EQUESTRIAN TEAM TRAINING DAY WITH ALEX HUA TIAN, CHINA’S TOP OLYMPIC EVENT RIDER & SARAH HIGGINS, BRITISH GRAND PRIX DRESSAGE RIDER

Our Captain, Darcey Wilkinson (Year 12, Carus) organised a whole day of training for our team riders with Alex Hua Tian, China’s top Olympic Event Rider and Sarah Higgins, top Grand prix Dressage Rider. Each rider had an individual dressage lesson with Sarah and a jumping lesson with Alex at their stunning yard in Cheshire.  

These two talented professionals had our riders and their horses sussed within minutes and gave them invaluable advice to work on. Alex and Sarah mentioned that,” it was immediately obvious how much our riders loved riding for the school and how supportive they were of each other and that each showed great talent.”   

Our riders and parents had a tour of their impressive yard and met past and future Olympic horses including Don Geniro, who went to Rio 2016.  We learnt about training schedules and what it takes to compete at world class level.   We finally watched an inspirational dressage demonstration of Sarah Higgins teaching a future Asian Games dressage rider on her beautiful horse.  

Our team came away from the day buzzing and will put into practice all the advice given over the next few months of training.  The team wish Alex and Sarah all the best for the coming season and would like to thank Darcey for organising the memorable day.