Williams riding high on a winning streak
Thursday 25 July 2019
Canterbury’s Guy Williams took the title in the Bunn Leisure Trophy at the Longines Royal International Horse Show at Hickstead, West Sussex. In doing so he added another win to the record of prolific showjumping champion Rouge de Ravel.
“He’s unbelievable at the moment,” says Williams. “He doesn’t ever really hit fences, and the run he’s been on since Windsor is amazing. He won two last week, two the week before that, two the week before that, and then two at the Al Shira’aa Hickstead Derby Meeting.”
Though the 14-year-old Selle Français is a regular winner in major showjumping classes, his success has come largely as the result of a well-honed system enacted by Williams’ team.
“The trouble is, he’s so manly – you have to keep riding him at shows or he becomes hard to handle,” explains the rider. “If you wanted to give him three weeks off, he’d take four weeks to get going again. If you want to give him a holiday you need to give him a week off and then use him again. We’ve tried every way, and three weeks on, a week off seems to be the trick.”
A crucial part of that system involves keeping the horse happy – and that means that long-time groom Natalie Tinworth, a graduate of the University of Kent in Canterbury, takes responsibility for all the horse’s day-to-day schooling.
“I never jump him at home, and my groom Nat rides him all the time,” says Williams. “I never ride him at all, actually; she hacks him out every morning. I think I annoy him if I ride him every day – and then he knows when I get on that it’s time to do a job and it’s time to win. He only needs me in the ring.
“It’s quite a psychological thing with him – he’s difficult to get on, and I have to get on him at the stables. There’s a lot of little things with him. Here, it drives him mad with all the ponies – he’s a full-on stallion, and he’s feisty to handle. But that’s his make-up – and when he’s at his feistiest, he’s at his best, so I have to work with it.”
Rouge de Ravel’s win at Hickstead serves as valuable preparation for an attempt at the Longines BHS King George V Gold Cup.
“Today I didn’t really aim to go full-tilt,” explains Williams. “He’s so fast when he’s fast, and that course today really suited him. It was a lot of turns back to verticals, and he’s the best around at turning back to verticals. His balance is amazing. That’s how we win every class he wins; he’s so smooth in his turns. He’s a real Grand Prix horse in a jump-off – I know if we jump a clear in the first round on Sunday, then we’ll be in with a good chance.”
The Longines Royal International Horse Show takes place at Hickstead in West Sussex (23-28 July), with international showjumping being held alongside championship showing classes and national jumping competitions. The feature class of the show is the Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup™ of Great Britain on Friday 26 July, in which the British showjumping team will be competing for honours.
Photographer Credit: Emily Gailey
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