine there, as a horse had pulled out and there was a spot on the plane. However this meant a lot of extra travelling not to mention extra expense, we were hopeful that a space would become available for Sam to fly out of Aachen. Sure enough a horse pulled out due to lameness and Sam was granted a flight out of Aachen.

We arrived at the Aachen showgrounds on the 18th of August. Having never been there before it was a fantastic experience to get to ride there...even if it wasn’t at the Aachen show!
With such impressive arenas, superb training conditions and a well run quarantine station, it was easy to see why nearly all the european countries had decided to go there for quarantine. Even the Americans had flown all the way to Germany to do pre-export quarantine in Aachen.
It was like a dream, training at Aachen on Sam with Carolyn coaching me.

Without the stress of competition, the atmosphere at Aachen was really friendly. It was great to be able to get to know and talk to the other competitors and teams. Everyone was very relaxed, except for the Americans who were tired after training on their horses every 12 hours, at 9am and 9pm.

Sam soon became famous at the Aachen quarantine. Firstly for being the tallest horse to come through quarantine there, out of both the Olympic and the Paralympic horses. Secondly for his incident involving a large, steel, stable gate. Sam had been tied out the front of his stable. Somehow he managed to rub his face and get the brass ring on his halter stuck through the gate. He freaked out briefly, running a few strides up and down the breezeway carrying the enormous steel gate, before finally standing still and waiting for someone to help him. Proving the strength of a big horse like Sam, it took four men to lift the gate so we could cut the halter and free him from the gate. It could have been a disaster, he could have killed someone, or injured or killed himself. Luckily he is so sensible. We anxiously examined his legs, only to find very minor heat where he had banged into the gate, we attached ice to every part of his legs possible and amazingly he was completely fine the next morning. Though we were very cautious and gave him the next day off and continued to ice his legs. We then went back into training for the remaining few days and things were going well.

So on the 28th of August after 10 days quarantine the time had finally come to load Sam onto the plane bound for Hong Kong. I went with Sam on the plane. He travelled really well, ate and drank normally and arrived in Hong Kong in excellent shape, though a little tired from the trip.

When we arrived that night, the rest of the Aussie horses were already there. They had done their quarantine in Melbourne and had arrived 2 days before Sam and I. We were shocked to see some of the other countries start to ride their horses almost as soon as they had gotten off the plane.
Not our horses though. They were given a few days to settle in and recover from the trip.
Only Grace's horse Monty was a little worse for wear, though within a few days he was back to normal.

The venue was the transformed Hong Kong Jockey Club at Shatin. No expense had been spared to create the most was amazing state of the art equestrian facilities we had ever seen. The backdrop of steep green mountains and endless highrise buildings made the venue even more surreal and impressive.

In the mornings we walked the horses and gave them a pick of grass on the gallop track along side the Shatin River. The horses were quite startled when they first saw boats rowing alongside them!

With the benefit of our own team vet, Chris Elliot, and armed with the information of how the horses and riders coped at the great "test event"…the Olympics! A training program was devised for our horses that was aimed at keeping the horses as fresh as possible in order to avoid them getting overworked in the heat.

It was not overwhelmingly hot, but the humidity was so high that you could feel the thickness and heat in the air as you moved around. It was so humid that our cameras and videos cameras were all fogging up and shutting down!

We began light training on the 30th of August. I gave Sam a very light ride, a good walk then a short session of stretching and suppling at the trot. His muscles were still a bit stiff after the long flight.
Over the next few days we continued to work the horses lightly, trying to take advantage of the coolest part of the day. We were also able to ride a few times in the air conditioned arena, which was a large indoor basketball court that had been converted into a dressage arena. With each ride, Sam was feeling looser and starting to move more freely.

After a couple of days I was able to pick Sam up and do a little bit of collected work before, ending the session and taking him into one of the misting tents. These tents were excellent at cooling the horses quickly, they had ice cold water to hose the horses with as well as fans that sprayed out mist.
By the 4th of September the Australian horses were all going well, though we were still keeping the sessions short.

We had heard that many of the Olympic horses were really worried about the large screen in the Competition Arena. So we were keen to get in there and see what our horses thought about it.
We walked them in hand to begin with and they all coped extremely well. We were also able to have a training session in there in the daylight and later in the week a session at 11.30 at night. Sam was fine in the competition arena, he was not the least bit interested in the screen.

Griffin was also fine. He has got to be the most relaxed and calm stallion I have ever seen.
In fact he was a little too relaxed and Jan was having trouble keeping him active in the walk. The other three horses were quite tense. Nicole's horse Nomination was tense and Sharon's horse Odie was set off like a rocket. He really put on a show, taking off and then rearing so high it seemed he was going to tip over backwards. Sharon stuck on him and put him to work. After quite a bit on cantering Odie decided to concentrate on Sharon again. Monty spooked so badly it caused Grace to hit her nose on his neck as he spun around. Graces nose was bleeding a lot and looked like it may have been broken.
So our horses were certainly feeling fresh, a little too fresh.

