2010 British Showjumping Coaches Conference

Last week saw the 2010 British Showjumping Coaches Conferences take place at three different UK venues; Ingliston Country Club, Fieldhouse Equestrian Centre and Ashbourne International Stables. With the arrival of Maria Gretzer, Swedish Olympic Show Jumper and Chef d’Equipe, all the attending coaches were in for some top class tuition.

 

Maria focused on how the sport has moved forward during the past seven years since her last coaching visit in 2003. ‘Tighter and more technical courses make it more difficult to get inside today’s times. So, we have to focus on being a lot more fluent with less strides on corners and being level on approach, along with earlier organisation of riders,’ Maria commented, whilst working on horse and rider straightness and balance within the training techniques.

 

‘Coaches should be proud of their achievements building the level of performance in British riders which I have come across during my time in the UK.’ Maria said.

 

Di Lampard stated, ‘Gone are the days of getting horses too close to the fences.’ Therefore, Maria’s training techniques of getting the horses in a relaxed and level rhythm, jumping smaller but a larger number of fences were very apparent in today’s training.

 

‘It’s been an honour to have Maria here with us for the 2010 British Showjumping Coaches’ Conferences; Maria is an inspiration to all coaches and we have learnt a lot during her time with us.’ said Di Lampard, British Showjumping Consultant Head of Training.