H&H interview: Sarah Cohen
The British event rider has just one horse, but has been long-listed for this year’s European Championships. Catherine Austen finds out how she does it
IT’S every one-horse rider’s dream: to win at the top level, on a horse you have produced from scratch — and maintain a balanced, happy family life outside of horses.
In the modern sport, it is almost impossible, which is why Sarah Cohen really is in a class of her own. She has competed at just three events this year, and has won both a CIC3* — the Event Rider Masters (ERM) class at Wiesbaden in Germany — and a CIC2* at Burnham Market, as well as finishing sixth in the ERM leg at Chatsworth.
Two days after our interview, her name appeared on the long-list for the European Championships in Poland, in August.
“It’s all a bit surreal,” she admits.
We are sitting in the kitchen of the lovely barn conversion near Tilton-on-the-Hill in Leicestershire that she shares with her husband Miles and two children — Alfie, who is eight, and Charley, four. The miniature American barn set-up behind the house comprising four stables, a wash-down area, tack-room and haybarn, has only two occupants: Treason, the big bay horse who is now her only ride, and her daughter’s pony, Blue.
They are part of the family: Miles organised a party after Wiesbaden to celebrate her
victory, and Treason grazed happily on the lawn alongside them.
Of course, it hasn’t always been like this.
For 17 years until the summer of 2014, Sarah (née Cutteridge) rode for Vin and Liz Jones’ Preci Spark eventing operation, producing horses all the way through to four-star. She enjoyed a great deal of success, and was one of Britain’s most respected riders.
“When I left Preci Spark, I only had Treason at the top level, and when he became injured, the thought of starting all over again and fitting it all in round two children was too much,” she says. “I was feeling disillusioned, and although Miles has always been very supportive, he isn’t horsey, and I needed to change the balance. I was throwing everything into horses and I needed more family time.”
Treason was 12 at the time, and Vin kindly said she could take him home and do what she liked with him.
“I thought he was too good to retire yet. I was quite ready to call it a day, but I owed it to him to keep going,” she explains.
BUT how, without the relentless rhythm of riding and competing a team of horses, can she be competitive against those who are doing it day in, day out?
“The first year [2015], it was quite hard to get back into it. But Treason and I know each other so well, and he is such pleasure to work with and to ride; we were having fun,” she says. “I do take my own fitness very seriously, and always have done. I get up at 6am every morning and do The Body Coach or Insanity workout videos before the kids get up, and I run with the dogs. If you are going to compete at a high level, you have to take it seriously — I still do everything as thoroughly and properly as when I was doing it full time. Treason feels the fittest he has ever been.”
Last year her end-of-season goal was Burghley, where the pair finished 12th. She was also third at Barbury, and fifth in the ERM class at Gatcombe, and that series became her focus for 2017.
“When you have a horse who is good enough to be competitive, why not do the ERM?” she asks. “I love the buzz about it, and the big prize money does give you a hunger.
I’ve always been a competitive person, even if it is just racing Miles down to the stables. And competing once a month is absolutely perfect for me because it means we have lots of family time at weekends as well, which are precious because Miles works in London and only sees the children at the weekends.”
After finishing sixth at Chatsworth, she was inspired to have a go at ERM’s first leg outside Britain at Wiesbaden. She was the only Brit there, but the likes of Ingrid Klimke and Julia Krajewksi meant it was a competitive field.
She, Treason and Amanda Bristow, a former Preci Spark groom, travelled in Sarah’s little two-horse lorry, sleeping in the back of it.
“I went over wanting to be in the top six, but I didn’t expect to win!” she says with a huge smile. “I was sitting on the ERM podium when Ingrid, who was in the lead, had her run-out, and I couldn’t believe it. My phone had died so I couldn’t ring home, but Miles was watching it live with the kids, and they were going mad.”
It was, she says, the competitive highlight of her career.
“Apart from getting selected for the Athens Olympics in 2004 [on The Wexford Lady, who picked up an injury out in Athens and so didn’t compete],” she says. “But that soon ended — we actually did this and won it. I’ve certainly never won so much prize money, for sure.”
SARAH doesn’t have a school at home — she does Treason’s flatwork and canter work in the neighbours’ field next to the house. Once a week, she takes him to her old friend JP Sheffield’s yard to jump him.
“JP has been amazing — Treason has always jumped to the right, and we’ve got him straighter and jumping with more confidence,” she says. “But I am saving up for a school, not really for Treason, who I trust completely, but if I ever get a young horse. I’m here completely on my own all day and it would be safer.”
The Athens experience still niggles at her. “We were selected — some people think we were the reserves, but we were on the team. The team coat and tails are collecting dust in my wardrobe. Yes, I could have used them since but I felt I hadn’t earned the right to wear them.”
After Wiesbaden, her plan had been to target more ERM classes and, if she was highly placed in the series rankings, go to Blenheim for the final rather than Burghley. However, the Europeans may throw a spoke in that wheel. There are 18 others on the long-list, but her form would be as good as any at this stage.
“I’ve always loved being part of a team and thrive in a team atmosphere,” she says. “Riding wearing the flag I have earned has always been a dream — it’s one thing I have never actually got. What will be will be!”
She might just lay that Athens ghost to rest yet.