I love the freedom you feel on horseback, and enjoy the discipline of competition.
I think my riding has hopefully gotten a lot better, but I'm always trying to push myself.
I used to do a lot of fencing in the theater and a lot of horse riding in the early days, so I'm used to it in a way. If you're classically trained like I am, it's a little bit like mother's milk to me. I enjoy it.
Living animals are too eccentric in their movements, and the law of gravitation usually draws me from my seat upon them to a lower level; therefore, I am not an inveterate lover of horseback.
If I couldn't compete, I wouldn't ride. I don't ride for fun; I ride to prepare for the next competition, and everything that I do when I am in the saddle is always a calculated step in my path to the next win.
I'm riding you with a slack rein, my pet, but don't forget that I'm riding with curb and spurs just the same.
I had a donkey called Sally that I used to call my BMX bike. As a child, I wasn't a very good horse rider: I thought falling off was normal, and I would just get back on again. I didn't realise you weren't meant to fall off.
When you use the whip, it makes the loudest crack. It's a very, very difficult weapon to use.
I grew up riding horses and one of the most important things I learned was that when you fall off, you have to get right back up in the saddle.
