The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3)
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: January 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 11
Issue Numbering: 2
Section: E
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 27
Formal Sub-Theme: “The Greenhorn Chronicles”
Individual Publication Date: April 22, 2023
Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2023
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Interviewer(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Interviewee(s): L.J. Tidball
Word Count: 1,267
Image Credits: Quinn Saunders
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the interview.*
*Interview conducted December 26, 2022.*
Abstract
Laura Jane “L.J.” Tidball has been the Manager of Thunderbird Show Stables, an elite hunter and jumper facility, for 20 years. She is a shareholder and contributing partner to Thunderbird Show Park, which has been voted in the top 3 equestrian show facilities in North America. For Show Park, she has been important in advising on top level equine footing, site development plans for capital improvement, and competitor scheduling for National and FEI competitions. She has been competing at the Grand Prix level since 16-years-old. Since winning the Equine Canada medal (1994) and competing on the British Columbia Young Riders’ team (1996), L.J. pursued equestrianism as a career with a fervent passion. Tidball shows multiple mounts of Thunderbird Show Stables and its clients in the hunter and the jumper rings. Through work from the pony hunters onwards with the assistance of Olympian Laura Balisky and Laura’s husband, Brent, L.J. has achieved many years of success in equitation, and the hunters and the jumpers. In 2005, she returned from a successful European tour to operate Thunderbird on a professional basis. She has been awarded the 2014 Leading BCHJA 2014 rider in the FEI World Cup West Coast League Rankings and the 2014 BCHJA Leading Trainer of the Year. In her spare time, her hobbies include baking, skiing, and snowboarding. Tidball discusses: equitation and hunters; the global South and East; Major League and The Longines Global Champion Tour; injuries; and Ian Millar and Eric Lamaze.
Keywords: Brent Balisky, Canada, Eric Lamaze, equitation, FEI, Global Champions Tour, hunters, Ian Millar, Jan Tops, Keann White, L.J. Tidball, Laura Balisky, Mac Cone, Major League Show Jumping, North America.
The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3)
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Mac Cone noted Canada focuses more on equitation and hunters for training. Why?
L.J. Tidball: Hunters and equitation are a great way to raise your skill level. Hunter courses are simpler in the sense that there’s usually only eight jumps in a course. So, if you were just beginning in our sport, hunters are a good way to begin. There’s also the judged component in the hunters and equitation. I find some people thrive on trying to achieve that perfect score. In North America, hunters and equitation have their own niche. In the equitation where you were being judged on your position, I think it teaches you how to leave out a stride in a line, how to make an inside turn, and to do it with a skill set. It is one thing that we do a little differently in North America than in Europe. Not everybody comes into our sport with a goal of jumping to metre 60, it gives a place with the hunters and the equitation for our clientele to have more than one area to accelerate. I think the hunters and equitation are a great place to improve your skills. We teach everyone from beginners all the way up to the FEI level in our barn. There’s a place for everyone and like I said it’s a business at the end of the day and we want our business to be inclusive. In Europe, there are just jumpers. I think both ways work.
Jacobsen: Western Europe and North America tend to be the most prominent on the stage, internationally. How are the global South and East, themselves, coming into the sport?
Tidball: We were in Morocco in 2019. They, Egypt, Saudi Arabia & UAE have all been excelling on the show jumping scene in recent years. The Longines Global Champion Tour, has added to the ability of more people to get into the FEI divisions, in Europe, it is very hard to get into any FEI show, unless, you have enough ranking points. The Longines Global Champion Tour and the Major League Show Jumping, as well, allows people to get onto a team and to get to the 5* shows, get those ranking points, and have that practice. Without the ability to compete at that high level, it is hard to excel at the world stage. The creation of those tours supports the Southern, Eastern, and European and North American communities.
Jacobsen: Who brought Major League and The Longines Global Champion Tour into the system?
Tidball: Major League Show Jumping was Keean White, who is a Canadian. He rode on the Canadian team. The Longines Global Champion Tour was founded by Jan Tops. With the idea in mind, giving an avenue for people who want to get to the top of the sport to have a set of shows, that is really at a high level. They are well put on. They are technical and at the high-end of the sport.
