Missing out on a spot on the Australian team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Brett Parbery says he has certainly "had better years". After having been Australia's best scoring rider at the 2010 World Equestrian Games with Victory Salute, Brett lost his top horse in December 2011 and had to go above and beyond in Europe in an attempt to qualify his green Grand Prix horse Lord of Loxley for the Games.
"There have been many highs but some lows that have definitely bought me back to earth," Partbery told Eurodressage. "It all started with the agonising fight to save Victory Salute from the grips of laminitis, a battle that we lost just before Christmas. That left us tired, empty and deeply saddened."
Three weeks after this ordeal, Brett received the news that the Olympic selection policy had been finalised, and that he now had to fulfill some very tough selection criteria with his mount Lord of Loxley (by Lord Sinclair x Landadel), all before 1 March 2012.
"That gave me 8 weeks to get three scores above 66% on a horse that had never competed Grand Prix." he said. "Notwithstanding that, the horse was in Holland and I was in Australia, and I had to fly immediately to Europe and go straight to a show. In the end none of it mattered because our High Performance team didn’t stick to this part of the Selection Policy anyway."
Under the altered selection policy Brett had to change his whole competition plan to fit with the criteria, putting his tourist visa (90 days in 6 months) at risk. "This meant that during my preparations leading into the first selection event, I had to come home for a month so that I didn’t overstay my visa," he explained.
This obligatory trip led to a poor preparation for his first selection event in Mannheim, Germany, where thunderstorm warm-ups and consequent resistant issues in his test, led to the end of his Olympic campaign. Parbery then went to his second selection trial in Compiegne and was absolutely thrilled with Lord of Loxley, but "unfortunately didn’t quite make the cut." After Compiegne, he travelled back to Holland and flew back to Australia.
Taking on a coaching role with the Australian Eventing Team Brett repositioned his focus, which became a new highlight in his professional equestrian career. Although he wasn't riding at the Games, he certainly felt as though he was part of the action.
"I love my role as coach to this wonderful group of people," he admitted. "I worked with them right through until the end of the Olympic Games where, from an eventing dressage perspective, we came out on top, with all of our 5 team scores combining as the leading average after dressage. That was a real thrill for me, and the London Olympic Games were just fantastic. I have some memories that I will cherish forever."
Returning back to Australia at the Games' conclusion, Brett is now busy bringing new life to his dressage stable in Sydney.
"Coming home has been great but hard. I have a wonderful family and a wonderful client supporter group. They have stuck by me for what has essentially been three years of competition and training abroad and they have never once complained. If it wasn’t for them, I probably would have given up by now. My horse power is good but I haven’t had enough time with them to secure a good relationship so that is what I am working on now. I am trying to rebuild my business and rebuild my stable of horses. On this front all is going well."
With some really nice horses in work split over two stables, Brett has a lot to look forward to and hopes that more opportunities will come his way.
"At Penrose I have three that I hold high hopes for: DP Weltmieser, QEB Good as Gold and PPH Zeppelin. At Mulawa, I have just been given the opportunity to ride some super nice horses, Luxor, Aber Hallo and Furstin Friendship."
As for Lord of Loxley, Brett says the horse was never bought to be imported back to Australia and says that he will now be given to Hans Peter Minderhoud to compete until he is sold.
"Lord of Loxley was bought by the late Clyde Wunderwald as a horse for the 2012 Olympics and then after the Olympics he was to be sold. This was always the plan and still is the plan. He is still in training with Edward Gal and Nicole Werner and Hans Peter Minderhoud is going to take him to some shows for me. Hopefully he will sell to a lovely home. He is really sweet and deserves a really nice home."
Putting the record straight on the widely circulated rumour that Brett was to be given the ride on the Oatley family's owned horse Toy Story, Brett knows that the dressage world is full of unproven gossip.
"It comes with the territory unfortunately. For us, dressage is what we do but it is not who we are, but for some people their whole life is dressage and they lose perspective. I know exactly where the rumour about Toy Story and I began. It all started when the big media frenzy kicked off regarding our team selections. It was front page news here in Australia and it was also on one of the biggest morning shows here. About a week before the frenzy started, I could see a ground swell occurring through social media and through a small website over here known for creating controversy. Whilst I wasn’t particularly thrilled myself with the way the selections had been managed, I felt that the team chosen was correct and that we should all get in and support them. So as the problems were arising, I was trying to calm the storm by asking people to think about the team and pleading with them to get in behind the selected team and support them. But unfortunately some nasty people saw that as me conspiring with those who had been selected and decided that I was in cahoots with the Oatley family and was obviously getting the ride on Toy Story for my troubles. It is a ridiculous notion and has proven to be incorrect."
Parbery was never promised to ride on Toy Story and is not getting it. "My only motive in the whole thing was to be a true blue Australian and stick up for my mates who were being fired at from all angles. It wasn’t their fault they were selected so why punish them for it," he added.
Experiencing the Australian Olympic Selection process first hand, Brett acknowledges that the process was confusing and therefore there were many takes on it, which could be the reason why there was so much controversy.
"Like I said, I pushed myself and my horse to fulfill the criteria, naively thinking that this was required to be available for selection, but in the end I didn’t have to do any of it. I should have stayed with my original show plan. Next time I will handle it differently," Parbery said about the hard lesson he has learnt from the puzzling 2012 Australian Olympic selection criteria.
Having learnt that one shouldn’t let the Federation change one's plans, Brett now gives the advice to realise that you are the best at knowing what you have to do and how you prepare yourself to be at your best when it counts.
"I think we have all learned a lot from the London selection and I think EA will look at a much simpler model for next time. It becomes harder for EA when it is an Olympics because they have to conform with Australian Olympic Committee guidelines but something has to be taken out of the fact that we had appeals in all three Olympic Equestrian disciplines. Interestingly, we have never had this amount of problems when selecting teams for a World Games, where there is no intervention from Olympic Committees," said Parbery.
Parbery thinks that the biggest challenge Australian dressage faces is picking up the pieces from the 2012 selection and trying to resurrect the credibility of the industry. "Dressage is currently at an all time low with regard to industry perception and confidence in the sport," he said. "We just saw one of the lowest attendance rates at our Australian Dressage Championships, which is no fault of the organisers or the volunteers. They are still running a great show but unfortunately our sport is tainted and people just don’t want to come and watch it."
Brett hopes that a strong person with great vision will be put in charge to take the sport and drive it forward. "We need someone who can cut through the politics with a common sense approach and keep the benefit of the sport as their motive," he said. "Sure they will step on some toes and get people off side but it's not a popularity contest. We need someone who is prepared to see out the pain that comes along with change and someone who is prepared to be judged by the performance of the sport and not by how many friends they have. It’s a difficult role but is paramount as a catalyst to change and growth of dressage in Australia."
Ready to enjoy his life, his family and his horses, Brett believes in his horses and believes that they all have what it takes to make Grand Prix. "2013 is about giving them the chance to be good Grand Prix horses, and then we will see where it all goes from there."
by Sarah Warne for Eurodressage
Photos © Astrid Appels
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