Article August 5, 1972 Issue

Christian Science and Horsemanship

An Interview with Christilot Hanson by Godfrey John

Christilot Hanson won two gold medals for Canada in successive days in the Pan-American Games at Cali, Colombia, in August, 1971. She was the youngest competitor ever recorded in her field for the Olympic Games (she competed in Tokyo in 1964 at the age of seventeen). Miss Hanson also represented her country at the Olympics in Mexico in 1968. She is responsible for an autobiography entitled Canadian Entry. In the following interview, Miss Hanson began by describing dressage.

It's really the basis of all equestrian sport. That's why it has held my interest. First, it involves the obedience training of the horse with the rider. Halting, moving, turning right, left. Then when you want to specialize, you find the horse that has particular brilliance in the basic three gaits: walk, trot, and canter—the horse that has particular suppleness and good temperament—and you teach him further exercises. I think the easiest parallel to draw is with figure skating: he has to do figure eights, pirouettes, two-tracks, as well as move on straight lines. He has to be able to collect himself with ease and grace, and without fighting the rider.

It involves picking your horses well and training them along. It takes approximately four to six years, if you succeed at all, to get a horse from zero to Grand Prix level. The thing is always to aim at perfection.

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