Lyndal Oatley was visibly emotional when she finished her grand prix test on a personal best championship score with her “unicorn” Eros, at the Blue Hors FEI World Dressage Championships.
Lyndal only decided days before the championship that she would take the 13-year-old grey gelding over her equally talented mare, Elvive. The decision paid off with “Ross” producing some beautiful work, and the pair scoring a marvellous 72.19% for Australia.
As the crowd erupted at the end of their test and Lyndal and Ross made their way out of the arena, Lyndal could be seen wiping happy tears from her eyes.
“I just wanted to do solid and really give our team the best chance we could. I wasn’t thinking of a score,” she said.
“It’s funny because I’ve had a lot of experience with him when he was insecure with noise. Here in Herning for the World Cup, he got really frightened at the clapping and ran off. So for him to actually cope with that [today] I was emotional and proud of him for doing that. Because we do this for the passion of the horse. It’s not just the six minutes in there; it’s our whole journey.
“No one sees how much we work we do with them to get them confident and to feel confident that they can show themselves [off], and that’s the fun thing with him. He went in there, showed off, came out proud as punch, coped with the clapping and wooing and I was already happy. It wouldn’t matter what score I got then, I was just thrilled that he developed and trusted me enough to come out of the arena feeling confident.”
Lyndal, who is based in Germany with her husband Patrik Kittel, admitted choosing Eros over Elvive came with “a lot of guilt”.
“It was really hard,” she said. “They’re like your children and you spend your whole life with them. I’ve had Elvive since she was seven and I know her inside out and I know what she’s capable of. But I also know at this moment when championships count we need stability and experience and at this moment Ross had that after Aachen,” she said.
“When he returned and developed his training for me, I was like, ‘This is the right moment for him’. And so I tossed and turned and I drove everybody nuts in our federation, and thankfully they were really supportive of it and let me bounce off my ideas on where we’re at so we could have the best team we could have.”
Lyndal bought Ross from a stable in Holland, where he was based to be sold. Prior to turning his hooves to dressage, he started off as an eventer – and had a stint as a para horse for a partially blind rider.
“I bought him when he was 10, after I was pregnant with my daughter. I wanted to find a horse that I could develop and come back into the sport but I hadn’t any intentions of championships at that point,” she explained.
“All I wanted to do was really get into the sport and find a horse that I really connected with to develop and have fun along the way. So this [the World Championships] was never a part of it, but it’s a great bonus.”
Lyndal describes Ross as a “unicorn” who loves people.
“He’s adorable; he loves attention. He loves to feel confident and he loves to be with you,” she said.
“He’s a really fun horse to ride because he’s so passionate and loves the partnership. That’s a really fun thing with him because if you offer everything you have, he’ll give you everything he can in return, even if it’s overwhelming for him at that point.”
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H&H’s Herning horse of the day: Mount St John Kom Fairy Tale – the mare that shone for her pregnant rider
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