From modest Pony club beginnings to modern Pentathlete, a working student and becoming an international clinician, the development into the horseman he is today has been quite the journey for Tik Maynard. Now also a successful author, I spoke to the man in the middle, to find out exactly what makes him ‘Tik’.
It was a gradual thing, I grew up in a horsey family, my dad teaches and my mum runs a riding school, so I’ve been brought up around that. However, even before I was a working student, I was a professional. I coached younger people in the lesson barn and I’d also been training horses on a semi-professional level, and I think I wanted to grow a lot more and really push myself out of the bubble that I was in. Vancouver has some great instructors, but I wanted to see the big wide world. After I was a working student in Germany and the United States (Texas, New Jersey and Florida), it reached a point where watching other people, I would think, that’s great, but I’d like to try something this way, I’d like to try something my way, try something a little different, as everyone has their own style.
