Interview - Susanna Bordone
by Federica Tattoli
by Federica Tattoli
[Federica Tattoli] How did horses enter your life? Tell me how it happened, how it came about.
[Susanna Bordone] When we were little, both my sister and I practiced various sports thanks to our mother, who had us try a bit of everything, including horse riding. From there we continued, even though at the beginning it was not planned at all. We did volleyball, dance, tennis… but in the end it was horse riding that we decided to pursue.
[FT] Tell me why you chose the discipline of eventing and then continued with it in your competitive career. Also explain what it is, what it consists of, because readers likely don’t know.
[SB] The reason is again coincidental. Living in Milan, we began riding at the Centro Ippico Lombardo (a historic Milanese riding school next to the San Siro racetrack, editor’s note). Initially once every two weeks, a lesson with the school. From that sporadic beginning, we did more and more.
The instructor who at the time worked with the privately owned ponies—the ones belonging to the riders, not to the riding school—was Claudia Di Martino, who taught eventing. So automatically, everyone who trained with her practiced that discipline. And that’s how I started too.
[FT] Okay, can you explain clearly what it consists of?
[SB] Yes. Eventing is one of the three Olympic equestrian disciplines and is structured in three tests.
The first is dressage: there is a set pattern, in a 20-by-60-meter arena, where figures are performed at the three gaits, evaluated by the judges.
The second is cross country, the outdoor test: there are fixed jumps to be taken at a fairly sustained speed, around 40–50 km per hour; they cannot be knocked down, and you must remain within a set time.
The last is show jumping, the best-known one, with colored rails to be cleared in a course. The real difficulty is that all three tests—even if held on different days—must be done with the same horse.
[FT] What feelings and emotions do horses give you, and what do you experience instead in eventing competitions?
[SB] Horses are a passion I cultivated; I cannot say I was born with it. I really enjoy working them, especially now that I compete a bit less. I like the idea of working together, of teaching, of seeing progress, and that trust that forms between horse and rider. Obviously, when riding eventing, trust is fundamental: there are many situations in which the horse must rely on you—you ask him to do something, and he does it. It’s a relationship of… I wouldn’t say symbiosis, but certainly mutual understanding.
And competitions? They are an enormous satisfaction. In my opinion, you truly enjoy competitions only afterwards: during them you are focused, you feel the pressure, you think only of what you must do. It is afterwards, when you reflect on how it went, that you really appreciate everything and enjoy it.
[FT] What is your favorite competition? Meaning both the location and the competition itself.
[SB] The competition that impressed me the most, perhaps because of my young age—I was 21—was the World Championships in Jerez de la Frontera, in Spain. More than the competition itself, I remember the atmosphere: during the parade everyone stood up, applauding… truly incredible. Perhaps because it was the first time and I was very young, but that atmosphere left a deep impression on me.
As a technical competition, my favorite—the one I enjoyed riding the most—is Burghley (Burghley Defender Horse Trials, one of the few five-star events in the world, editor’s note). It is a very important competition: it is a five-star, and compared to others it is particularly technical because of the terrain. It changes each year depending on how the course is structured—whether it starts on the left rein or the right—you might find yourself starting uphill and finishing downhill, or the opposite, or downhill at the beginning and uphill at the end. Technically, it is very strategic: you must think about how to ride, manage the horse so that he arrives fresh at the end, neither tired nor overly pushed. For me, this is the most satisfying competition also from the rider’s strategic point of view.
Then, of course, there are the Championships—European, Italian, World—and the Olympics, which make a huge impression. But given how long a rider’s career lasts, the experience changes a lot with age and maturity. In other sports, an athlete often has a range of at most six years at the top; we, instead, can compete at an excellent level for 25 years. It is clear that competing at 21 is very different from doing so at 44.
[FT] Your horses of the heart?
[SB] Definitely Ava, the mare—I prefer mares—with whom I competed the most. And then Impy (Imperial Van de Holtakkers, editor’s note), who, after a six-year break for the birth of my children, brought me back to Olympic level. I would say those two.
[FT] What are these two horses like, temperament-wise?
