jumpingaround: So was there anything you found difficult or totally foreign to you?

Amy: I am embarrassed to admit it but there were some striding exercises which I found quite difficult.

jumpingaround: Tell us about the exercises and why they were difficult.

Amy: We started off with me riding around the arena, having to go from halt to canter, using certain markers around the arena - I had to do this using seat and leg and getting the mare to use herself from the back end and John wanted more and more accuracy each time we did the exercise. This was a large part of the warming up exercises and John explained the importance of this to get the mare listening to me and working correctly.

Then we had a two plank fence set up - they were only small, say around 60cm and John would tell me to go in varying strides through them - so I had to do say 4 strides, 6 strides and then do it in 4 and 4 strides and continually changing the strides.

This was difficult for me and embarrassing because I realised just how much I ride off my eye without really riding the strides.

I realised then just how much work I am going to have to do when I get home with this type of exercise because I have noticed that most of the tracks here in Ireland (and I have been told they are the same in Europe) can really not be ridden off the eye - they are far too technical and the fences come up very fast with the distances requiring you to ride the tracks as they have been built - so when walking the course it is really important to get the strides right - no relying on my eye anymore!

jumpingaround: So what else did you learn from these exercises and will you use them at home?

Amy: Yes I will definitely be using these exercises at home. I learned from the exercises that when on course with my horse I have to trust that I have walked the lines correctly and that my horse can adjust as required and when asked. My horses at home have to become much much more rideable.

jumpingaround: Did John give you any other exercises which you will apply to your horses at home?

Amy: Again yes - he gave me some good exercises to get the horse off the forehand, so that a horse can use its scope and the simple stride exercises which will hopefully teach me to ride of the stride rather than my eye!

jumpingaround: So the session lasted around 1 1/2 hours and it sounds like you enjoyed it and learned much from it - were there any language problems because many of the Australian visitors say they really cannot understand the Irish, even though they are speaking English?

Amy: (laughing) Oh yeah - we did have one incident - it might not sound quite so funny in writing but I will try.......... John had me doing the halt to canter work and he said that I should canter between certain markers and halt at certain markers - sounds easy enough - so off I went - then he calls out to me and says "I wanted you to canter at the bus" and I got confused and said "but isn't that what I did?" - "no" says John, "you cantered at the bus" - now I was really confused so I rode over to him and I pointed to the bus which sits outside the short end of the arena and said "isn't that the bus you meant?"

John starts laughing loudly and says "I didn't say bus - I said bush!" But that was the only time we had a problem and it was very funny!

The dreaded bush disguising itself as a bus - pictured left!

jumpingaround: Ok Amy so since you left home you have been to the Young Rider and Junior European Championships, you have been to a mid week registered jumping show and now you have ridden a Dutch bred mare - plus you have seen fellow Aussie, Scottie Barclay's team of horses - do you think we have the quality of horses in Australia yet?

Amy: No not yet! The quality is getting better but the horses the Young Riders and Juniors had at the Europeans would be better than most of our top seniors horses at home. The horses are so powerfully built and so scopey - they aren't necessarily tall horses but so strong and you would feel so confident riding them to a big oxer or vertical.

jumpingaround: Many Australian's still believe that the thoroughbred is the greatest horse for showjumping - would you agree?

Amy: I think the thoroughbred has his place in showjumping at home but I don't think that they are designed to jump the courses they would have to jump over here - we have seen very few, if any thoroughbreds here in Ireland. But then we wouldn't expect to see a warmblood on a racecourse either - so I guess it is all about what horses are bred to do.

But I still have thoroughbreds to produce for the home market because they are good for a job and to fund what I want to do I do have to produce saleable horses but they are not the horses which will take me or anyone else to the top of the sport overseas - the warmblood is bred for that and so that is really what you need.

jumpingaround: So you have had your session - what do you think would be a simple piece of advice for Australian Young Riders?

Amy: Go back to basics - flatwork! And ask yourselves at a young age "do you really want to do this professionally or do you want it as a hobby?" If your decision is to do it professionally then make sure you do it properly!

jumpingaround: So as we finish off this interview is there anything else you will take home with you from your session with John?

Amy: Yes - flatwork is what it is all about! If I want to produce saleable horses then they all have to be rideable and to achieve this I have to do much much more flatwork - flatwork broken up with polework. I will be changing the way I do my flatwork and I will also be doing more of it for longer periods at a time.

I think I have realised that I am only really warming my horses up by the time I finish my flatwork - they need a good long warmup and a solid session of flatwork combined with polework and then a long cool down.