Normally all riders compete in the Warm Up Test. The scores from those on a team go towards the Team Medals. Those that are not on a team, use the event as a warm up test. A team is made up of 4 riders from each country. Though some countries don't have enough riders to make up a team, and some countries have too many, so there are a lot of riders who compete as individuals.

Our Chef De Quip, Ken Dagley informed us that the officials had decided not to allow the individual riders compete in the warm up test on the same day as the team riders. You would think a decision like this would occur months even years before the event. Instead we find out three days before that one of our riders will not even get to ride a test on the first day of competition. The event organisers cancel all the chef's meeting so that no-one can protest. A small test competition is planned for the day of the trot up, which is two days before the start of official competition. The non-team riders will ride a test on this day without a flame, audience or any atmosphere. This will mean a distinct disadvantage for them in the championship test when these things will all suddenly be present.

Coach Mary Longden, Assistant Coach Sally Francis and Chef De Quip Ken Dagley made the difficult decision of which rider would not be on the team. Ken announced the team as we were all busy unsaddling. They ended up choosing Jan and Northern Griffin to ride as Individuals, as they thought Griffin was not showing enough activity.

On the morning of the 5th of September, we had the trot up and vet inspection.
We were the first country to trot up and the Australian horses all looked fantastic, despite the rain dumping on us moments before we went in.
That afternoon Jan and Griffin rode the Warm Up test for non-team members. Unfortunately his usual rider was not able to get on him and really get him going forwards before Jan rode. Griffin was looking too slow and laboured and they scored 60%.

For the rest of us competition started on the 7th of September, with the Team Test.
Each grade rode a different test, the scores added and the total team score calculated.
At 8.18 in the morning Sharon was the first to go for Australia. She got off to an explosive start as Odie was really hot and not coping with the atmosphere. There were some moments of real tension and resistance, but also some moments of fantastic movement and presence. She ends up doing well placing 5th with 62.923%. Grace and Monty are our next combination and Monty is also feeling fresh and is suddenly scared of the pot plants. He slams on the brakes near C, and refuses to go. Grace gets after him with the whip, determined to continue with her test. She does well to get him through it but for a moment he stops again, the marks come tumbling down. 58.235% and 7th.
Nikshar Nomination and Nicole Kullen are 3rd out for the Australian Team. Like our first two horses, Nomination is feeling a little too fresh. His steps are short and tense, bringing the score down to 60.235% and they end up in 6th place.

As the last rider for Australia, my draw is after the Norwegian, Anne Cathrine-Lubbe and her stallion Zanco. This combination was the Grade 4 gold medalist's from Athens.

I knew I was going to really have to go for it. Sam livened up in the atmosphere of the main arena. However this worked to my advantage giving him a little more cadence and impulsion. Our test is pretty good, we have a mistake where he changes behind in the medium canter. We also ground in a walk pirouette and end up with 67.571%. For Sam and I it is a great start to the competition. We place 3rd behind South Africas Phillipa Johnson and Anne-Cathrine Lubbe from Norway.

Left: Georgia recieves her bronze medal.

The next day is the Grade 2 and Grade 4 Individual Championship tests. This means Sam and I are the only Aussies to go since Australia does not have a grade 2 rider. After the success in the previous nights test, I am feeling a little more confident. I also know that this is a more difficult test, so I will have to really perform to stay up there. Sam and I are drawn near the end of the Grade 4's, this time with Anne-Catherine Lubbe to follow us.
Phillipa Johnson and her supple, loose moving gelding had set the standard, with the score 69.25%.
Phillipa has a South African passport, but she lives and trains in Europe. Her horse has really improved since Athens. It is a lot more collected and so soft and obedient. Really a pleasure to watch.
Sam and I enter the arena. He feels good. We ride a flowing test with no real hiccups. Again, we ground in one walk pirouette, but the half passes are flowing and the transitions are fairly crisp.
The score is 68.258%. For a moment we are in silver, only 1% behind gold. But there is still the reliable Zanco and Anne-Catherine Lubbe to go. Sure enough they pip us out of Silver by just 0.5%.
Meaning Sam and I end up with Bronze. The Aussie crowd erupts...Carolyn and I are thrilled.
The gold and silver medallists have been training with their horses for over ten years, Sam and I have only been training together for 4 weeks, so I think we did pretty good considering.
That night was a bit of a whirlwind, with media, drug testing and celebrations. Not everyone could celebrate though, as the rest of the Aussie riders had to perform the next day.