Jacobsen: Many of the top riders in Canada have had their injuries. You have had your own. What were they? How did you cope with that recovery period to get to full performance level again?
Tidball: Yes, I got flipped over on and broke something like 23 bones. My ribs, my pelvis in a few places, my collar bone, I had rods and screws through a bunch of me. It was a hard period for me. It was hard. It was hard mentally to overcome what had happened; I had a horse in Mexico. I was supposed to leave the next day to jump on a Canadian Nations Cup team. My horse was already there. I was stuck in a hospital bed. It was tough. It was a hard road for me, mentally and physically. That was in 2019. I would say just now. I am at about 90% of my strength, especially my left leg. My muscles on the inside of my left leg didn’t work for a while. I don’t think I’ll ever be as strong as I was to be perfectly honest. I have come to terms with that. I would say the hardest part is mentally allowing myself the grace to put that to the side and to not fixate on it, and to admit: I was scared. It was scary. I was in Morocco in October. I had fallen off and injured myself in April. I was competing on the Canadian team again in October. It didn’t take long to get back to where I was. Now, would I have gotten on a young horse, where something might have gone wrong at some point? Absolutely not. My horse, I trusted really well. I felt I could carry on with that. There was a triple combination in Morocco, which was the same one I got flipped over on. It was a young horse I was riding, not my experienced horse I had in Morocco. I saw double as I was riding up to it. It, obviously, was still affecting me. It took a long time and a lot of rounds, and a lot of triple combinations. A lot of those triple combinations were the ones that scared me. Until, I got to the point where it doesn’t cross my mind anymore. I am thankful for that. If fear and uncertainty top the list when walking into a show ring, you are not giving your horse, your partner, the right impression when you compete.
Jacobsen: Ian Millar set a record for the Olympics. He attended 10, which is more than any Olympian in any sport ever. What explains the longevity?
Tidball: I know Ian is incredibly dedicated to himself, what he put in his body, how he worked out, and how he trained. I think he is incredibly intelligent. He is a brilliant man. He worked things out with horses, a little like I said about Brent (Balisky). He could think outside the box. He always found a way to get things done. He brought the best out of the horses. I truly believe that he is an exceptional athlete. He inspires me all the time.
Jacobsen: Ian has stepped down. Another athlete, prominent on the international stage, stepped back, but not down: Eric Lamaze. In 2008, in Beijing, the team won silver. Individually, he won gold. What did he represent to the sport at that time? How does the Chef d’Equipe position provide a nice transition for someone having to step back [Ed. The position has changed since the time of the interview again with a further stepping back, in a sense, for Lamaze.]?
Tidball: At the time, when Eric won those medals, he was, obviously, one of the biggest figures, in my mind, of our sport. We were jumping up and down. I remember watching him win the gold medal. We stopped at the horse show. We were at the edge of our seat watching. It was an incredible day to be a Canadian show jumping fan! Knowing him, knowing how hard he worked to get to where he was, knowing his background and upbringing…
Jacobsen: …he came from nothing.
Tidball: He came from nothing. It was inspiring. He is, probably, one of the most talented riders that any of us will ever see ride a horse. He just had ability that oozed out of him. For sure, there is a level of respect for that that will last a lifetime. He had an incredible partner in Hickstead. It was the horse of a lifetime for him. He made everything work for him.
Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Jacobsen S. The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3). April 2023; 11(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Jacobsen, S. (2023, April 22). The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3). In-Sight Publishing. 11(2). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3.
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. D. The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3). In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 11, n. 2, 2023.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2023. “The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 2 (Spring). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott “The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 2 (April 2023). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3.
Harvard: Jacobsen, S. (2023) ‘The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 11(2). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3>.
Harvard (Australian): Jacobsen, S 2023, ‘The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 11, no. 2, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3>.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. “The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.11, no. 2, 2023, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3.
Vancouver/ICMJE: Jacobsen S. The Greenhorn Chronicles 42: L.J. Tidball on Business, the Global South and East, Injuries, and International Competition (3) [Internet]. 2023 Apr; 11(2). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/tidball-3
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