Patricia Gill, Denmark Bulletin

Denmark equestrian Andy Forbes has his eyes on the 2024 paralympics in France with the palace of Louis XIV at Versailles the dramatic backdrop to the event.

The para equestrian recently won Dressage WA leader board and is classified as a Federation Equestrian International Grade 5 para dressage rider.

Andy is also a member of the Equestrian WA Para Dressage high performance squad.

Andy’s equestrian wife Elissa Forbes won the Uwe Spenlen Dressage Horse of the Year Award 2021 for a West Australian horse who has achieved the highest percentage scores in official competition at any level.

The Uwe Spenlen award recognises a German man’s contribution to dressage and encourages riders to consolidate the training of their horse at each level before moving on to a higher level.

The horse must have competed at either the WA State Dressage Championships and/or at the National Dressage Championships during the award year and scored more than 62 per cent at that level.

Elissa, like her husband, has the dressage ‘bug’ which she caught after starting out ‘like most teenagers do’ in showjumping and eventing.

But in her early 20s, Elissa rode an instructor’s grand prix horse and discovered the feeling of the effortless power of the horse.

Andy joined Elissa on the ‘dark side’ of competition after he had ‘thrived’ on parade duties with the Australian Defence Forces.

“I loved the tradition in the military and, as soon as I got into dressage, I thought, this is me,” he said.

In 1995 Andy acquired spinal injuries while in the ADF.

He has multi-level spinal fusions, nerve damage to right leg which causes numbness, lack of feeling and strength, also in the left hand.

Sports physiotherapist David Scriven has tailored a strength and flexibility program for Andy.

Growing up in the Kimberley pastoral region he always rode; “If you didn’t, it was a long walk”.

He says that through a ‘mindset’ he has achieved fitness and strength along with ‘getting back on to horses’ after leaving the ADF.

“How many people are working around the street saying ‘woe is me’ because they don’t have the mental fortitude to get off their butt and do something?” Andy said.

FEI para riders must provide medical reports plus undergo a specialist physio exam and a riding exam as part of their classification, ranking from 1-5.

Elissa and Andy Forbes with trophies from their dressage successes.

Unlike Andy, Elissa does not have Olympic ambitions rather she would be happy to achieve national level in her sport.

“That would be at whichever level my horse is competing at, therefore, not necessarily at the highest level (grand prix),” she says.

She hopes to compete at Boneo, Victoria, in the National Dressage Competition this year on Fergus, Southern Star Finale, who at six years would compete at a lower level given his age and training.

Andy and Elissa say they work as team, supporting each other in their goals with their Perth-based coach, Dr Victoria Hamilton, who has represented Australia in dressage.

Although they still go to Perth for lessons, they have them every week live-streamed with sensors put up around the arena and on their wrists and a robot following them around.

The live sessions with Victoria have enabled the couple to take big steps.

“Having weekly lessons is just fantastic,” Andy says.

The Southern Districts Dressage Committee group has also provided opportunities for then to train and compete locally.

For the para leader board, Andy competed with two horses and won first and second places.

He has his heart pinned on winning the national dressage competition as a new combination, with the gelding, Royal Magic 12.

Spec of Red, 17, gave his last hurrah in winning the leader board and is now ‘chilling in the paddock’.

Elissa won the 2017 Penny Hill Rising Star Award on Royal Magic.

She likens dressage to gymnastics, requiring balance and power to guide a 17-hand horse in a 60m arena.

“You do all sorts of movements up to pirouettes and flying changes, so the horse has to be really balanced and it looks like you’re doing not much at all.

“It can be the weight of your seat and, if you drop a left seat bone; that can mean something.

“If you draw your right leg slightly back and give a slight hand aid and lift through your abdominals, all the little subtle body movements mean something to a horse once.”

Andy described the sport as the epitome of training, derived from the military to manoeuvre a horse imperceptibly in difficult circumstances.

“We just took out the very difficult circumstance,” Elissa said.

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 10 March 2022.