The Equestrian’s Inner Life, a new podcast hosted by Pernille Hogg, explores the unseen journey of riders. Launched earlier this month with an episode featuring six-time Olympian Mary Hanna, it delves into connection, resilience, and the transformative bond between horse and human.
Ep 1. Mary Hanna: The Enduring Flame
Some riders are defined by their results — but others, like Mary Hanna, are defined by their legacy. With a career spanning more than three decades and six Olympic Games, Mary’s presence in the equestrian world goes beyond achievement. It’s a story of devotion: to the horse, to the craft, and to a lifelong pursuit of harmony.
In an opening conversation, Mary shares her reflections on resilience, the classical roots of riding, and the quiet steadiness that has carried her through both triumph and challenge.
One of many interesting stories told by Mary in The Enduring Flame is the moment where Mary’s dressage interest was sparked: watching Doc Matthews and Aintree Boy perform a freestyle to music in the rain at the Royal Melbourne Show.
The story of Doc Matthews and Aintree Boy
Among the many remarkable characters in Mary’s story, one stands out vividly: a man named Doc Matthews, who served in the Mounted Police.
His life was the kind that feels almost destined to be written down: he was an orphan found on the streets of St Kilda, who rose to lead the entire Mounted Police unit after serving in the army and working on the Burma Railway.
But above all, Doc Matthews loved horses. One day, he took a beautiful Thoroughbred he’d named Aintree Boy — a horse with heart and fire — and began training him, simply because he believed the horse could learn. In those early days, training a Thoroughbred to Grand Prix level was unheard of.
Doc had never been formally taught the art of dressage. What he did have was an insatiable curiosity. He found a film from the Pan American Games that showed horses performing the Grand Prix movements — piaffe, passage, tempi changes — and he watched it again and again, studying every step, every rhythm, every nuance.
Then, with nothing but that film and his passion to guide him, he began teaching his police horse everything he saw. Remarkably, Aintree Boy learned. The horse performed all the Grand Prix work — even the most difficult movements — taught by a man who had learned it from film.
When Doc reached a point where he couldn’t quite master the passage, he decided to write to Colonel Alois Podhajsky of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, asking for help. He wrote, “I want to train my horse to Grand Prix, but I don’t know how to teach passage — how do I do it?”
As Mary tells it, “If you’re a horse person, that was like writing to God.”
Amazingly, a letter came back — with detailed instructions on how to do it.
Doc followed those instructions, and in time, Aintree Boy performed a beautiful, elevated passage. Mary recalls one of her most unforgettable memories: watching Doc Matthews and Aintree Boy under the spotlights at the Royal Melbourne Show, performing a freestyle to the music from Born Free.
It was a stormy night — rain pouring down, steam rising from the horse — yet they never missed a beat. They rode through the entire test with harmony and courage. It was, Mary says, the first time she had ever seen something like that.
From that moment on, she knew: that was what she wanted to do.
Click here to listen to The Equestrian’s Inner Life Ep 1. Mary Hanna: The Enduring Flame.
Available on all major platforms (YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify); search ‘The Equestrian’s Inner Life’.
