Sue Meikle (now Wetherill), whose father Tom rode in Winton, and I learned about dressage and jumping from Tom who trained with two legends – Franz Mairinger and Karl Jurenak.
Q: Who were your mentors in the early days? A : Ron Patterson, not that I had much direct help from Ron, but he taught my lifelong friend David Green and I watched a lot of his lessons. Ron raised our equestrian consciousness. I was then fortunate to work for the iconic Tina Wommelsdorf. From there I started jumping with George Sanna, becoming, I think, his first working pupil.
Q: How did you afford to compete when you weren't a well-known professional? A : By working full time and spending all my wages to live and breathe horses and pay for my sport.
20 QUESTIONS
20 Questions with Robert Stewart A seasoned professional with over 30 years’ experience in eventing and show jumping at national and international level, Robert Stewart is an EA Accredited Level 3 Jumping Coach, Coach Educator, Course Designer, and Managing Director of Stewart Equestrian.
Q: Which 3D event did you find the toughest?
A: Werribee 1996. It was supposed to be the final Olympic trial for Australian based riders, which didn’t eventuate because the XC was a little underbuilt. It wasn’t that which made the event the toughest though. I lost my best horse – a horse I believe was a medal horse – which was sold from under me at the conclusion of the event. That was pretty tough.
Q: And the toughest show jumping Grand Prix? A : Possibly the Wolfgang Veld courses at Horseworld World Cup, very technical and careful, the Oz Champs at Werribee, and the Asian games were also tough as I had a horse doing the 3DE as well as the show jumping program at the same venue.
Q: How old were you when you
Tamworth. My family moved to Brisbane
started riding?
when I was 10, where I began riding
A : I was nine.
Q: How did you get your horses fit in
competitively. At 18 I moved to Sydney.
Q: Was your family horsey? A : My father was a jackeroo as a young
Q: Where did your jumping start? A : At Northern Suburbs Pony Club as a
man, so he rode after stock. My older
12-year-old. I started eventing and show
brother and sister rode but I was the only
jumping in Pony Club and at local Ag shows.
one to really continue after Pony Club.
Q: When did you start to learn the
the days of long format 3DE? A : Close to my property was a large area with flat and undulating country where I was able to do my gallops and interval training with ample warm up and cool down time on the ride to and from. I was very disciplined about my times and speeds then, and also in my observations around the fitness indicators.
Q: Where did you grow up? A : My first memories were living in
finer points of riding?
A : My early riding was with a friend,
