Bartle is Team GB’s performance coach. With Bartle and Richard Waygood at the helm, the British have become almost unbeatable. They won team gold in Tokyo for the first time in 49 years and a plethora of team and individual medals at world and European level – often fielding an all-female team. Since 2016, Bartle has been Canter’s trainer and mentor – and she admits she would still be “wobbling” to the start box if it was not for him.
“I think it was the belief that if I followed the system that Chris helped me develop, that I was safe,” she says. “I really don’t want to fall off. I can close my eyes and see not very nice things happening on a cross-country course. Chris made me believe that if I got myself into a certain position at the right time and I let my horses look and use their eyes, they wouldn’t fall over [a jump] for no reason. But I have to work on it, even now. If I do picture things going wrong now, I go and do something completely different or watch a couple of positive videos where I know I rode well.”
As well as the Bartle-inspired system, the arrival of her daughter Ziggy in 2019 has helped take her to even greater heights in the sport. Motherhood has not changed her sporting perspective – “I still want to achieve great things. Actually, I’m more emotionally proud since having Ziggy” – but it has changed her time management. “As soon as Ziggy started school, I was determined to do both school runs. I thought, ‘I will ride less horses and spend more time with her’, but it was pushing me to the limits and I was constantly rushed.
“I had a bit of a wobble because I didn’t have that mental time I needed. Chris, my husband, has been fantastic and he said, ‘You’re the only one putting this guilt on you. If you say you can’t be here, we are fine’. I now accept I can’t be a ‘mother’ sometimes, because I have to allow time to be a top athlete.”
