The Season That Never Was - An Insight from Ben Phillips, Scott Brash’s Home Rider
Looking back to the beginning of 2020 the suggestion of the current global situation would have simply been laughed off, however fast forward 10 months and the world is working through a pandemic. 2020 was supposed to be The Year for so many people around the world, but the Coronavirus pandemic has challenged us all to adapt in ways we never imagined.
How did this pandemic affect our equestrian athletes and their plans? We spoke with Ben Phillips, groom to MBE Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Brash, to gain an insight into how COVID-19 required their team to change plans and adapt.
EQ Team:
Looking back to that start of lockdown when restrictions were first in place, how did you and the rest of Scott’s team alter your approach to producing horses for top sport without having scheduled events to attend?
Ben Phillips:
‘The biggest challenge, to begin with, was the lack of a time frame for how long we would be going without competing.’
‘We were cautious of not letting the horses become too unfit as there was no way of knowing when the first shows would be, and we didn’t want to miss the first set of shows back by horses beginning merely unfit. This needed to be balanced by not keeping the horses in full competition work - they were ridden for the same amount of time each day, but at a lower work rate.
Reflecting on how the situation developed back on March 26 the UK went into National Lockdown resulting in the cancellation of equestrian events. British Dressage and British Showjumping shared a combined approach to suspending sport until the 19th April to fall in line with the Governments predicted timeline, however as we later learned the initial 2 week National Lockdown turned into months. As mentioned by Ben the lack of an exact time frame posed as an issue when keeping Scotts horses ready for competition. However, the time spent not being able to travel, competing and focusing on the top string of horses, allowed for the young horses to become the new focal point. This was also the case for other GBR riders such as Will Fletcher.
‘The break in our normal competition schedule gave a great opportunity for the younger horses to be produced and developed at home.’
EQuerry Team:
How do you think governing bodies have reacted to the pandemic in the UK and abroad in relation to transparent communication of guidelines?
Ben Phillips:
‘I believe messages were slow to pass on and took an effort to gain the information itself. ’
By August this year, equestrian activity and sport continued to take positive steps towards full resumption across Great Britain. As riders were able to return to the arena and everyone concerned were working hard within directives set by governments, it proved quite a minefield and became apparent that each UK Equestrian governing body took varied approaches to provide their members with up to date COVID guidance, and in particular when compared to the FEI, which we found to be more transparent, efficient and clear in their communications.
EQuerry Team
How do you suggest this could have been dealt with differently?
Ben Phillips:
‘Simply if the information they held was given out in a much clearer format. There needed to be a more straightforward path to find the information regarding different problems that we were facing.’
Have you something you would like to say following this turbulent year? Drop Christine a message on christine@equerryconsulting.co.uk, we would love to hear from you.