10 Questions for October

Copied from the wonderful Viva Carlos

What do you consider “jumping high” for yourself? Anything over 60 cm if I have to jump! For anyone who does jumping on a regular basis then I consider anything over 1m to be high and really quite impressive.

What are your short term goals for riding? Do you think you’ll reach them? My current short term goals are to have both my boys in full work. That's it. I'm nearly there with Vallu and Basse has just started doing trot work so within a few months if everything goes as it should then both boys will be back to full fitness.

Long term goals for riding? Do you think you’ll reach them? I definitely would love to compete at the higher levels and at do a PSG at least once in my life!

Bigbro winning the GP Freestyle at the Helsinki International Horse Show 2016

How many barns have you been at in your riding career? 5 in UK before we moved back to Finland, then our current yard that is our home and then the 2 yard that Vallu stayed at whilst we were in the UK for my university degree. I have also been at my brother's yard in Germany.

How many different trainers have you been with in your riding career? I've had so many trainers that I don't even know what number to guess? I had several different trainers and went to many different clinics with my pony, I don't even remember how many trainers have helped me with Basse over the last decade - jesus I feel old! With Vallu I've had three really good trainers (Ville Vaurio, Andrew Fletcher and Lili Brooksby Dalby) who have trained me and Ville for the longest time.

Ever worked at a barn? What did you do? For the first half of my gap year I worked at my brother's yard in Germany,where I was a groom so this included helping with the tacking up, grooming, clipping, lunging etc of the horses that we were stabled with him. I also went to the vet checks and to competitions and got horses ready for prospective buyers.

Scariest thing that has happened at your barn? I've been incredibly fortunate to have never had anything incredibly scary happen at the barn. The worst was when Basse managed to tear his nostril open and there was a lot of blood, and then when a couple of days later when he managed to tear the stitches open again and there was even more blood!

Have you ever given a lesson? What level was the rider? I've given 'green' beginner lessons to people as well as helping out my friends when they've been riding. I've also assisted more experienced riders by just reminding them of the basic stuff either at home or at competitions.

What is your opinion on the accuracy of critiquing riders online? I prefer minding my own business. Unless someone is training and competing at a higher level than me, I don't want or need anyone else's critique. I also prefer praising others' for their achievements instead of trying to bring them down with criticism about their riding skills.

What is the ideal height of a horse for you? I like anything above 160cm, but I think the best ones are about 168-170cm. Vallu who we think is about 178-180cm is definitely of the upper limit for me. No bigger than that thank you!