Elevate: Meet Claudia Greve

Welcome to Elevate, our new spotlight series to honor, lift up, and highlight riders just like you from all disciplines and walks of life. If you’re like us, supporting and growing our equestrian community is an important mission, and a mission we are proud to hold at the heart of Sterling Essentials.

This month, we’d love you to meet Claudia Greve, a dressage rider and vet student from Jimboomba, Australia with two sweet mares (lucky lady!).

SE: Have you always been a horse girl? When did you start riding, who introduced you, how did you get started?

CG: Yes, a horse girl from the very beginning! My Mum was adamant that I wasn’t going to ride horses so she sold most of her horse belongings, but much to her luck by the age 4 I was continuously asking to ride her old retired horse which was way too big for a tiny 4 year old. So she gave in and bought my twin sister, Tayla, and I our first pony, little Flaktin! And, from that day forward I’ve been horse obsessed and riding basically every day since.

SE: What is your favorite or current discipline and what do you love about it? Has it always been your discipline or have you explored others, as well?

CG: I currently compete and love dressage! It is the foundation of every discipline and every single horse thoroughly benefits from correct dressage training. For fun I’m also been exploring playing around with working equitation; the horses love the variety that it gives! I haven’t always done dressage; I’ve actually only been doing it for the past few years. I started in the Arabian and Show Horse rings, which I thoroughly enjoyed in the beginning. However, as I got older I felt limited as to how far you can go in that discipline as it is basically just walk, trot and canter, and I wasn’t finding the approach the majority of show horse trainers were using towards the training of their horses. So, I decided to make a change and haven’t looked back!

SE: Ok, so tell me all about the horses in your life! Have you been working with them long?

CG: I currently have two wonderful mares in my life. First one, Being For Your Eyes Only, more commonly known as Twix. She is a 16hh 8-year-old Warmblood who I purchased 3 years ago; however, I’ve only been working with her for the past 6 months due to her past behaviour quirks being a bit out of my skill set 3 years ago. However, now after some tweaks in my training method we are absolutely thriving in our dressage training now! My other little horse is Smash Hit Aria (also known as Aria); she is a 14.2hh 11 year Warmblood cross pony. I only lease my little girl, but I love her as one of my own! I started leasing her 18 months ago, and we’ve had an incredible time working through the dressage levels together.

SE: Two mares! I love it, a ladies club! Do they have any funny quirks?

CG: I’m super lucky to have two very loving and attention seeking mares. I won the lottery with their personalities that’s for sure! Twix is like one big fluffy teddy bear that just wants cuddles and kisses anytime of the day! She can get a bit jealous if I’m giving too much attention to the other horse; she loves being the centre of attention!! Aria is that kind of horse that always has to help you with whatever you are doing! If you are trying to clean, weed or basically do anything in her paddock she will be right by your side following your every move! She will also take any chance to demand those booty scratches and will tactfully position herself in front of you to ensure you get the right spot!

SE: Awww, the best girls! What are their favorite treats?

CG: They are both little food hogs, so they basically love everything! They love their carrots and apples and get them on the daily basis part of their positive reinforcement training. On special occasion, I bake them an ultimate horse slice (or a cake if it’s their birthday – yes, they are very spoiled!) which they go crazy for!

SE: Over the past months I’ve seen that you’ve been doing a lot of desensitization and confidence building work with your horses. This has looked really interesting! Tell us about that. What have you learned? Do you have some favorite techniques, and why are they and confidence building so important to you?

CG: I will start right back at the start as to why I decided to change the way I approached training my dressage horses from traditional training to natural horsemanship. When I purchased Twix 3 years ago, she was sold to me with some untold truths. Within the first 3 days of owning her it came to light that she was a chronic rearer. Sadly, at the time I didn’t have the skills or the right mindset to retrain her, and I wasn’t fond of the training that she just needs ‘more wet saddle blankets’ or just forcefully ride her out of it. So, I made the decision to just let her take some time out in the paddock with no real plan to ever ride her again. Fast forward to mid-2020 when it become apparent that life wasn’t returning to normal anytime soon and with Aria out of work for rehabilitation and with a lot of spare time thanks to university being online I decided it was time to give Twix a second chance. This is when I was scrolling through Instagram and I stumbled across a natural horsemanship course that was starting shortly from the lovely Felicity Davies. I had recently been in contact with in her past business endeavours, and I arranged a phone call with her and thought to myself ‘what do I have to lose, right?’ So, I dived right into her 10 week Competition Essential Preparation program she was running at the time and since Day 1 of the theory module, I thought to myself why isn’t everyone doing this!

I noticed an immediate change in how effectively Twix and I were communicating both on the ground and undersaddle, and she went from the difficult horse that I dreaded to ride to the horse I couldn’t wait to ride after only 2 weeks of doing groundwork with her! Through the groundwork skills I was able to learn how to settle and get my horses attention back on me when we went to new places and if something unsettled them as well as effectively communicate and reward her for her work. I can’t even begin to explain how starting the desensitisation work boosted both Twix’s and I’s confidence in each other. I was able to escalate the environmental pressure during Twix’s training at the safety of my own home. Doing this enabled Twix to gain the skills on how to handle new stimulus, and I was able to assess her body language and knew exactly how she would react if was caught off guard by something when out. This gave me a lot of confidence; never did I picture myself taking Twix out to trail rides, to the beach, to working equitation days or to a competition, and we’ve achieved all of that within just 6 months of her coming back into work!