[SB] She was very particular, very much a mare. We had a sort of agreement: if she was annoyed on a certain day, I left her alone. For example, in the riding school there were days when the horses were taken to the paddock; she saw them and from that moment nothing could be done, she simply could not work. She was a very “hot” horse (in technical terms, a “hot” horse is more blooded, reactive, sensitive, and high-performing, editor’s note). On those days I knew there was no chance, so I brought her inside because she simply couldn’t work.
But on days when it was me who was annoyed, she went like a soldier.
Impy, on the other hand, is completely different: he has a gruff and touchy character, but technically he is a very, very good horse.
[FT] In your opinion, do women have an advantage when riding?
[SB] No. Since it is a pair, in the end it is a team made up of two beings: it’s not that a woman is better or a man is better, it depends on the horse you have. Certainly, men and women might get along better with different horses, but it is not a gender issue: it is the individual temperaments that fit better with certain horses. The same horse may perform better with a man or with a woman. I believe what truly matters is the pairing between rider and horse. That is what really makes the difference.
[FT] Of course. Each issue of Selvatico has a theme, and the theme of this issue is “origins.” What does this word make you think of? What does it evoke for you?
[SB] The theme makes me think of my father. Even though he died when I was only one and a half, I know he loved horses and rode; so I believe it is almost a genetic, innate thing. He was truly passionate: he kept his horses at the Castle of Carimate, where we had our family home. My mother told me that during the war, when there was famine and poverty, he would steal sugar from home to give it to the horses. It was a pure passion, independent of competitions—I don’t think he ever competed, or at least not in equestrian competitions; perhaps some hunt or something like that, but I don’t know for sure. When I think of “origins,” this is what comes to mind.
[FT] Bringing the theme of “origins” back to horses: do origins matter when choosing one? When you need to get a new horse, do you also look at its origins?
[SB] Nowadays yes, a bit more, but in eventing it matters relatively. Since there are no entire horses—stallions—there isn’t a direct bloodline. They say Contendro offspring, out of thoroughbred mares, are good horses: Minimo (Walvis Bay, daughter of Blue Moss, known in the stable as Mini Mossy or Minimo, editor’s note) is proof of that.
But I have never really looked at origins, to be honest.
Of course, the sport has changed. Even from when I started, before the Olympics, up to today, the horses competing at the highest levels have changed, because the discipline has evolved. Before, a retired racehorse or a hunter that in Ireland went hunting and jumped anything was enough: the cross-country phase had a very strong weight.
Now you need horses that move well on the flat, that jump extremely well, and that are also strong in cross-country. With the evolution of the sport, the type of horse needed to be competitive has also changed.
Staying on the theme of “origins,” eventing—though not at today’s extreme levels—is perhaps the discipline that most resembles the origins of the horse. In dressage you see their way of moving, while in cross-country they behave as they do in nature: they run and jump that way. The cross phase, not as extreme as in modern competitions, is what most recalls the original relationship between humans and horses.
Moreover, at the international level it is called “military” (in English and German), because it was what the military did to train war horses. It is not literally the beginning of time, but it is an example of how humans have used horses since antiquity.
[FT] And what about the word “wild”?
[SB] In nature, the horse is wild, so the term “origins” fits very well. Then there is taming, which serves to domesticate it, so to speak. But when you see videos of horses running freely on the beach, their wild side really emerges. Of course, just like dogs—which have taken on a more domestic role—horses are tamed and ridden, but they always retain something wild. Every time you are near a horse you sense it: simply, when we let them out in the paddock, you can observe how they behave and see that wild nature.
[FT] One last question: how do you see your future, both the near one and the more distant one?
[SB] There was a phase in my life in which I learned a great deal, then I continued learning, competing at a certain level until reaching the highest achievements (three Olympics, several World Championships, European Championships, Italian Championships, editor’s note).
Today, I must say that my greatest satisfaction is teaching: teaching horses, teaching riders, trying to pass on everything I have learned over all these years to pairs—horse-and-rider combinations—and also riding horses for other people.
This is what brings me the most joy now.
I believe that horses will always have a fundamental role in my life. I will never be someone who keeps them just for a casual ride, but I see them as an integral part of my life in many different ways.