Access All Areas Ros Canter

In the past couple of years, Ros Canter has won two world gold medals and had a baby. Martha Terry finds out how she’s juggling work and family life as she gears up for Tokyo.

- Martha Terry

LOCKDOWN has its upsides. For Ros Canter, the reigning world eventing champion, it’s been an unexpected training boost under sunny skies. Living on the north Lincolnshire coast, where the wind whips icy blasts straight from Siberia, Ros is used to cramming the horses’ “homework” into the short, perishingly cold days of winter.

“Our arena is lovely but very exposed, so it’s been really nice to have the time to train the horses without the pressure of competitions while the weather is good,” Ros says.

“I actually felt lucky at the start of lockdown because all my horses had run at the start of the season – Oasby and Lincoln are quite local so I took my whole string there, and the next weekend everything shut down.”

Ros was quick out of the blocks this spring, ready for her first full season after having her first child, Ziggy, last July. Before lockdown, she had competed 21 times on 11 rides, winning four classes, topped by an advanced intermediate win on her world champion Allstar B. Last weekend’s resumption at Aske yielded a further two top-five placings from her two rides.

“So I know where every horse is in terms of performance,” she says. “Sometimes it’s nice to be able to take a step back and not have the pressure of competing. I love winning but I also love training horses and I’m still so motivated to do that.”

Ros’ philosophical take on the carnage the pandemic has wreaked not only on the national circuit, but also a likely Olympic debut on Allstar B (Alby), says much about her sporting psyche. She is sanguine about Tokyo’s postponement.