Lionel Dunning is bow-legged. Twenty-five years of show jumping at the highest level will do that to you. The compact Englishman scurries around the stables at the Hong Kong Equestrian Centre as if still mounted atop one of the animals that helped him make a career and an international name for himself. Once the leading rider in Britain – and on the national show jumping team on 25 occasions – Dunning has gone on to a stellar training career, overseeing numerous medal-winning riders, including current world champion Dermot Lennon. And he brought success to equestrian clubs in nine countries. Now, after decades in the sport, he’s settled in Hong Kong as the new manager at the equestrian centre in Shek Kong, not far from Tai Po in the New Territories.
Dunning, a cheerful and cheeky character, likes Hong Kong riders because of their innate sense of balance – better than he’s seen elsewhere. It’s the small bones that do it, he says. Because many of the locals are lightweight, they’re ideally suited to equestrian sports – unlike some Europeans. Over there, he says without any discernable trace of shame, the girls get to 22 or 23 and start putting on weight (and losing their looks, he adds, for no apparent reason). Hong Kongers also have the advantage of in-built talent: “One thing I like about working with Hong Kong people is their natural ability to partake in sport.”
It might seem strange that Dunning should come to ply his trade in Hong Kong, which is not exactly known for prowess in equestrianism. The sport is just starting to become very popular here, says Dunning. “What the people here realise now is it’s a sport they can afford.” In Europe and the UK, equestrianism is a status symbol and reserved for the very rich. Whereas here you can expect to pay $300 for a private lesson with Dunning, a similar lesson in the UK would set you back about £60 ($875). Dunning was enticed to Hong Kong by former pupil Australian Stuart Mitchell, recent winner of the Peking Grand Prix, who also works as a trainer at the equestrian centre. But there are other good reasons for being here: his Chinese girlfriend, the friendly people, and the climate – Dunning says the humidity is good for his body.
That body has been something he’s had to look after carefully ever since a bad fall from a horse in 1975 left him in a coma for seven months. He was clinically dead for four minutes. Remarkably, he made a comeback, despite being told he would never ride again, and in 1976 re-entered the fray as one of Britain’s top 10 riders. He rode for another 21 years, before retiring. Since then, he’s been a trainer in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UK, and Israel, where he once trained the son of an Israeli arms dealer. He had great success in Israel and has been asked repeatedly to go back. “I always say, ‘when you stop fighting with the Arabs, I will come back’,” he recounts, referring to the conflict with Palestine. “I was quite safe in saying that!”
And wherein lie the secrets to Dunning’s training success? It sounds mundane enough: first he teaches balance, then he teaches the rider to use very soft hands, and he checks to make sure the legs are held in the correct position. Most importantly, however, it’s got to be fun. “As long as they’re enjoying themselves, then they want to learn.” |
