Australian Olympian Clayton Fredericks took up the role as technical advisor for Canada’s Eventing High Performance Program nearly a year ago. In this exclusive interview with Horse Sport, Fredericks shares his first impressions of Canada’s top eventing athletes and discusses the challenges ahead for the country’s high performance program.
You must be pleased with the recent successes of Rebecca Howard and Jessica Phoenix at Burghley, Blenheim and Haras du Pin, particularly in terms of looking ahead to next year’s World Equestrian Games.
CF: Yes, we’re certainly in the team building phase, and it’s good to get those results at this time. The riders have been told that each of them needs to have as many horses qualified and ready to go for team selection as possible.
Does the chronic lack of depth when it comes to the number of three- and four-star horses in Canada remain the biggest challenge for Canadian Eventing?
CF: The biggest problem I see is there really isn’t an owner culture. In Europe, it’s a given thing that people want to be involved in the sport. This is something we really need to focus on. Canada’s got great riders, but experience comes only from getting the runs. The trouble is, a lot of the riders don’t get that opportunity; they don’t have the funds to run more than one horse, which leaves them limited as to how much experience they can gain.