Tara Dixon, the 22-year-old daughter of Olympic team silver medallist Karen Dixon, competes in the Defender Bramham Horse Trials CCI4*-L this week on two horses.
“Mum works with me every day – we work the horses together, the young ones, these ones up here at four-star level. We spend every day together, all day and we’re very close,” Tara tells H&H after her dressage test on Global Narco today (5 June).
Combining the parent-child and trainer-pupil relationships isn’t always easy, but Tara says “it’s fab” for the Dixons.
“Sometimes I have to remind her almost to train me and come out and be critical,” she says.
“And sometimes she’ll sit there and think that I know what it looks like or what’s going wrong, and I’m like, ‘Mum, come on, tell me what’s wrong, tell me how to fix it.’ But she’s fab. I just need to sometimes encourage her to be a bit harsher on me.”
Tara Dixon left school at 18 after her A levels and has been focusing on horses since.
“I’m trying to do as many jobs as possible to get the money in, but horses are my priority at the moment,” she says. “Ever since I left school, I said I want to do the horses, I want to throw myself at it – not forever and a day, but I do want to try and do it. So if there comes a day when I draw a line and say, no more, then at least I know I gave it 110%.”
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Tara’s two rides here at Bramham are very different. She has had Mannon Farm’s 10-year-old Global Narco, who scored 40 his test today, for two and a half years, taking over after Sweden’s Erika Sjöström rode him up to two-star.
“He is unbelievably brave and forward going, absolutely game and tries his heart out. He loves the cross-country and the jumping, so the dressage is a work in progress,” says Tara, who credits training with Chris Bartle for improvement in the first phase.
“Chris is getting me into a process for everything, and simplifying it all down and getting me riding correctly,” she says.
Tomorrow at 12.07pm, Tara will start in the dressage on her parents Karen and Andrew’s 12-year-old Master Smart.
“He’s very smart, very talented, but has one hell of an ego that comes with it all. He’s very confident, very cocky and you just sort of have to guide and ask and shut him down and tell him where you’re going,” she says.
The British under-25 championship has previously run as its own CCI4*-L section here at Bramham, but this year it is part of the Defender CCI4*-S class. Tara Dixon would be eligible for this but has decided to contest the Defender CCI4*-L with her two horses.
She says: “I had hoped that they would give an under-25 prize or something in the four-star long. But I had originally planned to do the long with both of my horses as a spring goal and ultimately I stick to my own plans.
“If other things don’t line up and don’t fit in, that’s fine by me. I’m on my own path doing my own thing. Eventually lines will meet and cross and it’ll come out together.”
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Pippa is a true eventing geek and has been H&H’s eventing editor since 2005. She has first-hand experience of competing up to British Eventing intermediate and international CCI2*-L level, and has worked in the industry on a top event yard. Pippa enjoys nothing more than immersing herself in the sport at the highest level, reporting from the five-stars and international championships, including the Olympics.
