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All you need is love, says Michel Robert
Thursday, May 8th, 2008
Michel Robert will line out for France in the first leg of the 2008 Samsung
Super League with FEI series next Friday afternoon. Now aged 59, and with a
lifetime of extraordinary achievement already behind him, he is as passionate as
ever about the horses he rides and the sport he very much
enjoys.......
He is often described as "the consummate horseman", and not
without reason. He has honed his equestrian skills with a degree of penetrating
analysis like few others. From his earliest days when he accompanied his father
Henri, a country doctor in Corbelin in the Isere region in France, as he visited
patients in his horse and cart he learned to love "the smell, the look, the
sound, the feel of horses". He maintains that love to this day. "For me, if you
are natural with a horse you can establish a love with the horse and together
you can do anything" he says.
He learned his trade by working with the
best in the business. In his book "The Secrets and Methods of a Great Champion"
he describes how he gleaned the importance of concentration from "the
Englishman, Stillwell", how he worked as a groom for Jean Sarrazin - mucking
out, feeding and riding at least 15 horses a day - and how with Marcel Rozier,
Marc de Balanda, Patrick Le Rolland, Daniel Biancamaria, Hans Winkler and
dressage expert Christian Forlini he put in many more years of hard grind.
Michel did not choose the easy route to success, but he would be rewarded many
times over for his unflinching effort.
As an all-round horseman it is
hardly surprising that he first made a name for himself in the sport of
eventing, going right to the top to represent his country in the Olympic Games
at Munich in 1972. He decided on a discipline-change however "because I had too
much sensitivity for the horses. I felt that at that time three-day-eventing was
very hard on them and for me it was no longer a pleasure any more. Today the
sport is very different" he points out.
He quickly rose to the top in
show jumping too and, ten years later, took team gold and individual bronze at
the World Championships in Dublin riding Ideal de la Haye. That was followed by
team bronze in Aachen in 1984 and team silver in 1994, while at the Olympic
Games in Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992 he helped France to show jumping
team bronze.
It is Michel's mental attitude, partnered of course by a
large degree of ability, that has taken him to the top and he is keen to share
his faith in self-belief. Positivity is the key starting point - "sincere
encouragement from others is extremely rare" he says. All too often it is a case
of "don't do this, don't do that.....there is nothing like it for programming
the worst possible situations" he believes. His philosophy is to start with the
simple principle that "one is as one is" and that if you make mistakes it is
because you need to make them. In his book he describes being given a very
negative assessment during his eventing career - one that would have left many
others devastated and without any hope of improvement for either himself or the
horses he was riding. But he says, with some obvious satisfaction, "the
following year I became French Champion with one of them...and three years later
was the best French rider at the Munich Olympic Games with the other".
He says he owes his positive outlook to Marc de Balanda, father of
Gilles - "he really did encourage me with all his heart" Michel explains, and
his training methods establish trust, leading to complicity between pupils and
trainer.
"Most of our handicaps, weaknesses and complexes are, above
all, in our heads" he says adding that everyone is capable of making progress.
He is looking forward to competing at La Baule this week. It has been a
happy hunting ground for him over many years having won the Grand Prix on a
number of occasions and topping the Derby line-up as well. He took the Derby
title at the French sea-side venue one year ago with Koro d'Or - "I think it is
a special class" he says, and his 2008 nations cup ride will either be this
horse or Mme. Pompadour. He has yet to decide.
Apart from this opening
leg, the 2008 Samsung Super League with FEI will be missing that touch of French
sophistication this year. Last year the nation that set the series alight with a
double of victories in the first two seasons was relegated, so French
participation this week, while important, will not count toward the standings.
That's not a position that Michel Robert wants to see in the future - "last year
was unusual, normally we are strong" he says. He sees great potential however in
many of the newer French team riders, particularly Kevin Staut - "we have a good
group of professionals coming along" he insists and he believes France will be
in a position to field a much stronger squad by next season. - "and it will
include Michel Robert - always Michael Robert!" he says with a
laugh.
When other riders express surprise at this man's continuing hunger
to improve as a rider he replies "the day my riding is perfect is a day that
will never come". His quest for excellence never ceases and this week those
watching the first leg of the new Samsung Super League with FEI series will get
a chance to witness one of the great masters at work....and what they will see
will be fairly close to perfection.....
