Dressage Days

A trip to the LeMieux National Dressage Championships wouldn’t be complete without the commentary, interviews and witty repartee provided by the Radio Nationals duo of Kim Ratcli e and John Bowen. This has become an integral part of the Nationals experience for many.

We were delighted to catch up with Kim, a List 1 Judge, National Para Judge and BDCC Level 3 Coach who also sits on National Para Judge and BDCC Level 3 Coach who also sits on the BD Sport Operations Committee. Kim (pictured on holiday the BD Sport Operations Committee. Kim (pictured on holiday in Turkey) lives near Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire and, when in Turkey) lives near Waltham Cross in Hertfordshire and, when away from the dressage arena, has a great passion for travel.

I worked in banking for 27 years and for the last few was a Senior Corporate Manager working with companies who were in trouble and who owed multi-millions to large groups of institutions. From 1990 onwards I used up all of my holiday allowance training to become a judge. I went overseas to watch the best, as standards weren’t as high in the UK as they are now, and went from List 6 to List 1 in 10 years.

After taking redundancy in 2001, I started training dressage riders and took my UKCC Level 3 as I love learning. I started Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) training whilst still at the bank. It’s helped me to understand the diff erent ways riders think and learn, so they can understand themselves and their personal themselves and their personal styles better to enhance styles better to enhance their learning. I’ve also been working with David Sanders of Neuromechanics Academy as I want to help riders maximise their riding for the benefi t of the horse.

y fi rst mentor was Inger Bryant, a List 1 Swedish judge and trainer who really understood horses and how our interactions with them can help or hinder their performance. The fi rst horse that really inspired me was Marzog ridden by Anne Grethe Jensen. He was a very supple and exciting horse with a quiet, balanced rider.

There’s been plenty – mostly me being the subject of John’s banter! I was re-named Cougar Kim after I took a few photos of a well-known male rider (I’ll spare his blushes), but I had off ered to do that for his sponsor, who liked some photos I’d taken of him in France at WEG, so it was very innocent!

The Nationals always coincides with my birthday, and one year I was being treated to a glass or two of champagne by the very generous Anna Ross when Carl Hester popped into the studio and nicknamed us ‘the lushes’!

I was invited to commentate fi rst around 5 years ago at the Nationals, and then at the European Championships at Hickstead in 2003.

There’s plenty! I’m hoping to get to Borneo, Sri Lanka and South Africa this year. I’d love to go to Canada and also the Silk Road but probably not yet, given the instability in the region, especially as I was hijacked in Mexico and lost all my luggage – but that’s a long story. I’ve been very lucky, having been to places as diverse as Mongolia, Brazil and Antarctica. There’s still plenty of places to see in India and Africa and I like to vary between cultural and wildlife tours.

The Queen, Johnny Depp, Chris Packham, Charles Darwin, David Attenborough and Ada Lovelace.