Canada’s equestrian royalty Amy Millar on the lessons she got from her 10-time Olympian father, and the ones she would rather skip
For most people, Canada’s Ian Millar is a legend of equestrian sport. Until Paris 2024 he was the only athlete, male or female, to have gone to 10 Olympic Games. For Amy Millar, however, he is simply her father – and the most helpful companion on her riding journey.
The Olympic silver medallist was the one who spurred his daughter on to making her first jump when she was around five years old.
“One of my strongest memories was the first time I jumped. When I was really little, I used to ride in a western saddle, and my mom had gone away, I think, to a horse show somewhere, and it was just my dad and I at home, and he said, ‘Oh, you want to try jumping?’” Millar told Olympics.com. “Of course I did. And so off I went on this little pony, only to find out that that horn in the front of the western saddle is not very helpful when you're jumping because it gets in the way quite a bit. But I had a lot of fun that day.”
When her mother, Lynn, returned home, there was nothing left to do but roll her eyes and laugh.
“She had that way of making that face like, ‘I can't believe you did that’ but now that I've grown up, I can tell that in her eyes, she always knew what was going to happen,” Millar said. “She always knew what we were all about and what we were going to get up to.”
In the years since, Millar has been her father’s constant supporter, following him to several of his 10 Olympic Games and learning from his impeccable discipline. She is now set to make her second Olympic appearance, at Paris 2024, with Ian Millar looking over as Canada’s team manager.
Amy Millar: From ‘professional spectator’ to Olympian
Growing up in an equestrian family, Millar started riding so young she has pictures of herself on horseback before she could remember actually being near a horse.
Her father, Ian Millar, had already gone to two Olympic Games before she was born: Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976. He would compete at eight more after that, with Millar accompanying him to some when she was old enough to take care of herself and not be a distraction to his preparations.
Decked out in red Canadian gear, she marvelled at the ancient setting at Athens 2004, watched the USA basketball “dream team” and Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt in action in the following editions, and celebrated with her father when he took a silver medal in the team jumping event at Beijing 2008.
“I must say, for anyone who's thinking of travelling during the Olympics, it was one of my most favourite times to travel as a professional spectator to my father and his 10 Olympics,” Millar said. “It's worth getting excited for four years. It's worth waiting for."
At Rio 2016, Millar switched from the spectator stands to the field of play as she made her Olympic debut in equestrian jumping. She competed in the individual event and also finished fourth with Canada in a jump-off for bronze with Team Germany.
Christmas morning rituals and other lessons from dad Ian Millar
While equestrian riding is known for the longevity of its athletes – Ian Millar was 65 when he took part in his most recent Olympic Games, at London 2012 – the sport is also hard on the body.
Now that she is older and a mother of two, Amy Millar pays more attention to her physical conditioning and overall health, and she has the best role model to follow.
“Riding horses all day long works one very specific group of muscles all day, every day, and neglects other ones, and it can be quite hard on your back,” Millar said. “As you mature, it becomes really important to keep all the leg muscles and all the supporting muscles strong, to protect your back. And my father's always been incredibly disciplined that way with his workouts, with his routines, in the way we run our business and all of that kind of stuff, so it's been a wonderful example for me.”
Amy Millar’s training routine, when at home, includes at least half an hour of stretching. That is followed by an average six hours on horseback.
She also works out with an online trainer twice a week and does core exercises on a ball. Aside from keeping her back healthy, Millar said that strength training is essential as it can be a deal breaker when riders find themselves in unpredictable situations.
“What the course designers do, especially at the Olympic level, is they devise a scenario that will erode your training, your position, your sense of balance, force you to change your horse's stride in a dramatic fashion," she explained. "Then you either need to really have an unbelievable, mental connection with the horse to be able to tell them with your mind or you're going to have to use your body and your physical strength to get it done because these are big animals and things are happening really fast when you're out there.”
While inspired by her father’s discipline, Millar is not always a willing follower as she reveals the record-breaking Olympian can often take his exercise regimen to the extreme.
“I have to tell you that that level of discipline is like... it's exhausting! I'm not saying that I don't do it, but I am protesting a tiny bit,” she said. “On Christmas morning he will wake up and he will do his 90 minutes of stretching, and he still does that. I must say, on Christmas morning, I do not do that. No, I go down to the tree!”
