The Vietnamese jungle is a far cry from Pony Club camp in Warwickshire. But coach and rider Anne Grindal is proving that she is as adept in both environments.
Anne, a senior British Horse Society and Pony Club coach who team-chases, competes up to 1.30m showjumping and has evented to intermediate level, is also a farmer’s wife and the mother of two teenage sons, and runs a rug repair business.
She also somehow found time for the intensive training needed to star in the current series of SAS Who Dares Wins: Jungle Hell, the next episode of which airs on Monday (6 February) at 9pm on Channel 4.
Anne is one of 20 civilians who were taken to the jungle in September, where a crack team of former special forces “recreate the SAS’s secret selection process – putting recruits through the ultimate test of their physical and psychological resilience”.
Anne told H&H that although she has become very interested in the importance of rider fitness, especially since training as a UKCC level 3 coach, her application to the series was “one of those things”.
“I’m always looking to expand and challenge my brain, and I was watching it with my son last year, when it was in the desert,” she said. “We wondered what you had to do, to do it, and I went online and found the form. I thought it was cool but that’s as far as I thought it would go. At no point did I ever think I’d be getting on a plane and going to Vietnam; it was complete madness, but I think it was the horses that got me in.”
Picture by Richard Weller-Poley
Anne had to submit pictures for the application and as she is not a fan of being in the spotlight, she uploaded some of her hopping hedges in a team-chase.
“I didn’t want to put up a video so I skipped that but they rang me the next day,” she said. “They asked if I’d go for a fitness test in two weeks, and part of the test was doing 44 press-ups in two minutes. I could only do about 20 so I said ‘Have you got another date?’”
The next date allowed Anne time to increase her fitness. Once she had passed the test, she again thought she would hear no more but was encouraged to keep training until she hear more news in the summer.
She passed a video interview from a hotel on her summer holiday, and a swim test in the sea, “then they rang to say ‘We’d like you to do it’, and I thought ‘Pardon?’!” Anne said.
“There was about 10,000 applications so I never thought I’d get on but I thought ‘Now I have, I’d better not embarrass myself’. I got my head down and did some crazy training.”
Fitting sessions into her packed days in early mornings or late evenings, and working with a trainer in his conservatory gym on hot days to help prepare for what they had been told was a humid environment, Anne “just trained, trained, trained”.
“It tied in really well with the riding and coaching,” Anne said, adding that she has long been interested in the improvement in riding, and wellbeing, related to increased physical fitness. “But it was absolute madness!”
Anne only found out on arrival at the airport that her destination was Vietnam.
“I thought it was jungle as I’d been given jungle boots but got there and thought ‘Vietnam, that’s a long way to go’,” she said.
“It’s just so different. It was 100% humidity, so you were sweating from the moment you woke up, and you had to put on your clothes from the day before; if you’d been crawling through a ditch or in a waterfall, you just had to put those clothes back on. There was one shower, two bars of soap, two pairs of pants – it was rough and ready but being from the equestrian world, my feet managed quite well compared to others’ as I’m on them all day; with horses and farming, you’re used to long days and you just get on with it.”
Anne said there was a lot of crossover with her work as a coach, pushing people just out of their comfort zones to progress, as she faced challenges such as being “beasted”, carrying and boxing fellow recruits and abseiling down waterfalls.
“It’s a real mental game,” she said. “You’re always so scared you’re going to be in trouble and in my day job, I’m in control of everything, and to have that taken away and someone telling you what to do was really hard. I thought physically, I’d struggle, but I’m a bit of a competitor and was determined I wouldn’t get lost or left behind.”
Anne is not allowed to say where she finished in the series but after two episodes, she is still in the game, one of 15 remaining from the original 20. But she is still feeling the benefits.
“After I came back, I had coaching booked the week after but I cancelled it as my head wasn’t in a good place,” she said. “It does mess with your head, but now, I wouldn’t change it. I’ve learned so much about myself and what makes people tick. It was people from all different backgrounds and it was fascinating as I’m interested in psychology with my coaching, and how different people work. I’m so glad I did it. I’ve never wanted to be in the spotlight but actually, this is me. Why should I be embarrassed? All in all, it’s been an amazing experience, and pretty cool.”
You might also be interested in:
Para rider survives dislocated knee, lost sight and broken skin to complete epic 51-mile trek
Olympic rider loses nearly five stone to return to the ring six years after retirement
Ludo said the “huge transformation” in his weight played its part in his motivation to ride again.
Subscribe to Horse & Hound magazine today – and enjoy unlimited website access all year round
Horse & Hound magazine, out every Thursday, is packed with all the latest news and reports, as well as interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and training advice. Find how you can enjoy the magazine delivered to your door every week, plus options to upgrade your subscription to access our online service that brings you breaking news and reports as well as other benefits.
