Free Riding | Alycia Burton

ALYCIA BURTON AND HER SMALL BUT MIGHTY PINTO GOLDRUSH ARE A PARTNERSHIP DREAMS ARE MADE OF. WHEN THEY ARE JUMPING TOGETHER, OR EVEN JUST RIDING DOWN THE BEACH, THEY MOVE TOGETHER AS ONE. IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT AND SOMETHING MANY RIDERS STRIVE TO ACHIEVE WITH THEIR HORSES. ASHLEIGH HENWOOD CAUGHT UP WITH ALYCIA TO FIND OUT JUST WHAT IT IS THAT MAKES THEIR PARTNERSHIP SO INCREDIBLE. READ ON FOR SOME SERIOUS INSPIRATION.

Always one to put her horses’ needs before her own, Alycia made the tough decision to stop competing Goldrush four years ago in order to focus on their partnership. He is very sensitive and big crowds overwhelm him, so she felt that it was in his best interests for her to stop focusing on competition and instead concentrate on being the best she could be. She hasn’t looked back from that decision, and credits her success to her change in focus, as shortly afterwards she started to experience attention from all over the world.

“When I decided to stop competing, I stopped trying to be better than other people and started to try and be the best that I could be. You may never be the best but you can always be better then you were,” she explains. “Not long after this change, Free Riding NZ went global - we have had over 13 million views on YouTube and have hundreds of thousands of followers from around the world.”

It was a risk for Alycia to make the trip from Christchurch with her sensitive gelding to the Horse of the Year show, and was a decision she didn’t make lightly. “Since I stopped competing I have not wanted to give any large demonstrations. Instead, I have been focusing on training horses at home and staying low key,” she says. “However Horse of the Year 2016 became of interest to me after being contacted by some large organisations about the possibility of performing overseas. Demonstrating at Horse of the Year was a good way to test the waters to see if it was something I wanted to pursue, and to see whether Goldrush would still be rideable in the big atmosphere.” The gamble paid off for the pair as they flawlessly tackled 1.70m like it was nothing, giving the illusion the jump was much smaller. “I absolutely loved the experience and the feedback from people was really encouraging. I will continue to look at the idea of going overseas and if the right doors open for us at the right

“YOU MAY time, I will take the opportunity,” Alycia NEVER BE THE says with excitement. “I’m not going to BEST BUT YOU lie - I had no idea how Horse of the Year was going to CAN ALWAYS BE go. It could have been a complete BETTER THEN success or a complete failure. He

YOU WERE” is naturally a very sensitive, hot horse and gets scared easily when I am not on him.” Due to this, taking him to a big atmosphere with an electric crowd, booming speakers, and difficult lighting was a huge ask. “I went in with zero expectations except to keep him as calm as possible.” Prior to entering the main arena, Alycia could feel that Goldrush was feeding off the energy from the crowd. “I could feel he wanted to explode but he was such a good boy and stayed calm. I was so proud of him because there were so many factors that could have altered his ability to judge the rail heights - the main one being the shadows cast by the lighting - but he executed them flawlessly.”

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MAKING IT WORK “WHEN WE STOP ASKING SO MUCH OF OUR HORSES AND WE In previous years Alycia has kept around 15 horses in MAKE IT SIMPLE AND VERY CLEAR TO THEM WHAT WE ARE work, but for the past year she has made the decision to ASKING OF THEM, AND WE PRAISE THEM EACH TIME THEY focus on having three or four of her own horses and a few TRY, THEN WE START GETTING A REALLY GOOD PARTNERSHIP clients’ horses for re-training. “This allows me more time to travel and teach - when you have too many horses in work this is almost impossible!” She enjoys being able to devote more time to the horses, with one of her biggest WITH OUR HORSES, BECAUSE UNDERSTANDING COMES IN. TOO MANY HORSES ARE CONFUSED, SCARED, OR DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT WE WANT AND DON’T TRUST US.” strengths being able to read each horse individually and work with him in a way that best suits him. “Every horse is different with their personality, temperament and previous life experiences. I have done a lot of re-breaks on dangerous horses that were about to be put down. Being able to rehabilitate them into happy horses that love working with people is the most rewarding return as a trainer,” she beams.

Recently Alycia has been putting much of her energy into working on her clothing line when she isn’t out with her beloved horses. “The t-shirts were a huge success at Horse of the Year and on the Free Rider website worldwide. With feedback from our customers, I am working on expanding the brand so there are more options including hats, jackets and hoodies, and a wider range of sizes.”

Her short-term goals come as no surprise and are focused around the Free Rider brand. “Collaborating with different distributors is time-consuming but necessary to ensure that the products sold are high quality with appealing designs. The Free Rider clothing brand makes a statement and the feedback has been that riders love it! It is important that they are classy enough to wear out to town but still tough and durable enough for riding in,” she explains.

In the long-term, Alycia’s goals are much bigger. “I would love nothing more than to be in a position where I can impact our youth in a serious way,” she says. “My horse success is the platform that joins us together, but my real heart is for youth who are struggling with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and who generally believe the lie that they are good for nothing. The goal is to show our youth that it doesn’t matter what background you come from, that you are important and have so much value to give. Everyone is over-developed in some areas and under-developed in others, so it’s about bringing out what they are passionate about and speaking and sowing good into their lives.”

Admirably, when Alycia dies she doesn’t want to be remembered as ‘the horse chick who jumped big’ - she wants to be known as someone who helped change the direction of people’s lives when no one else would. “To me that’s what actually matters.”

Alycia has only had around 15 lessons since she was 12. “I stopped having lessons because most of them caused me to fight with my horse or they didn’t make sense to me,” she explains. “I didn’t have the money for regular lessons anyway, so I learned from a very young age to listen to my horses and became very tuned into them. I have had hundreds of horses, mostly off-the-track, rejects or dangerous ones - and those have taught me the most. What I thought was the biggest curse, never having the money to buy a nice horse, has turned into the biggest blessing because now I have made a career from it.”

Alycia is a self-proclaimed perfectionist when it comes to her position, striding and jump technique with both horse and rider. “When a horse comes in and has a bad jump technique, such as hanging his toes or jumping crookedly, through much experience I have developed methods that offer a permanent solution while still working in harmony with the horse.” PHOTO kampic.com It is very rare that Alycia ever finds herself disappointed with a horse, even if they have a terrible training day. “A person can only be disappointed if their expectations are broken. So I avoid being disappointed by having realistic expectations of both myself and my horses,” she says. “I don’t let my emotions come into training because human emotions change all the time and we shouldn’t act on how we feel, we should act on what we know is right. A horse needs consistency and it doesn’t help any situation by letting our emotions go up and down around them.” As a trainer she feels that it is important to expect that problems will happen, to know that some days will be bad, that there will be highs and there will be lows. “There will be freak accidents, miracles, and all the amazing times in between which balance it all out. I make it crystal clear to my horses exactly what I am wanting from them. I work with my horses as individuals and I am very quick to calculate and react to situations. Success is made up of hundreds of small fixed failures. If I fail at something I get up again every time and try another way until I get it right. It might be fail - get up - try another way…fail - get up - try another way… until finally finding success.” Alycia also thanks and credits Dynavyte NZ for their amazing support to her team. “You can only get out what you put in.” C