The 9th of September was the individual championship tests for grade 1 and grade 3.
Our first rider to go was Jan Pike in Grade 1A at 9.am. Jan rode acurately and Griffin was much more forward. Unfortunately he was so forward that he actually jogged a few times in the walk, bringing the marks down to 60% and leaving them in 9th place. That night Nicole Kullen and Nomination performed the Grade 1B championship test. Nomination looked calmer, Nicole was focused and going well.
All of a sudden Nomination stumbled, almost fell to his knees, but then leapt into the air to try and regain his balance. Nicole did well to stay on but Nomination was now obviously very unsettled and Nicole struggled to keep him focused for the rest of the test.
They ended up 11th with 59.905%
Next in the Grade 1B for Australia was Grace Bowman and Yarra Valley Mount Batton (Monty). They were looking sensational as they went around the arena before the bell rang. Then right before Grace entered the arena, Monty shied and span around 360 degrees. Grace regained her composure, trotted a circle and then headed into the arena. It was a good start, straight centreline, square halt, good transition into trot... it was all going well until Monty spotted the same killer potplant he had seen in his first test. He stopped and half reared refusing to go near the potplant. Grace was able to ride him through the resistance, but the marks came plummeting down as Monty stopped again. They end up with 56.286% and 15th.

The winner of the Grade 1B was Lee Pearson riding the big brown loose moving gelding Gentlemen. His test is by far the most forward even if the horse is not really quite sitting enough behind. Lee won Gold in both Sydney and Athens Paralympic Games. He is a good rider and a real performer. His horses always power around the arena in a nice outline without putting a foot wrong. Lee is like the Anky of the Para Dressage world. The judges are always confident to give him high marks though some people often wonder if he gets a few extra marks just for entering the arena.

Para equestrian judging has changed dramatically since Athens Paralympics. Riders are now given realistic scores. Scores that would be given if an able bodied rider rode the same test.
If is fantastic to see that the Judges are now really judging dressage and no longer giving away sympathy votes.

It is always difficult to be first rider out in a dressage competition. At 10.24pm Sharon Jarvis and Applewood Odorado were the first of the Grade 3 riders to ride their championship test. Sharon had been able to give Odie the work he needed between the team test and the individual test and as a result he was much calmer. Their test was accurate and forward moving test...the judges thought so too, giving Sharon and Odie 69.200%. It was an agonising wait as the rest of the grade three riders completed their tests. Gold ended up going to Hannah Lore Brennen riding Women of the World in the Grade 3 Individual Championship test. This mare is like a miniature Farbenfroh, she has huge paces paces and is beuatifully ridden by Hannah. Silver went to Denmark, and Bronze went to the other German Grade 3 rider Bettina Eistel and her big gelding Fabuleux. Sharon narrowly missed out on a medal and finished in 4th place. Still an excellent result.

The next day was the Grade 2 and Grade 4 Freestyles. Sam and I were on late at night about midway through the draw. We performed to music from Fiddler on the Roof which Judy Cubit had helped arrange. It worked out really well and Sam performed brilliantly. We set the standard with a high score of 74.319% though the South African and the Norwegian riders were still to come. I couldn't bare to watch. Instead I stood in the misting tent with Sam, Carolyn and Mary Longden, waiting and hoping for a good result. Eventually all the scores were out. Sam and I were again in Bronze, with Norway in Silver and South Africa in Gold. The placings had been the same for all three grade 4 tests. At least we had been consistent!

The 11th September was the last day of competition, with the Grade 1 and Grade 3 freestyles.
In the Grade 1A, Jan and Griffen in fine form. Griffen was more forward and the music specially composed music by Buddy Holly and the seekers worked well leaving Jan and Griffen in 9th place with 65.555%. In the Grade 1B, Grace Bowman was glad that Monty had finally got over his phobia of potplants. The test was fairly good, the music was fun and really suited the horse. Though Monty was behind the vertical and looking very heavy on the curb rein. They finish their test with 61.611% in 12th place.

Also in the Grade 1B section was Nicole Kullen and Nikshar Nomination. Nom was looking much so much calmer and more focused today allowing Nicole to really ride her freestyle well.
It was looking good, Nicole was in bronze right until the very last rider went in. Sure enough the Brazillian, who was last to go, pipped Nicole out of Bronze and they ended up in 4th with 66.110%

The last rider of the whole Paralympics was Sharon Jarvis and Applewood Odorado.
Sharons music was the Beetles and Simon Garfunkle, however Odie was feeling fresh and his tension showed through a little too much, leaving Sharon with 69.446% and 7th.

The Australian Team ended up ranked sixth in the teams event, which was the same team result we got in Athens 2004. We had been amongst a record of 73 athletes from 28 countries who had participated in the 5 spectacular days of competition. It was also the first time the Paralympic Equestrian events had drawn a respectable crowd, with 30,000 spectators coming through the gates to watch the event.

Overall the 2008 Paralympic Games was an amazing experience, I feel so lucky to have been a part of it. I am especially grateful to Carolyn Lieutenant for coaching me and giving me the ride of a lifetime on her wonderful horse Victory Salute.



Left: A very happy Georgia Bruce