Riding at CCI4* level is an impressive thing to do at any age but to reach that level at the young age 18, as Isabel English has now done is super impressive.
Isabel English is now keen to build on her Adelaide 4* performance where riding her little 15.3hh horse Feldale Mouse she finished 12th, going clear cross country with just 1.2 time penalties.
“My aim for 2014 is to continue doing a few 3 stars and looking to the future I would like to go overseas and ride at Badminton … that would be really great,” said Isabel when we spoke to her after she had completed Adelaide.
A well done from mum is always nice
Isabel was certainly born into a ‘horsey’ family. Her parents both rode and evented, although her father suffered a fall in a riding accident, which meant he is no longer able to ride.
“Despite dad’s accident he has never thought of stopping me or my sister, Lizzy, from riding. Both mum and dad are great supporters of us and I certainly wouldn’t be where I am today without them.”
The moment a proud dad realises his daughter has just completed her first 4*
Isabel, who was born in Beau Desert, Queensland, starting riding from a young age and has memories of sitting on the front of her mum's saddle. From there she went onto her own pony and started competing.
“With mum and dad both being into eventing it seemed the obvious thing for us to do – although Lizzzy has now turned to showjumping. I started off riding a great little pony then moved onto a Galloway and Feldale Mouse was my third pony. He was very naughty when we got him and I was still really small and only about 13, so I used to fall off a lot.”
Feldale Mouse looking as fresh as ever on Sunday's trot up at Adelaide
Feldale Mouse was never really bred to be an eventing superstar and could have ended up as just a cute little grey horse had it not been for Felicity Cribb.
“I had seen a Thoroughbred mare that I really wanted to breed with,” said Felicity “and it just so happened that this mare was in foal to a Connemara stallion by Domo Cavallo Praize from the Glenormiston Stud in Queensland. The foal was born and soon afterwards the mare died, which was such a shame because it was the mare I really wanted. Nevertheless I broke Mouse in, rode him at Introductory level eventing and then sold him to the English family. He certainly could be naughty but over the years it has proved to be a naughtiness worth working with.”
The sire of Feldale Mouse - Connemara stallion Domo Cavallo Praize certainly had a good jump
Photo: Glenormiston Stud
As Mouse began his eventing career and started to move up the grades the English family called in the help of Kevin McNab, who rode him for about six months and started him at 2* level.
“I was still quite small at that stage (I’ve only really grown in the last couple of years) and I just couldn’t hold him. Kevin did a great job with him and together with the help of my wonderful coach, Tony Manca, we have managed to make the whole thing work. Mouse was always a talented jumper but his enthusiasm for the job used to make him really hard to ride – these days he is much easier to ride.”
Isabel's support crew, including Tony and Felicity, watch her cross country round on Adelaide's big screen
Despite her young age Isabel has already been exposed to team competition having represented her country as a member of the Young Rider Trans Tasman squad in 2012 and, judging by her performance at Adelaide, this young lady could well be seen on Australian teams in the future.
Home clear and just three seconds over the time
At Adelaide it was easy to see that Isabel is something of a perfectionist after seeing her reaction to a few mistakes she made in her dressage test with Mouse. “It was my fault. I just didn’t ride well … it should have been much better.” It was the same reaction after her show jumping round when she had a couple of rails down. We did try to point out that going clear cross country and just outside the time was something worth celebrating to which Isabel replied “Yes I know. He was really good on cross country … but we shouldn’t have had those two rails down!”
With ten horses to ride this year it will be interesting to watch how Isabel performs on not just her top horse, Mouse, but on her horses across the grades. As members of Eventing QLD’s 2014 Elite Squad you can be sure she will be working hard to make those results as close to perfect as she can get! “I have applied to do a Uni course starting this year but thankfully I can do it online so I won’t have to be away from the horses at all, so although things will be quite busy I think I like it that way.”
Take a look at Isabel and Mouse in action at last years Melbourne CCI3* where they finished eighth.
"Tony is a great coach and is always around to help out"
