HeresHoping
Well-Known Member
My dear mother has just alerted me to the fact that Elaine Straker (Karen Dixon's mother) passed away on 22 May. I feel very guilty for not having realised sooner.
I was just wondering, though, whether anyone else had had the opportunity to have a lesson with this remarkable woman?
When I was 14, which was aeons ago, Elaine Straker and Karen came out to Kenya to have a bit of a safari holiday - in return for giving us amateurs a riding clinic or three. They came to teach adults and children alike, and we were lucky enough to have a week long junior clinic. They came out just before our PC International 3DE long format (against South Africa and Zimbabwe) which was usually reserved for the older PCers - the 16 - 21 year olds.
During our training clinic, we would have dressage lessons with Elaine in the morning, and jumping with Karen (who was still a Straker then) in the afternoon and go home exhausted and reeling from all the concentration and no doubt the Strakers' exasperations.
I'll never forget one morning one of Elaine's lessons involved teaching us to get our horses hocks right underneath them, and doing canter-halts and, for those who had managed, canter pirouettes. She suggested that we use the 5'6" hedge at the back of the dressage arena as a 'brake'. My little mare had not long before been taken around the hurdles as a practice for an up-coming 3 DE. Merrily I cantered down the centre of the arena with Elaine shouting something along the lines of 'more impulsion, get that canter shorter and rounder!' Six strides out from the end of the arena the mare grabbed the reins and shot off, clearing the hedge with room to spare
. Not what was being asked, but scope was certainly established!
However, I do owe my subsequent years' of being a relatively respected horsewoman (not these days, ho hum) to Karen and, in particular, Elaine. I was not selected for the PC International, I was considered too young at the time. However, I did make the reserve team. On the hack over to the showground sadly a young rider's horse trod on a nail and went hopping lame. My mother insisted the girl should ride my horse - the girl after all was one of the best and in the 'A' team. I recall vividly the shouting match between me and my mother, with our PC Chairman firmly on my mother's side much to my chagrin. I was 14, I had no say, I should think for the good of the team.
In the midst of this screaming match, which also involved my mother shouting at me for being disrespectful to the PC Chairman, whom she would fully support if she insisted on a ban for insubordination
, Elaine Straker and Karen rolled up. Elaine told both my mother and the PC Chairman, "Bloody ridiculous. Let her ride her own horse. She's more than capable [thank you, Morning Star, for jumping that hedge!]. I won't hear another word. And if you don't let her, then put someone else in for Gawd's sake!"
So, with my ears ringing with a stream of invective about what would happen if I let my country down from both my mother and the PC Chairman, I embarked on the International.
We had an overseas judge for the dressage, whom Elaine obviously knew well, that took no prisoners. I was last to go. And scored a whopping 83% allowing me at least 40 penalties to play with. But a clear round XC and one down in the showjumping, and Kenya stormed home.
I got many, many rides after that.
Thank you, Elaine.
I was just wondering, though, whether anyone else had had the opportunity to have a lesson with this remarkable woman?
When I was 14, which was aeons ago, Elaine Straker and Karen came out to Kenya to have a bit of a safari holiday - in return for giving us amateurs a riding clinic or three. They came to teach adults and children alike, and we were lucky enough to have a week long junior clinic. They came out just before our PC International 3DE long format (against South Africa and Zimbabwe) which was usually reserved for the older PCers - the 16 - 21 year olds.
During our training clinic, we would have dressage lessons with Elaine in the morning, and jumping with Karen (who was still a Straker then) in the afternoon and go home exhausted and reeling from all the concentration and no doubt the Strakers' exasperations.
I'll never forget one morning one of Elaine's lessons involved teaching us to get our horses hocks right underneath them, and doing canter-halts and, for those who had managed, canter pirouettes. She suggested that we use the 5'6" hedge at the back of the dressage arena as a 'brake'. My little mare had not long before been taken around the hurdles as a practice for an up-coming 3 DE. Merrily I cantered down the centre of the arena with Elaine shouting something along the lines of 'more impulsion, get that canter shorter and rounder!' Six strides out from the end of the arena the mare grabbed the reins and shot off, clearing the hedge with room to spare
. Not what was being asked, but scope was certainly established!However, I do owe my subsequent years' of being a relatively respected horsewoman (not these days, ho hum) to Karen and, in particular, Elaine. I was not selected for the PC International, I was considered too young at the time. However, I did make the reserve team. On the hack over to the showground sadly a young rider's horse trod on a nail and went hopping lame. My mother insisted the girl should ride my horse - the girl after all was one of the best and in the 'A' team. I recall vividly the shouting match between me and my mother, with our PC Chairman firmly on my mother's side much to my chagrin. I was 14, I had no say, I should think for the good of the team.
In the midst of this screaming match, which also involved my mother shouting at me for being disrespectful to the PC Chairman, whom she would fully support if she insisted on a ban for insubordination
, Elaine Straker and Karen rolled up. Elaine told both my mother and the PC Chairman, "Bloody ridiculous. Let her ride her own horse. She's more than capable [thank you, Morning Star, for jumping that hedge!]. I won't hear another word. And if you don't let her, then put someone else in for Gawd's sake!"So, with my ears ringing with a stream of invective about what would happen if I let my country down from both my mother and the PC Chairman, I embarked on the International.
We had an overseas judge for the dressage, whom Elaine obviously knew well, that took no prisoners. I was last to go. And scored a whopping 83% allowing me at least 40 penalties to play with. But a clear round XC and one down in the showjumping, and Kenya stormed home.
I got many, many rides after that.
Thank you, Elaine.
