Most riders who are off to the Paris Olympics are busy training their horses, packing and getting themselves in the right mental state to perform at their best – eventer Yasmin Ingham is doing all that, plus she’s added another element to the mix…
“I’m starting to learn a few bits of extra French so I can string a sentence together,” she says. “I’ve downloaded Duolingo on my phone – each day it gives you a lesson. It’s quite basic stuff currently, but hopefully by the time I get there it will have reached a higher level.”
In terms of preparing her ride Banzai Du Loir, Yasmin will not be competing him again before the Games. He won his final outing, at Luhmühlen Horse Trials, last month.
“Now he’ll just continue to train at home – we’ll have some dressage lessons with Richard Davison and Chris Bartle, a spot of showjumping, some cross-country schooling,” she says. “It’s just making sure he’s in a good frame of mind mentally, not changing too much. We’ve had him quite a few years and know how he ticks.”
Yasmin herself will not be competing any other horses between now and Paris.
“Everything is completely focused on Paris now,” she says. “I’ll continue to train myself in the gym and the horses are doing plenty of training from home and we have lots of venues around our place where we can go and train.
“I think we always put the horse first in our sport. For myself, I want to make sure I’m going to Paris feeling energised and charged, ready to enjoy the experience as well. I enjoy watching other sports too – I was watching athletics over the weekend and it was their Olympic trial. I feel incredibly inspired on the run up to Paris.”
Yasmin says she was “sat on my sofa watching TV and having a cup of tea” when performance manager Dickie Waygood rang to give her the news she’d been selected.
“It’s something you can’t prepare for – for me the floods of happy tears and excited emotion were pretty uncontrollable, I said, ‘This is so exciting, it’s probably the best call I’ve ever received’,” she says.
Yasmin talked about Banzai as a contender for the Paris Olympics in an interview on the Horse & Hound Podcast back in 2021.
“He has been most incredible partner I’ve ever had and probably will have,” she says, mentioning the big wins he has had on the way at Blenheim, the World Championships and Aachen. “When we bought him we knew he had talent and all the attributes of a top event horse, but horses are unpredictable and testing at times. For him to be so solid on this path is a massive credit to my team around me and the horse himself.”
This year, Yasmin has tried to expose Banzai to big atmospheres which are similar to what he will experience in Versailles, competing at Kentucky Three-Day Event as well as Luhmühlen.
“It’s all about exposing them to crowds and lots of people and cheering – over the years he’s become relaxed about that. I think the best prep is to do those competitions and I was lucky enough to do that with the American crowd who cheer a lot and are very positive,” she said.
Paris is a first Olympics for Yasmin Ingham, but she has ridden at a World Championships – where she won individual gold – and Europeans (taking team gold), as well as youth championships.
“I thrive under pressure and don’t feel pressure from anybody but myself,” she says. “I think no one wants and understand the success as much as myself. It’s not about pressure from anyone around me – I want to do my best and the pressure comes from me. In many situations this year, I’ve produced my best under pressure, so I’m taking all of what I’ve learnt from every championship and now I’m lucky enough to be going into my first Olympics feeling happy and confident.”
Yasmin says that she and her team-mates “all get on well and bounce off each other in a really positive way – I couldn’t ask for a better group for my first Olympics”. She will have family and friends from her original home on the Isle of Man attending and says many have tickets to other sports so she’s happy and excited for them to experience the Games.
“And Banzai’s owner, Janette Chinn, has been a huge part of my journey, as was her mother Sue Davies who passed away a few years ago – Janette wants to come and support me as much as she can, with her mum in mind, so she’ll be making trip out,” she says.
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