What’s the best training advice you’ve ever received? The 13 competitors we posed this question to at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event needed a moment to think about it. Whether an amateur or Olympian, we’ve all learned lessons and had help from other equestrians along the way. Riding is a lifelong pursuit, and you will continue to gather great insights over the years. So what’s helped these riders find success? Here are their responses.
Calvin Böckmann
“At some point, when things are not going the way you want them to be, just take a breath, take your time, realize where you are and work on those little things. Patience is such a big thing in our sport. That’s what I always try to keep in mind—be patient.”
2019 FEI Eventing European Championships for Young Riders and Juniors team gold, 2022 FEI Eventing European Championships for Young Riders and Juniors team silver, 2024 Olympic Games traveling reserve
Will Coleman
“You can never ask a horse to do more than he’s capable of at any given point in his trajectory. Just to be patient.”
2012 Olympic Games, 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games™, 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships team silver
Buck Davidson
“Listen to the horse. The horse is always going to tell you. You can’t put your personal goals in front of what the horse is telling you. The fastest way to do anything is go slow.”
2010 & 2014 FEI World Equestrian Games, 2011 Pan American Games team gold & individual bronze
Phillip Dutton
“Surround yourself with the best people possible. The best coaches, the best farriers, the best vets. Try to emulate the best. It gives you pretty high goals to aim for.”
1996 (team gold), 2000 (team gold), 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 (individual bronze) & 2021 Olympic Games; 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 & 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games; 2007 (team gold & individual silver) & 2015 (team gold) Pan American Games
Liz Halliday
“Treat every horse as an individual. Each time you get on your horse just think, this is what this horse needs today. It’s not a cookie-cutter way. You just have to think your way through it. The more you can focus on that, the better the horses go.”
2022 FEI Eventing Nations Cup Bromont individual and team gold, 2023 Pan American Games team silver, 2024 Olympic Games
Hannah Sue Hollberg
“Stop being so hard on yourself. People are really mean to themselves. People need to relax. The horses are doing it because they love you.”
2011 Pan American Games team gold & individual silver
Yasmin Ingham
“Always work on the basics. Everything is built from that. So you have good foundations, then you can always build and produce. As I have [with] Banzai, we always make sure that the basics are always correct, then we can ask for more expression and he then always produces such beautiful movements in the tests.”
2022 FEI Eventing World Championships individual gold, 2024 Olympic Games traveling reserve
Colleen Loach
“Riding is a forward sport. Whatever you’re doing, you should be riding forward not backward.”
2016, 2021 & 2024 (traveling reserve) Olympic Games, 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games; 2015 (team bronze), 2019 (team bronze) & 2023 (team gold) Pan American Games
Boyd Martin
“Stick-to-it-ness. People who seem to be successful just stick at it and stick at it and grind away and keep doing it over and over and over again.”
2012, 2016, 2021 & 2024 Olympic Games; 2010, 2014 & 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games; 2015 (team gold) & 2019 (individual and team gold) Pan American Games; 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships team silver
Caroline Pamukcu
“My dad gave me the best advice which is never give up. Even on your lows, just keep working, keep getting up, keep going after your dreams—just don’t give up.”
2023 Pan American Games individual gold & team silver, 2024 Olympic Games
Doug Payne
“In life and sport, you’re going to miss more than you’re going to make it, so learn from every mistake you make and hopefully don’t repeat the same ones.”
2019 Pan American Games team gold, 2021 Olympic Games
Karl Slezak
“Stay focused and stay cool, and just do what you do at home and don’t try to make it better. I think that’s when it all goes wrong—you try too hard and typically make a mess of it.”
2019 (team bronze) & 2023 (team gold) Pan American Games, 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships, 2024 Olympic Games
Tamie Smith
“Always think about your horse and putting him first. They get nervous, too. In the warm-up today, Danito got a little nervous and [I] just patted him and [took] a minute. The horsemanship of it—once you get that, you can take a deep breath and not make it so serious.”
2019 Pan American Games team gold, 2021 Olympic Games traveling reserve, 2022 FEI Eventing World Championships team silver, 2023 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5* winner
This article originally appeared in the Summer 2024 issue of Practical Horseman.
Check out more Kentucky Three-Day Event coverage.
Thanks to Kent Nutrition Group and Blue Seal for our coverage of the 2025 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event. It includes lead-up events, rider interviews, competition reports, horse spotlights, photos, videos and more.
