I have been riding since I was about 2yrs old and have been in horses all my life. I started riding on the farm at my Auntie Fay and Uncle Johnnys farm at Mingbool in South Australia with my cousins.
When I was in year 6 I took on a little bay brumby pony 14.1 3/4 Joey. Joey had been very badly mistreated and was extremley head shy to the point putting a bridle on would take sometimes up to an hour, and that was after she had ran you around the paddock for an hour not wanting to be caught. She would buck every day and that was rodeo style twisting and turning until she pelted me, then would gallop off. After that she would be fine and would be so much fun. She was an amazing pony she used to jump above her head in the show jumping and was a State and National mounted games pony.
Tradgedy struck one afternoon after a big ride Joey went down on the ground and started convulsing, we rang 000 from the phone box to get the vet. I was very fortunate as the vet in Mount Gambier was Dennis Goulding (the olympic team vet) and he came immediately,the old girl had had a minor heart attack and was now suffering a servere heart mumur. This was going to require expensive veterinary treatment and ongoing regular check ups, my world was devistated. Dennis had been my familys vet for a long time and was the vet for the farm dad used to run and manage so Dennis agreed to let me work off some of the bill. Everyday after school I would go and get Joey and walk her to the vet clinic for her heart treatments and monitoring, she was recovering but slowly. I worked for Dennis for months and he and the two other vets were hoping to turn me into thier next vet nurse, I assisted in surgery on dogs and cats and cleaned cages, rooms and made tea and coffee for the clients but then the day came where we were required to euthenaise a perfectly healthy dog as the people didn’t want it any more and would not give it up for adoption. Vet nursing for Nat was finished I could not handle that. I copped with the puppies we lost from parvo, the kittens from cat flu and even the few surgery animals that didn’t make it but I could not do that. After my bill was clean I left. It did however give me a hunger for more veterinary knowledge with the horses.
Soon after I was poached by Kerry White who had show jumpers and I started to excersise and compete her horses for her, life was great I was highly competative and had good horses underneath me, I was point to pointing and started eventing. For a bit of extra cash I started to ride track work for a little trainer Michel Hutchinson at Mount Gambier race course and absolutley loved it, the start of my racing career. My father was not so happy he figured if I was not going to stay at school and insisted on chasing this ‘bloody’ horse dream he would find me a good place to go so he made the phone call to Colin Hayes at Lindsay Park Stud in the Barossa Valley. Before long I was there and wow what an eye opener for me, a far cry from my show jumping and little racing stable I was used to this stable had 122 horses and 42 staff and a that was only race side OMG. It was great fun to start I was given a fast work partner in Craig Dudren a jumps jockey, he taught me so much not to mention made me laugh alot every fast morning, I made some great friends and soon had a great team of horses under my care. I had started eventing fairly hard and had a very good 2* horse underneath me but was loving it. Craig was replaced after a few months with Paul Sheirs another Jumps Jockey but just as good for value and again taught me alot, I was becoming more competant and could hold a fairly hard puller after about 6mths. I was teamed up with many other fast work riders from then on but after a while had a very consistant partner another girl by the name of Natalie. We were known and black Nat and Blonde Nat even on the fast work sheets. After being there a year and a half and forming a very close bond with an old wise jockey Jimmy Coutney he had started to show me how to do the veterinary treatments and educate me on legs, each morning we would meet the vets and proceed around the horses that needed treating, ice boots, bute, bandaging, scopes you name it we did it. On one of the slow mornings I was on a little horse called Over Dover and we met with a rather large brown snake, Fraggle flipped out and reared over backwards landing on top of me breaking my pelvis, ouch! After months off I finally got back and soon after broke my wrist but not through falling off, it was from staying on go figure. Instead of 6weeks it took 12weeks in plaster to heal. I went back to work and only stayed for another 12mths after that everyone had started to leave Colin had died, so had Peter and life at Lindsay Park wasn’t so good anymore after 4.5yrs it was time to go.