The world of natural horsemanship unlocks so many opportunities with you and your horse. Both my horses have become so much eager to learn and train during our sessions, and positive reinforcement has been a massive driver in this! You never stop learning with horses, and I’m so thankful I took the leap to learn more about this topic and think both my horses thank me everyday as well!

SE: Amazing, I’ve always been interested in natural horsemanship, so you’re really inspiring me to look into it more. But training isn’t your whole day either - you’re in vet school, too! What are you studying, any specialties, when will you graduate, post graduation plans?

CG: I’m currently in my 4th year of Bachelor of Veterinary Science (Hons), and I will be graduating at the end of 2022, so nearly there now! My plan is to specialise in Equine Medicine, with my focus being on Sport Horse Medicine and Surgery. Since the very beginning the difficult lameness cases in the sport horses have always interested me (and I’ve owned my fair share of those cases over the years!). Post-graduation I hope to get an internship at one of the leading Equine Hospitals in Australia, and if the chance arose, possibly doing some study in America as the advancements in equine medicine over there are just incredible! If everything goes to plan I really want to expand my skills into educating clinics on the best methods to prevent injury and degenerative diseases in the sport horse and the best approach to the rehabilitation of the injured horse for the best outcome. I feel these two subjects are not discussed as much as they could be!

SE: I’m sure vet school provides ample opportunities for some pretty crazy experiences. What is one of the wildest and memorable moments so far?

CG: Vet school has given me so many amazing opportunities I could never have imagined, and I’m super excited to spend next year during my final year of study out in clinics getting to cuddle a large range of animals! Having the opportunity to spend time on a large scale Thoroughbred stud in the breeding barn cuddling the future racehorse winners, watching the sun the set over a very beautiful 11,000 hectare sheep station, hand feeding just hatched parrots, spending a week handling very cute alpacas, having the opportunity to cuddle miniature goats, and so much more have been some incredible highlights from my vet journey so far! But my favourite memory that stands out is spending a week at a camel eairy! Never in my life did I expect to say that camel’s are hands down one of the cuddliest and loving animals I have ever come across! They stole my heart!

SE: Last year definitely put a hold on competitive riding for many. How do you feel about getting back into competition this year? And what are your plans? How have you been preparing?

CG: It’s been so exciting to be back out competing! Super lucky that here in Australia we are allowed to be back out there! I have already taken Twix to her two very first competitions earlier this year with some fabulous results and her first blue ribbon as well! With Twix, I’m just taking her training nice and slow to ensure all the foundations are solid so we have just been competing at unofficial competitions with the aim to do her first official competition at Preliminary Level at a 2* event in May. My main focus for her is just to make the outings as enjoyable as possible. Aria attended her first competition post Covid break at the beginning of this month with wonderful results where we won the amateur series at the Preliminary level. With Aria, she sadly had a small injury that needed to be rehabbed from last year so she only returned back to work this year. I’m taking the time to return her fitness level back to optimal level, then we will continue to work up the dressage levels and continue heading to a range of 2* and state events with her! I’ve spent a lot of time at home preparing through desensitisation work with both horses and also working on my mindset surrounding competing to ensure I actually enjoy myself more at competition instead of always taking it so seriously!

SE: As a busy adult, those days are full, but what do you do when not riding or doing vet schoolwork?

CG: Spare time is definitely something I lack during the university semesters! However, as an avid animal lover, I spend most of my free time with my rescue dog, Sonic! I thoroughly enjoy training him a range of tricks and exploring all the local hiking areas with him! I also spend my spare time currently learning more about equine biomechanics by reading anatomy and massage books as well as watching some informative webinars.

SE: What is your favorite off-property place in Australia to ride?

CG: Australia is such a beautiful country full of wonderful trails to explore in conversation and national parks which is so tranquil. However, the beautiful beaches would have to be my favourite place to ride. There is no feeling that compares to galloping along the shoreline!

SE: If you could meet and spend a day with any rider in the world, who would it be and why?

CG: Ingrid Klimke for sure!! Her approach to training her horses from young horse all the way to Grand Prix level is inspirational. She is a very kind rider and always has her horse’s wellbeing as a high priority in her training schedule with constantly incorporating pole work as well as hacking out. And of course, she is one incredible rider and her ability to compete at both Eventing and Dressage at Olympic level is just inspiring!

SE: What is your favorite Sterling Essentials fragrance?

CG: It was such a hard to choose what fragrance it try out, they all sound incredible! I absolutely love the smell of my lavender Sterling Essentials product, never thought a leather cleaner could smell so good!

I had a lovely time getting to know Claudia more and hope you did, too. Hmmm, if you’re like me, adding riding on a beach in Australia to your bucket list sounds like a good plan. We wish Claudia the best with her studies and unfolding career and invite you to please give Claudia a follow on social media to keep up with her adventures, @claudia.greve.dressage.