9 minute read
Mother's Day duo: Catherine and Lucy Alati
FEATURE
Mother’s Day duo: Catherine & Lucy Alati
Is there a secret gene that can be passed down from horse-mad parents to their children? JANE CAMENS spoke to mother and daughter Catherine and Lucy Alati and discovered that it’s a little bit nature, and a little bit nurture.
MAIN: Catherine and Lucy with Flanagan.
INSET: Lucy and Hudson strut their stuff (Image by Stephen Mowbray Photography).
Lucy Alati undoubtedly inherited her mother’s passion for horses, although it could equally be argued that it was the environment in which she grew up that saw her follow in her mother’s dainty hoof prints.
However, genetics isn’t the explanation for why Catherine Alati, Lucy’s mum, became horse-mad from around the age of eight. She grew up in Southport on Queensland’s Gold Coast with parents who weren’t horsey. Nonetheless, the highlight of Catherine’s young life was holidaying in Byron Bay where she joined Zephyr Horses on trail rides. “That’s where I got hooked,” recalls Catherine. “I still remember every leaf and stone along the trail. Then I’d go to the Ekka (the Royal Queensland Show) just to smell the horses.” We’re talking serious addiction!
Today, Catherine lives with husband Giuseppe and their daughter Lucy on a boutique horse property on the outskirts of Byron Bay. Both mother and daughter compete in high level dressage and practice in their own recently covered arena. Catherine is an Equestrian Australia Dressage Level Two riding coach and Lucy is among the many beneficiaries of her knowledge and experience. when she was living on the Gold Coast and started riding lessons at Pegasus Park. “When that closed down I was so depressed that Mum and Dad bought me one of the riding school horses I liked,” she says.
Catherine is funny when she talks about her early days riding. “I’d go to pony club and be lucky to get a ribbon, though in my head I was on my way to the Olympics. I told myself that when I’m older I’m going to do this well.”
Self-talk is clearly a powerful tool because Catherine went on to excel in dressage at the highest levels. However, during her adolescence, her equestrian path was interrupted for a number of years when she discovered parties. Her horse was sold and she went to university to study pharmacy. “I wanted
to be a vet but didn’t put it down on my entry options,” she says.
After she started working, Catherine saved $5,000 and bought herself a $2,000 off the track Thoroughbred, an $800 horse float, and a cheap saddle. “In my head I was still going to the Olympics,” she laughs. To her immense credit, she schooled her Thoroughbred onto the 1995 Queensland State Squad, and also completed her Level One Instructor’s training. “I was the only one who passed that year,” she adds.
Catherine trained with Dutch Level 3 instructor Fred Hoevenaars and his wife Susie, an Olympic level judge. “Eventually I realised my Thoroughbred was never going to cut it in competition with Warmbloods. So I purchased two young Warmbloods and trained them to Prix St. Georges level. I was on the Queensland State Dressage Squad for most years between 1995 and 2001.” They went overseas on honeymoon and she rode in Germany and later in the Netherlands, where she discovered she was pregnant with Lucy. “I’d been riding five horses a day and wondered why I was exhausted!” she recalls.
While Catherine was in Holland, she bought a new horse: “He was a bargain for 5,000 Euros and he came home with me to Brisbane. I finished breaking him while I was pregnant with Lucy and took him all the way to Prix St. Georges before I sold him to a young rider. Then I
went back overseas and bought another horse, a chestnut mare, World of Music, who I had for eight years. She’s still being ridden by a young rider at Grand Prix level.”
Then the Alatis moved from Queensland to Victoria for four years. By the time Lucy was eight years old, Catherine had given up riding. “It was just too hard juggling my riding, judging, coaching, Lucy’s pony club and everything else. I decided to scale back and I got rid of all my horse stuff,” she explains.
