Equestrian: Global stage the true test, eventers

By HELEN TUNNAH

He is one of the world's leading equestrian figures, but Captain Mark Phillips is reluctant to prophesise about New Zealand's eventing future.

"I ran a clinic here three or four years ago, and it didn't go down very well.

"They didn't like what they heard. I told them they weren't as good as they thought they were," he says.

Phillips' message to aspiring riders may have been too frank, but what he hoped to convey was that New Zealand's developing talent needed to test itself on the global stage, to take a "reality check" against the world's best rather than relying on the domestic circuit to gauge ability.

"It's all very well to win at Taupo or Puhinui, but it's only when you put in the same performance overseas, and don't win, that you can begin to judge yourself at international level.

"You only 'arrive' in the sport when you start winning Northern Hemisphere three-day events. It would be very sad if you had to make your base there, but I do think you have to compete there at some stage."

Phillips had a brief stopover in Auckland this week to check the course he designed for the Puhinui three-day event, before returning to the United States, where he has been the national eventing coach for the past decade.

Arguably, the Americans have replaced New Zealand as the dominant force in world eventing, winning the world championships team title in Spain this year. Veteran David O'Connor is the reigning Olympic champion.

New Zealand, the defending champions in Spain, finished without a medal and the sport faces a rebuilding phase with the retirements of Mark Todd and Vaughn Jefferis, and the winding down of the international careers of Blyth Tait and Andrew Nicholson.

The four riders, who have won three Olympic individual titles and five world championship gold medals between them, have provided the backbone of New Zealand teams across two decades.

Todd is now national coach, and Tait is expected to also take on a coaching or leadership role for the new crop of riders, developments Phillips says are "great news" for the sport here.

The Americans have already identified the horses and riders in contention for the 2004 Olympics team, with veterinarians, farriers and even a sports psychologist available to oversee their training programme.

But Phillips adds that the changing face of the sport will require a change in approach to development programmes, for all nations.

Eventing at the Athens Olympics will be run along a new format that reduces the influence of the endurance test and places more emphasis on dressage and showjumping skills.

New Zealand thoroughbreds have traditionally had an edge over the steeplechase and cross-country, and Phillips says it is clear more time will have to be spent on dressage work, where the Europeans - particularly the Germans - excel.

"It will be a very different type of competition. You'll still need to have a fit horse, but you won't need the same degree of stamina.

"If you were buying a horse today, you would ask 'is this horse going to do a good dressage test?' I don't think you'd want a horse that couldn't trot its way out of a paperbag.

"In America we have for the last two years been going more to the [dressage] Grand Prix world and getting their help because we've got to get a lot better at it."

Phillips says it will be good for eventing to develop better dressage and showjumping skills, but he has reservations about eliminating the steeplechase and much of the roads and track work, which might lead to too much speed on a shortened cross-country course.

"I just have some concerns about taking a horse over a four-star track with a full tank of petrol."