Matt Ryan changes Nationality

Sorry, but as much as I like Matt Ryan, he is Australian and should be patriotic to his nation....do some people have no pride in representing their country in Sport? or do they go for whoever rewards them best financially??.....I live in the UK and I am entitled to citizinship, but I am a born and bred Zimbabwean hence would only ride for my nation as this is my birth place, why would I want to ride for Britain?....
 
After losing Phillip Dutton & then Boyd Martin (Whose mother is American) the Equestrian Australia needs to seriously look at their contracts etc... To lose Matt would be another blow!

Yes of course its because he wasn't selected to go to Honk Kong! Matt was top 10 at Badminton which is by far tougher than the selection events like Sydney in Australia!

I agree, Australia needs to look at having a european based Selector to follow the progress of riders in the Northen Hemisphere. To also spot their potential rising star horses also!!

Australian support at the recent World Cup Eventing Final was abismal also. There was no coach, no selectors, no assistance.. Just the Australian Vet..

I agree! What has good old Heath Ryan got to say to his brother about this??

Surely 20 years is long enoughto have mulled this decision over? Why now ???

Germany produces lovely riders because kids are trained on the lunge, daily, to have beautiful seats etc. Australian kids are given a horse. They play around riding in the paddocks, jumping what ever gets in the way! Their dressage skills come much later.

The one thing I have noticed is that the Top Australian Riders support the younger riders a lot more. Helping them, walking courses with them etc...
 
To be honest egg, chnces are if you are riding for zimbabwe you are one of the few and that is of course your choice but you are highly unlikely to qualify for an olympic games riding for that nation. matt has been completely patriotic to his nation and won them three gold medals pity the same couldnt be said in reverse. However although the non selection for hong kong may have been the turning point matt has beeen thinking about this for some time as he is married to a british girl and has been here longer than any of the other ex pat eventers bar andrew hoy i think. there is no point clinging to your nationality as far as sport goes if the selectors in that country have clearly shown preference for home form. He hasnt given up his passport for god's sake just officially become a permenant resident.
and pixie_little21, i think many people agree with much of what you say but team australia hasmade their bed. the trouble is that if you want to event as a career the reality is that australia is very far from the centre of the eventing world. I cant remember who was the last australian who was BASED there to win individual medals you need to experience the best competition to become the best, that is why so many of their riders come here or too the usa at least for a while. it is foolish and short sighted of their selectors to ignore this fact and start excluding their nationals on the basis of location when teams should be picked on form.
 
I am not riding for Zimbabwe! I only complete here in the UK at Novice aff. hence I most certainly would not be chosen to ride in the olympics for my 'Beautiful' country!.....that would actually be quite funny to attempt though!......I have a feeling it would atttract a simualr bitter feelings towards me as that of the jamaican bobsled team had!

...I beleive if people saw Zim before all the issues we are having they would be amazed by some of our riders/trainers and facilities out there.....I imported 3 of my horses over to the UK with me and sold one to a top dressage rider in Holland that is now competing her at Grand Prix - She was bred and trained in Zim by a fantastic lady who is now in SA - unfortunatly too many people in the UK don't even know were Zimbabwe is let alone anything else about it - buts thats a whole different issue.


So because Matt was not selected he throws his toys out the cot and decides to get dual nationality so he can ride for the UK......he fly's his flag each time he competes, so for the sake of not being picked for the olympics he decides to change nationality - well I guess if he feels thats really important to him so be it...but will he change back again if he has still not been selected for the British team? seems to me people can chop and change to what suits!....
 
He wouldn't be the first to do it, Lucy Thompson changed from British to Irish nationality and Sasha Pemble has recently done the same. Sasha was then shortlisted for the Olympics, although she didn't get a place in the end, she would never have been shortlisted for the British team so I can understand why she would do it.

There are still no guarantees that Matt will be picked for British teams, he has to earn his place. Also I get the feeling there is a lot of politics surrounding Australian team places, not sure whether it is so political with the Brits, I'd like to think it was the best man/woman for the job!
 
I think it's interesting that the majority of you UK based riders are in support and the negative responses are from aussies! I'm an aussie, and there was a major uproar here when Matt complained about the selection process for last year's Olympics. (compare 8th at badminton to a win in a field of 10 at sydney? I mean really...)
His reasons for leaving Aus are all legitimate and his complaints about the EFA and the selection process are all valid. Too many riders here don't ever leave the country and have no concept of the quality of competition you guys have over there so saw his comments as sour grapes. I say, as an aussie, good luck to him!
 
Well I think if its waht he wants to do then they should let him it makes more sense as he is living here and why are British ppl complaing were going to beinifit from it but I do feel sorry for the Australians I would mich rather live there than here I mean what a beautiful place the people are just so happy and positive.
 
hey egg,
dont be telling me about Zim, i spent 18 months recently working for a family from there whose business was still runnning out of there and many of their close family are still there several of whom ride. but your comments about matt 'throwing his toys out' ar disparaging to say the least as you clearly dont understand the issues. He had a quite legitmate grievance with the selectoin policy, the aussie result in hong kong lends one to believe he might have been right, after all even when they got there, Lucinda Fredericks, winner of two four stars for the nation she has adopted, wasnt allowed to ride the course as she really wanted to and they sent another four star winner, who also won the world cup, out as pathfinder so he had no chance of watching a few go and seeing how the course rode when he was probably Australia's other best chance of a medal, so something was going on.
fair play to you for being so loyal to your counttry but i dont think patriotism has anything to do with professional sport these days in a great many ways particularly if selection processes are not going to be completely fair and open.
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Just because he didn't make the Aus Olympic Team is a sad reason to defect the country. The riders selected for our Team did a very good job. May not have got individual medals but a Team Silver is still damn good.
 
Your right there! We might be a long way from most places but it's well worth it. <font color="brown"> </font> <u>Best place to live by far!!!!!</u>
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I'm an Jrn rider in Australia and I say good riddens Matt!. Im sick of europeans saying that the australian standard is poor!I think the last olympica are a good exaple the team of 5 was made up of 3 aussie based riders and what a team it was! As for this crap about Europeans growing up on the lunge well hello learn to ride CX because if i remember correctly was it not European nations who removed the track work from eventing because thier horse could not handle it? I am glad i grew up in the saddle bashing around with my brother mustering cattle because my riding skills are much better than those of my friends who have spent thier time at a riding school on the lunge. I think the being thrown in the saddle is what makes Aussies such good riders we are natural. One more thing have a look at Megan Jones she is on top of the world right now Aussie based on a home grown horse, quite frankly you can stick your european selections up your behind our events are perfectly fine and i think our XC courses are actually harded. How shamefull of matt to change after the effort his brother has put into promoting Aussie riding and one more thing the top Aussie riders are more personable and down to earth, I dont know hao many britt riders would walk the course with jrns in intro when they have 3 in the 3*. All in all we dont care who you take because the standard in Australia is not far away (about 10yr) from the european standard.
 
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if i remember correctly was it not European nations who removed the track work from eventing because thier horse could not handle it?

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Errrm, what the heck???!! Yes the Europeans are useless on cross country, aren't they hahahahahaha oh dear
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oh dear, i agree.
if you are holding Megan Jones up as a shining example, i'd be very careful if I were you. anyone who hits their wonderful generous horse twice AFTER it has just jumped the last xc fence (in clear and blatant disregard for the FEI rule against it) is not on my list of those to be admired.
I cheered when her good horse had the last sj down and cost her a medal.
yes, the Aussies have some great riders and great horses. So do we in Europe. respect all round please.
 
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