There followed a gap of almost six years before Catherine mounted up again. This was partly because after being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1999, she had to deal with a number of operations. “I was 27 when they found it and I’ve had three major spinal surgeries since. Horses kept me sane whilst dealing with the problems I had to overcome. It was when we moved back ABOVE: Mother and daughter - a shared passion. BELOW: Lucy and Rudi (Image by Amy-Sue Alston Photography).
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to the Gold Coast and Lucy announced she wanted to get into dressage that I got into it again,” says Catherine, who recommenced her riding career on a Stock Horse named Beauty.
While Catherine is telling me this story (and by the way, I’m now the happy owner of Beauty, who is almost 18 years old), Lucy is listening from the other side of the dining table, so now’s a good time to hear from her.
“I was kind of born into the horse world, but it didn’t start for me until we were in Victoria,” she says. “One day I said I wanted a pony, and Mum said ‘No!’”
We both look at Catherine, who explains that she wanted Lucy to learn to ride first. “Mum didn’t teach me anything at first,” Lucy qualifies.
After a year at riding school her parents bought the five-year-old Lucy a little white pony called Danny. “I went to Pakenham Pony Club, the best pony club ever. They had cross country courses and Olympic level coaches to teach us. By the time I was six I loved jumping. I was always a tiny bit more advanced than my friends,” she recalls.
When the family moved back to the Gold Coast, Lucy lost interest in competing at Pony Club until she got her second pony, Minsey, who was 13 hands. “She jumped anything. She was an amazing pony. I got up to about C Grade on her. By the time I was 13 years old, the jumps were getting a little high for me and I was bit scared. One day I said I didn’t want to do jumping any more, but wanted to get into dressage instead.”
“We bought Jai, a Stock Horse, because Minsey wasn’t a dressage horse. I did a couple of twilight dressage competitions and Mum took me to my first EA Young Rider dressage camp at Caboolture. It was embarrassing. I was on Beauty that time - she had her bear coat on and she wasn’t really educated to the level expected. I didn’t know this world existed! There was this amazing Young Rider Squad and I knew then that that’s where I wanted to be and exactly what I wanted to do.”
So, at the age of 13, Lucy teamed up with Hudson (CJP His Lordship), a 16-hand Warmblood who taught her the beginner levels of dressage. “I did Prelim and Novice with him and in 2017 I rode him in the Equestrian Queensland Interschools.”
They went on to the Nationals where they won the Novice test and almost achieved the score they needed to be included in the Young Rider Squad.
Nothing daunted, in 2018 Lucy competed in the South East Queensland qualifiers at medium level. She also rode in all the open Equestrian Australia classes and this time qualified for the Squad.
Then in 2019 Lucy was placed first, with 69.4% in the CDI-J freestyle test at Sydney CDI. “I did quite well,” she concedes, “but that was the best Hudson could do. That was his finalé.” A young rider in Townsville became Hudson’s lucky new owner.
Lucy moved on to another horse, Rubinzent (Rudi for short), a 15-year-old imported Warmblood who’d already had a lot of FEI starts in Germany: “We weren’t looking for another horse, but …” she grins.
Catherine comes back into the conversation, explaining that in the meantime she had bought two magnificent new horses, Geronimo Dutch and Flanagan, from overseas. Flanagan was originally supposed to be for Lucy, “but we didn’t gel”, says Lucy, “I didn’t feel happy on him and that’s why we decided to buy Rudi.”
This year Lucy is moving on to compete at Prix St. Georges level with Rudi, who, she says, “looks like a cart horse, but floats like a fairy.” Her ultimate goal is the Under 25s Grand Prix.
Catherine also intends to compete in the CDIs, and hopefully to press on to Grand Prix. With three lovely FEI horses mother and daughter are both quite busy.
“We live and breathe horses,” says Catherine, perhaps somewhat unnecessarily. Even her husband is caught in the magic web, strapping, cleaning and “just lately, riding one of his ex-race horses,” she confides with a smile.
Mother’s Day for this family is likely to be spent riding: just another glorious day in the saddle.
Catherine home schooling with Geronimo Dutch.
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