Since childhood, I learned to wake up early for the horses. The Chilean rider, together with her horse Ronaldo, achieved a score of 66.227% in the Dressage event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. A feat for a sport absent from these competitions for over half a century.
“It has been the dream of my life,” said Virginia Yarur Ready when she knew that her scores and awards allowed her to represent Chile at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. “The minute I knew about my qualification (just over a month before the sports event), I immediately understood that I had to go, no doubt,” she recalls. An adventure against time and facing the pandemic with all its restrictions, “but the most important thing for me was the honor of representing my country,” she continues.
It was a high-performance preparation, together with the Virginia Yarur Dressage team. Before landing in Tokyo, they had stays and waits in France, Spain, and Germany to finally face Ronaldo’s check in the Japanese arenas. “I felt immense emotion at that moment because it meant that I was already there, the Olympic dream was beginning… Another great experience was sharing the training track with the best riders and horses in the world.”
Her acclaimed presentation finally scored 66.227% in the Grand Prix, placing her tenth in her group. At the same time, the great joy for Chile was that it finally managed to participate in a discipline after 53 years of absence.
How do you assimilate that exciting moment now that days have passed?
“I am happy because we returned dressage to the Olympic tests. I was very happy with my participation. I remember Ronaldo entered the track a bit curious (an equestrian expression referring to the animal’s curiosity about lights and distractions). He could have become restless, but in the end, he behaved very well and stayed with me all the time. I am also happy because I have more than nine awards with this horse and thanks to them we could qualify. Amid everything, we hadn’t entered the track for a year, and that could have been complicated… but everything went very well.”
How did Ronaldo come into your life?
“He came because at some point with Yvonne Losos de Muñiz, my trainer, we realized that we needed a Grand Prix horse. We looked for him until we found him… It is always a risk when you buy because you don’t know how it will work. I remember he was the only one I liked, I had a feeling. Not all horses serve all riders. He is a very special and kind horse, although that doesn’t mean he sometimes has a bad temper. After training, I started to have a ranking late. Somehow with Ronaldo, we got to know each other competing until we achieved the scores in March 2020.”
How was your passion for horses born?
“My mother (the gallery owner Patricia Ready de Yarur) instilled the love for horses in us along with my sister from a very young age, perhaps since we were four years old. That’s where my passion was born, it was something automatic, I always wanted to be with them. My mother used to repeat to us that we had to be responsible because they were living beings that needed all our attention. ‘If you want to be a good rider you have to be with the horses first thing in the morning,’ she used to tell us. Since I was a child, I learned to wake up early for them. That left me with many teachings. Now I am very methodical, consistent, and take all this very seriously. It’s not something where you go partying and the next day you don’t show up. It’s the opposite. I went to bed early because I knew I had to go riding the next day. There is no option not to take care.”
When did you confirm that it was something you would adopt for life and professionally?
“I never really thought of anything else. That’s how everything unfolded. At some Pan American Games, I met my trainer, and she invited me to Wellington, Florida, to continue training. She changed my life; she taught me international competitions, the many rules to follow, the day-to-day management, and the treatment of horses. It’s an enormous effort, but it’s a sport that, at least for me, has no turning back.”
Are there things you have postponed? Your family, for example?
“I would say that, in general, you have to be very organized to not leave anything aside. Although I suffer when I am away from my children, they are five boys, and the youngest is twelve years old. Many times they travel with me. That suits me a lot, and they accompany me for the whole season. Although when I go to Europe, I have to return often mainly because of school issues. Now in Japan, it was more difficult and longer because of the restrictions due to the pandemic and the health residences. Fortunately, they say they are proud. My house in Santiago keeps functioning, and wherever I am traveling, I am always attentive, even to their homework.”
Source: Interview
