Take a break with ... Richard Davison

Sweep with Richard on the canter track

Introduce yourself

I am first and foremost known as an international dressage rider and a coach, but amongst my other roles, I’ve done a four-year term as British World Class Performance Manager and have been a coach to the UK Sports World Class Development Show Jumping Program for almost a decade. I’ve been on the organising team behind many high-level competitions and found myself a member of many influential committees working in the equestrian industry around the world.

Where are you based? Tell us a little about your location and facilities

I am based in Staffordshire where we have our family home and training facilities. These include indoor and outdoor arenas, a grass jumping paddock, canter track, covered horse walker, solarium and internal stabling for both our resident horses and a separate block of stables for horses whose riders are visiting for training.

What is your main competition discipline and at which level(s) are you involved?

Although I am a dressage rider and I have trained the World Class Development Show Jumping Squad for more than 15 years. I also have my own show jumpers. I have competed at four Olympic Games and have won both Olympic and European medals.

Tell us a little about your top horses

Bubblingh is my current grand prix horse. He is home bred out of Ballaseyr Royale, the mare I rode in the Athens Olympics, World Games and also in the European Championships ,where she won a bronze medal. Bubblingh was long listed for the Rio Olympics but it came a bit early for him, so it would be lovely if he makes it to the Tokyo Olympic Games.

What have been the highlights of the current season so far?

Bubblingh hasn’t been out yet this season and I plan to start him at Windsor. We’ve had some good success with our jumpers in Florida this year and when my son Joe returns at the end of March, we will get six or seven of the show jumping horses to shows in the UK and Europe. Our show jumpers compete internationally and last year had a couple of British Team duties.

What other major successes have you enjoyed in your equine career to date?

Everyone will expect me to answer this with competition highlights such as big championships, Olympics, National titles and more, but the truth is I do this because I love training and riding horses. Hence my greatest personal successes and satisfaction is when an up and coming horse learns a flying change, or suddenly gets the transition from piaffe to passage, or finds an even stride to a jump. I can’t even list what I’ve won as it becomes history the following day, but I can bore anyone to death about the horses I’ve trained over more than forty years !!

With whom do you train regularly?

My wife Gillian is a successful grand prix rider so we help each other. When we are at big shows together Carl Hester and I have always helped each other, as we’ve done that for so many years now.

Which three tasks do you carry out EVERY day on the yard?

Well, the most important one at the start of everyday is to work my sheepdog! She is called Sweep and does not let me do anything else until we’ve done that.

Then it’s a walk around the yard to check each horse and catch up with the staff.

After that I write a list of the timings of the daily training, together with any other information about the day.

How do your horses benefit from the use of the ArcEquine and why do you feel it is an important element in your success?

We use ArcEquine to maintain healthy cell function. Every part of the horse’s body is made up of cells. There are many different types but it’s critical that they are all able to function optimally, as this maintains the physiological balance.

In equestrian sport it is often impossible to avoid injury and inevitably some structures, especially soft tissues, become weakened or damaged. We have found ArcEquine helps the horse to restore its body back to a healthy state with minimum delay.

What happens next?

This year we have a busy year with the top dressage horses and building up the team of jumpers. We will see how each horse is developing and work out a provisional competition plan accordingly.

What is your favourite meal?

Steak – you knew I’d say that didn’t you?!

What are your most worn items of clothing

Breeches!

Snow or beach holiday?

Snow

Dogs or cats?

Both, but of course Sweep comes top of the pile.

And finally – Tea or Coffee?

Both – coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon (but no biscuits, sadly).