‘Like being in the lead’: Badminton rider credits ‘compete re-think’ from special trainer for dressage ‘breakthrough’

The 2024 Mars Badminton Horse Trials has so far proved to be something of a breakthrough for rider Lauren Innes and her horse Global Fision M (Flipper).

Lauren, who works full-time as a chartered accountant, has a degree in biological sciences from Oxford and a masters in investment banking, scored 41.4 in the dressage with the 14-year-old owned by her family.

“The mark is nowhere near troubling the leaders, but for me it is the same as being in the lead,” said an ecstatic Lauren, 33, who switched from Great Britain to ride for New Zealand in 2022.

Flipper has form for bubbling over in the first phase – he scored 46.4 at Badminton and 45.3 at Burghley last year. He is a great jumper, though, and fearless across country and they finished 24th at both events.

“He came into the collecting ring earlier this week and was like ‘absolutely not – I am heading home’ and I thought ‘ wow, we have a lot of work to do between now and Friday’,” explained Lauren, who is based in Hampshire. “I had no expectations at all. I went in today and he was a bit tense and I thought ‘oh God, this is going to be a really long test’. And then he started to breathe.

“OK, it’s not perfect yet, and I know we can do a lot better but that was a massive breakthrough for him in that atmosphere on the Friday afternoon at Badminton – I didn’t think I was going to get a 41, that’s for sure.”

Lauren, H&H’s 2021 amateur rider of the year, said that Burghley 2023 was a turning point.

“I know how talented Flipper is and after Burghley, where he completely lost it in the main arena during the trot-up and the dressage, I said that we needed to have a complete re-think. We needed a different approach to see if we could help him, because he’s not a malicious horse – he wants to do well – he just really struggles to deal with [the atmosphere].”

Lauren Innes: “I can’t thank him enough”

In January, Lauren called on the help of Jason Webb, a British-based Australian-born horse trainer, who specialises in starting young horses under saddle and retraining horses with behavioural and ridden problems from his base near Tunbridge Wells.

“I previously had an advanced horse that was really difficult to lead and someone recommended Jason,” says Lauren. “We sent the horse down and when I rocked up two weeks later, I thought he was sedated, he was just so calm and quiet. I said ‘wow, what has he done to my horse?’ and I’ve looked to Jason for good ideas with certain problems ever since. He is really good at reading horses and understanding what they’re thinking.”

Lauren and Flipper scored 50.9 in the CCI4*-S at Thoresby in March, but she says there is a good reason for that.

“Jason came with me and we decided to break a few bridges and ride a few circles in the arena in the hope that I could get something a bit better when I got here – I can’t thank him enough – we wouldn’t have got that test today without him.”

Jason has been supporting Lauren by being at Badminton this week.

“Jason has let me know what Flipper is thinking, where and when to work him slightly harder, when to let him rest, where to turn, when to not put too much pressure on, when to add a little bit of pressure and when to release it, and just talking constantly to me,” explains Lauren. “We’ve been doing all these five metre circles and I didn’t do any flying changes or leg-yields in the warm-up, but the circles meant I could move his body and get my leg on, which I can’t do when he’s tense and so powerful too.

“Working with Jason has made a massive difference to Flipper and hopefully it will continue as we’ve only just started.”

Of the Badminton cross-country track, Lauren Innes says “it’s big and bold”.

“All the lines are there in front of you and I just have to keep riding, keep showing Flipper the fences, and he’ll keep jumping for me hopefully.”

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