Equestrienne Magazine - Spring 2022

EQ U ESTR I AN LU X E & LI FEST YLE

ROMANCE. ADVENTURE. ICELANDIC HORSES. RIDE FIT. GLOBETROTTING. LIFE AFTER RACING. EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE. RESILIENCE. WEG 2022.

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I remember taking my daughter to Cedar Lodge at Advancetown for her first riding lessons. It was this time of year, she was four, nearly five, already climbing on every pony she met and more than ready.

I would stand in the shade of a gumtree and watch, while her brother tried to lick a lemonade iceblock faster than it melted.

We were driving home after a lesson one day and I’d said to her, “Saffron, you did such good rising trot today! Did you enjoy that lesson?” It was a hot Spring afternoon and her little face was flushed and sweaty, golden ringlets of hair clung to her pink cheeks. With bright eyes she looked up at me from her carseat and replied, “Yes Mummy, but it would be even more fun if I was hanging off the side of the horse while it was galloping!” Great. I thought, she wants to be a trick rider. Not that I was really surprised, she had always been pretty daring even as a small child. I spent the next 10 years trying to keep her in the saddle (she did fall off a few times, but was never scared or discouraged).

Photo credits from left. Jade Schofield. Equinox Images. Helen Cruden

Now she’s 14, nearly 15, her face has fined down, the curls went a long time ago with her first haircut but her fearlessness has never wavered. She’s also now part of the HLS Trick Riding team. She started lessons with Hollie when she was 8. Saf didn’t have a naturally strong core, but far out, she was determined! Determined to be who she was becoming. Determined to be who she had always been. Unstoppable.

As annoying as it is when she wants to do ‘all the things, all the time’, there’s a lot to admire about how driven she is. Once she sets her mind to something she will just quietly work away at it until she gets it and she rarely asks for help. You should see those horses when she goes out into the paddock with a stick and bag of carrots.

She’s got them doing all kinds of tricks and liberty routines! People tell me all the time she’s so like me. I think she’s the best parts of me, (some of the more annoying traits of her father) but mostly she is just her busy, effortlessly beautiful, self. Full of energy, ability and optimism.

I was watching her with the horses yesterday. Our power went off which did not thrill me because I was finalising this issue.

There were a lot of emails and calls back and forward getting all the last minute things done. My laptop eventually died and my phone went flat. I made a coffee on the stove, sat down, reached for the print proof of the magazine and flicked through the pages. Everything was done except for this page. I thought about how lovely and kind everyone had been about the first edition, mistakes and all. I want to thank you for seeing the beauty in what we are trying to do. I love that people still see the value of print and chose to sit down and turn pages in their downtime instead of always looking at a screen. It’s very important to me that the magazine is very beautiful but also very real, in every sense of the word. My eyes wandered from the blank page to our open front door. I could see Saf outside playing with the horses. Our sheep that washed up in the flood was snoozing under the big mango tree. Her faithful dog, Alaska was there also. She’s never far from Saf’s side. ‘Bluey’ the Shetland was trotting liberty cirlces, doing Spanish Walk and then her favourite trick, lying down! I couldn’t help but smile.

With no screens to stare at, there she was, playing like a little girl again. It was such a grounding moment for me. No matter how stressed or under pressure I am, her joy is my joy. I look at her with so much pride and amazement every day. The first time she looked at me like that was when she saw the magazine for the first time. I will never forget that look on her face. I think somehow by building her up over the years I might have put some pieces of myself back together, too. Instead of Saf being like me, I am trying to be more like her! And if that means being more tenacious, hardworking and optimistic then that can only be a good thing!

J U S T S E W H E R TI G O ES . WI S H O N A A N D E I L O . M A KE O U R Y W N O U KC L .

B E RE S I L . NT B U Y HT E T B O S A N D VE HA UF N !

Sam

BE UNSTOPPABLE.

Y A ST O N C E .T D 3

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R I DERS Ali ce Hurl ey

F E AT U R E S

International FEI drerssage rider talks about how she ended up Down Under, her talented young horse & her addiction to improvement

10.

NORTHER N LI GHTS I cel andi c H ors es At home with the Ledger family & their herd of horses with crazy hair dos & a bold, vikingesque vibe

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ADVENTU R E M ere di th J arman

Diary from the Mongol Derby

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HORSE GI R L ENERGY Laura C heshire Talks about her career as a jockey & the importance of life after racing

100% Australian owned, designed & printed.

All content is Copyright ©Equestrienne Magazine 2022.

All rights reserved. Unauthorised use or reproduction of any content is strictly prohibited. The opinions expressed are not neccessarily those of the editor.

All photos are ©Flash Pony//Sam Cavallo unless otherwise stated.

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We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which this publication is created & read. We pay our respects to Elders past, present & emerging.

SPRING 2022

40.

LUXLI F E Lara B aeri sw y l Horses in the Swiss Alps

46.

MAR E TALES Gol dmine La tte National Champion Dilute & Heritage Stock Horse

54.

WEG 2 02 2 H el en Crud en

FEI World Championship Showjumping through the lens of our favourite International Equestrienne

76.

BEHI ND THE BRAND Amy Summer Elli s on Hunt Seat Paper Co.

