Are horses and riders fit enough at five-star? A panel of leading riders discussed equine and human fitness, at the 2025 FEI eventing forum (17 to 19 January).
Five-star winner Bettina Hoy, who moderated the session, introduced the topic by saying: “One thing that has come up in a lot of our committee meetings when we talk about previous five-stars and championships, is that we do notice a lot of the horses and also the riders are actually not fit enough. They have the MER [minimum eligibility requirement], but the level of fitness seems not good enough.”
Bettina explained that Ros Canter, Andrew Nicholson, Phillip Dutton and Andrew Hoy were selected for the panel, as they are “well known for having extremely fit horses”.
Each spoke in depth about their own programmes, and how their backgrounds and bases play into that. From the aspects Andrew Nicholson brings from his racing background, to how Ros uses the long, slow hills on the Lincolnshire Wolds to build strength and fitness in her string.
Three of the key takeaways were understanding how to best use facilities available, thinking about the psychological effects of fitness work on horses – and how to make that positive – and training riders to truly understand and think about fitness work in detail.
“I think nowadays they have to be even fitter than when we had the steeplechase,” said Andrew Nicholson, nodding to how intense courses are in today’s sport.
They also questioned whether some riders are understanding what it feels like when a horse starts to tire, and so are at risk of missing those cues when it happens in competition. Whether up-and-coming generations of riders are missing out on opportunities to learn about fitness also arose, as did how to tailor fitness exercise for young horses.
Ros expanded on thinking carefully about the mentality of each horse when developing a fitness plan.
“Lordships Graffalo finds that work very easy and enjoys it. But I have other horses that maybe would become a bit more demoralised at the thought of going up that hill six times,” she said.
“It’s about working out which horse should be galloping alongside. Should he come out best at the end of it, or be beaten [by his galloping companion horse] a few times?”
Ros added that she would also factor in whether to taper off intensity in the last few gallops before a big event, to give certain horses a mental boost – so they get to a competition looking forward to galloping.
“I think about how I would feel – I’m doing the London Marathon in April, so how would I feel if my last two weeks of training were gruelling? I’d absolutely dread the thought of going to do the marathon. So there’s a psychology behind it,” she said.
“It’s also about training the riders we have with us at home to get the same feeling and understanding. I’m always looking over, helping and explaining why we’re going to do something, to ask what feeling they have, and what impact they think that might have if they were going across country.”
Ros has spoken previously about how she has had to learn to ride faster across country, and she explained how developing that skill means it is now a strength.
“To this day I would be the type of person that would happily go around a course for 30 time-faults,” she said.
“That would be my comfort zone. But I also believe that’s now my strength, because [that feeling] is not something that’s ever going to go away, so I have to prioritise it.
“I prioritise that training all the time and the psychology behind it, and because I do – and because I train hard for it – I don’t take it for granted, and then I can turn it into a strength.
“You can turn anything into a strength, if you understand yourself and how to do it.”
Bettina called on Pippa Funnell in the audience, who spoke generally about coaching and how much she learnt from the years spent with Ruth McMullen.
“I feel absolutely passionate, in coaching, that I only train how she trained me – and it was all about the horse,” said Pippa.
“It was so much about working on ourselves as riders. Her greatest phrase was that 95% of the horse’s problem is the rider on the back. Another great saying, which I use the whole time, is ‘work on your horse – your horse will get better. Work on yourself, and all your horses will get better’.”
Event director and course-designer Andrew Fell gave the example of how the old-style long-format competition at Bicton, which has roads and tracks and a steeplechase, is an opportunity for grassroots riders to think about their own and their horses’ fitness.
“The majority of the riders, when they come away from it, say they’ve learned a lot,” he said. “I know we have gone away from that format and we’ve moved forward [as a sport], but I think there’s a great learning tool there in actually asking these riders to do the speed and endurance.”
The panellists’ approach to their own fitness varied, but time developing “feel” in the saddle is something they all spoke about.
Andrew Hoy said that there is “no replacement” for being on a horse – and handling horses – when it comes to developing feel.
“We can all teach technique, but we can’t teach feeling,” he said. “Feeling is something that the athlete needs to learn themselves.”
Watch the full panel discussion from the 2025 FEI eventing forum (video name: Saturday – 1. Athletes & Coaches)
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