Anneli on training

“MY philosophy on training is I don’t want a robot, I want my horse to think for himself while listening to me. I never had a fall eventing though I rode over 40 horses, and some had a disgusting style!

“It’s been puzzling me why these rotational falls happening now in eventing rarely used to happen. But I think many riders who have had bad falls have made their horses like robots. The horses have lost their initiative so they can’t adapt to taking off too close or far away.

“Obedience has been overemphasised. While that’s OK for showjumping, for cross-country with varied footing and distances, horses must be able to think for themselves.

“It never fazed me if I couldn’t turn my horse into a robot. Yes, it needs to go forward when you say so, and it mustn’t be wild, but you can give way in some areas and it will then look after you.

“Maybe I’m wrong; it would take me two lifetimes to learn how to train horses.”