progress. At 17, she was selected as a Young Rider on the Trans-Tasman team competing in New Zealand. “By that age,
F E AT U R E
Meant to be
my parents were taking me to comps everywhere,” Rebel explains. “I didn’t think it would become a career, but I had the ability and the support I needed.” In 1998, Oaklea Groover entered her world with life-changing consequences. The offer came through Rebel’s farrier, whose wife was riding trackwork on
There was something about Oaklea Groover that Rebel Morrow had never experienced before, and it was the start of an extraordinary journey, writes RACHEL ROAN.
R
the failed racehorse. “Groover was so willing. He wasn’t like any other Thoroughbred I’d tried before. Most are still geed up from racing or a bit highly strung, but he just settled in. He had a fantastic work ethic.” After a few weeks trialling him, Rebel knew she was onto a
iding her mum’s Western
eventing,” she says. While not the
good thing. She remembers telling her
pleasure Appaloosas, Rebel
most competitive breed for the sport,
mum: “I don’t know what it’s like to ride
Morrow learned the importance
the Appaloosas proved reliable and
a horse that’s been to the Olympics, but
of a correct riding position from an
surprisingly adaptable. “They were so
if I was ever to go, it’d be on this horse.”
early age – but it was an introduction
damn obliging,” she recalls. “They were
At 21, she’d found her perfect partner.
to the respected eventer Simon Kale
brilliantly schooled and brilliant for us to
“Whatever the feeling was that Groover
that prompted her move to eventing.
learn on.”
gave me,” she adds, “I had never
Rebel, who first evented as a nine-
Two years later, with some eventing
year-old, was hooked. “I got the bug
know-how under her belt, she switched
But there was a catch. “When I got
for it. I thrived on the excitement of
to Thoroughbreds to accelerate her
Groover I noticed a bloody yellow
46 | E Q U E S T R I A N H U B I S S U E 8 • 2 0 2 2
experienced it before.”