Mental strength in equestrian sport: The art of turning on slow motion mode
Mental strength and long-term vision are other key lessons Millar picked up from her history-making father.
Ian Millar was on site to give her tips at Rio 2016 and will also be at Paris 2024 in the role of Canada’s team manager, as energetic as ever at age 77.
“My dad could just see all of the things that were going to happen before they happened, so he's very helpful to have around,” Millar said. “When we get to these events, he's been to so many of them that he can see the problem three steps before it actually comes along, or the challenge or the distraction or whatever it may be. And then he just says, ‘Hey, just for your information, this is going to happen down the road', and then you're ready for it and it's not an issue.”
The ideal scenario for an equestrian rider is to come up with a plan and deliver a performance as close to that plan as possible given the unpredictable nature of their animal partners.
Horses can sense a rider’s heart rate and tension level, so it is crucial for the athlete to study the course, control their nerves and pass that calmness on to the animal.
“You've got to learn your course and make your plan so well in your head that you can see it with your eyes closed or your eyes open, looking at the course, looking away, all of that kind of stuff, so that when you get in there, it's just about refining that plan,” Millar said. “But the true magic of it – which is the real hard part and most high-level athletes will tell you about it – is the whole idea of when you can make things feel like they're going slowly.”
“When you can go fast and it feels like slow motion, that's the art of it. That's the ultimate moment,” Amy Millar to Olympics.com
“That's when you have more feels. It feels like you have more time to make your decisions and that is the ultimate goal to have that when you're riding around on these beautiful animals as fast as you can go, but still feeling like you have all the time in the world.”
Mental training is not only critical for riders, but for their animals as well.
Millar gets her horses excited about competitions by praising them excessively after each successful event and in doing so, creating a craving for future flattery.
“When they win something or they do well, I like to make a really big deal of it and I like for them to go for their ribbon presentation and have everyone fawn over them,” Millar said. “When you get up to the ring and they look in and they see all the people or the jumps, you want to pet them and make them feel like they want to embrace that challenge and they want to do this for you. And when you can feel that in your partner, in your horse, that they want to do this for you on that day, that's the part when the real magic happens and that's what you feel from a truly great horse.”
Ian Millar also plays a role in getting his daughter’s horses competition ready. His part, however, is more stern. Whereas Amy Millar tends to treat her horses as her “buddies”, her father takes a disciplinary approach, as with her Rio 2016 horse Heros.
“(Heros) was not all bad, but just a little bit naughty. And I thought it was funny. My dad thought it was less funny when he rode him,” Millar said.
“There still has to be a certain level of discipline in the animals and so my dad has helped me along the way,” she continued. “He puts the discipline in the animals a little bit for me, helps me with that, and then when I get on them and pet them and say, ‘Come, be my friend, go the extra mile for me’, they're happy to do it because I've not had to be the disciplinary, so then they tend to like me quite a bit.”
Paris 2024 and another Olympic chapter for the Millar family
Truman, a 2009 bay gelding Millar is riding at Paris 2024, is the type that does get excited about competing. And there is much to be excited about.
The competition is taking place on the grounds of the Chateau de Versailles and Millar is expecting to perform in front of a crowd of equestrian connoisseurs who can appreciate the details of her beloved sport.
“The French spectators for show jumping, they know so much about our sport and they love horses, so I think Versailles will be off the hook,” the two-time Olympian said. “You can hear the crowd's response to what's happening in the ring. If a tiny little mistake happens, everyone goes ‘woo’."
Paris 2024 is a second chance for Millar to add a medal to the family collection, to go with the silver that is proudly on display in her father’s office.
While the father and daughter are in hot pursuit of that goal, they are also not forgetting the key lesson learned over the 12 Olympic Games between them: Medals are not the most important thing about the Olympic experience.
“If all I do is look at Paris and say, ‘I want a medal and that's it’… at the end of it, there's so much more. There's so much more!” Millar said. “Enjoying these beautiful animals and appreciating the ability to go out there and be able to learn something and get better every day is, I think, the passion of life.”