However it was at Lindsay Park I crossed paths with my man ‘Bright Talaq’ aka Buddy for some reason this horse was special and we formed a very close bond some would say a little to close, it got to a point I couldn’t go anywhere without him or it would be disastorous. After his racing career finished at The Park I soon left and moved onto a little stable again Riva Ridge with Brenton Jones wow what an amazing journey that was. I learn’t alot but it was here I was to learn the real hard lessons of training. I also had aquired Buddy and sold my good 2* horse to take him on, but he got very sick and his eventing days were short lived never to event over 1metre.
Brenton was great and an amazing horseman he taught me so much, he would go to the sales and buy old Lindsay Park Horses and win races with them. I had a few really bad falls here and lost my nerve I would be literally throwing up walking to the track on the naughty ones and just couldn’t cope it was soon after this I was told I would be in a wheel chair by the time I was 21 due to a back injury I had sustained as a 2yo.
My world was shattered but not to be beat I found myself an amazing Osteopath who believed in me but he was in Adelaide 3hrs away. Twice a week I would travel to him and after 6mths was able to start weekly then fortnightly then monthly then the clearance to ride again, I was back at Brentons the next day, I had been out of work for 1year exactly. We started a plan and together we got my confidence back as good as it was going to get. My 2 star eventing days were finished I just couldn’t face up to the fences i’d lost that so off hacking I went for a while.
After 3 years with Brenton I then packed up and moved to Port Macquarie to where my parents lived and started riding track work here and working at my parents petrol station/convienance store. It was here I met Kelly Roach who intoduced me to Dressage so I decided to give it a whorl my first competition was at Kempsey and I managed to pull every arena down with one very highly strung Bright Talaq very embarrasing he is still remembered from this. It was then I decided I wasn’t to be beat! I went home and worked hard and 3mths later returned to Kempsey and won his tests, after that there was no looking back, finally something with a bit of a challenge to it that would fill my eventing void.
In 2000 I decided I was going to State I had only been competing dressage for approx 8mths but what did that matter. I teamed up with Allison Wicks as my instructor and away I went all over the country side, we went over Walcha mountain more times in 2mths than people living in the area would go in 2 years but it paid dividends and we qualified for State and off to Bathurst we went. I went with a goal of being in the top 10 even that was a little ambitious considering the line up but never mind. Cinderella and Matthew Dowsley won on massive scores and I managed a 9th and a 10th with 58% and 57% I was so proud of him.
Then I opened the saddlery and had my children Tamika and Jay so Buddy and I had a rest. I never realised coming back could be so hard with rolls I had never had before and alot of lost confidence I was struggling but a few people believed in me and pushed that little bit to make me commit again. I then teamed up with Chris, he nurtured my confidence and built me up to have another go, I had a goal of riding Buddy at Medium level we did this and then I retired him from the competition arena he was getting long in the tooth and could not physically do the work well enough to be competitive in Newcastle, Sydney area. He is now our much valued and loved school master.
I was fortunate enough to aquire Poachers Moon who Chris started to ride and I admired on the ground allot but didn’t get the time or oportunity to compete before he required several surgury’s. I was training racehorses for mum and dad and longing for a place of my own as we were fast out growing the little 7 acres we were renting.
In 2007 we purchased Spirit Lodge and the dreams I had had as a little girl were starting to take shape, then EI Hit. In 2007 I was also able to purchase Pacific Dazzle aka The Princess from Nichola and Richard Paff as a yearling, and showed her in hand and put alot of time into pampering her and helping establish the property, Chris backed Dazzle but then she needed more time off when she injured herself and I had another baby Brock.
I have struggled with confidence and weight coming back this time but we are making progress, Dazzle and I are starting to work well and I have taken my old man Poachers Moon on again and am riding him. I will come back on the competition curcuit again but it may take me a couple of years to do it to the level and competativness I strive for as being a mummy, partner and business owner must take priority. I am dedicated to helping Chris reach his potential and am enjoying watching my daughter excel and am desperate to help my middle son Jay so am on the torent mission of a suitable pony for him but we will get there. Time Time Time