Modern equestrian gifts & stationery dreamt up watching her horse graze in the Southern California sunshine

F RO N T C OVE R ‘ PALO M O’ P h o to g ra p h e d at S o to g ra n d e , S p a i n .

I m age by H e le n C r u d e n A d ve r tis in g E n qu ir ie s he l lo @e qu e s tr ie n n e magazin e . co m

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30.

G LOBE-TROTTI NG H el en Crud en Postales de Sotogrande

60.

S TA B L E

PERFOR MANCE ANXI ET Y The Camp dra ft Co ach My three-pillar approach to competing with confidence.

64.

H O RSE PADDOCK HER BALI SM Ambre Wha tl ey Your grandmother’s medicine

66.

R I DE F I T A nne -M ari e La ss erre

Our resident Glamazon shares a simple circuit workout to help us shape, stretch & Ride Fit!

70.

Q & A AOR Simone Wo o d Join a club, buy the boots & have fun!

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MI ND. BODY. CONNEC T H el en Hui e

ESSENTIALS

Connection – every horse person is chasing it.

82.

MAR E HEALTH C o o - e e from Col eychell e The best time to breed your mare is when she is in peak health

80.

EMOTI ONAL I NTELLEGENCE M el Spi ttall What does it mean and why would having such an awareness matter in our interactions with our horses?

84.

POLO WRAPS Tracey B oyack

Professional Polo Groom shares some insight into the job & why they prefer mares in polo

STAY CONNEC TED @equestrienne_magazine

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AL I C E H U RL EY

F l y in g C h a n g e Sometimes following your heart takes you to places you never could have imagined you’d go. I’ve crossed the world for love, so I know what it’s like to do that. Everyone thinks you’re crazy. You want to prove them wrong... but part of you wonders if they might actually be right. What happens when you just ‘see where it goes?’ One minute you’re head rider at a dressage stable in the UK, training PREs, taking Spanish classes at night & planning a move to Spain, or maybe the US, when you meet someone (‘The One’), one thing leads to another and.. You find yourself in Theodore, Qld, Australia (where??) population 600, red sand, 565ks north-west of Brisbane. For Alice Hurley, this is exactly what happened. I caught up with her & asked her to tell me the whole story. The first thing she said was, ‘I made something out of nothing.’

Photo by Equine Collective

Alice had worked in her role as head rider & manager for 8 ½ years when she realised she’d gone as far as she could go with the job. ‘The cons were starting to outweigh the pros & I knew that it was time to go. The horses were what was keeping me there so it was a really difficult decision to leave. I had built such a close bond with them and had produced them from a young age. One horse in particular, ‘Des’, I’d ridden from breaking-in up to training the grand prix work, I lived onsite & day in day out I was there looking after him. I really wanted to compete him at grand prix. So, it was really sad to leave but I had it in my heart that I wanted to work abroad, so I started to look for other jobs. I had hoped that that job would be in Spain not Australia, because at that point the majority of the horses I was riding were Andalusians/PRE. I was competing in Spain a lot & I had been learning Spanish in evening classes for a few years.’ When she met up with friend & fellow rider Anthony Pelling who was working in Spain at the time, at SICAB ‘one thing led to another..’ which then led to a change of plans.

“I hadn’t really found anything that wouldn’t have been a backwards step for me in in Spain & Anthony was going home to Australia anyway, so I extended my job search to the whole world. I applied for jobs in Hong Kong, America, Australia & in the end I got two offers, one from America & one from Australia.

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RI D E LI KE A G I R L

The one in America would have been much more suitable for what I wanted to pursue but I was at that stage where I said to myself, ‘Well, do I follow my heart and just see where this thing goes?’ So, I ended up in Australia. Albeit 1500ks away from Ant but still in the same country at least!”

Alice started at the beautiful Sutton Farm equestrian centre in the southern highlands of NSW. Imagine being a wellknown, well-respected dressage rider & finding yourself in a new & strange land where you don’t even know what the simplest things are called, like a ‘biscuit’ of hay or a round yard not lunging pen, to name a few. She didn’t know the judges - good or bad - how the warm-up’s work or where anything is.

“It’s really weird being in the same field of work but everything’s different - different rules, different names for everything. That was one of the reasons I became a dressage judge when I moved here, because I was like wow, I don’t understand anything, I don’t know anyone, I’m going to become a judge. It was the easiest way to learn the tests because they’re all different until you get up to FEI.” Over the months that followed, she managed to re-establish herself & was ready to extend her visa & stay on at Sutton Farm when Covid arrived, bringing all the restrictions & lockdowns with it. “Two weeks before my working holiday visa ran out, I found myself with two options. I was either going home to the UK or I was going to drive to Theodore. I was really shocked because everything was happening so fast, the borders were about to close & I didn’t know what to do, but I had to move quickly. So, I bought this little car, packed it full of stuff & drove to Theodore with my border pass papers.

It’s been a

crazy ride.”

Photo by Tony Sheffield / Highlife Magazine.

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It was a big move for Alice to come to Australia, let alone to then find herself a year later in a remote regional town like Theodore. “When I eventually processed everything & the novelty of being there had worn off, I thought ‘holy shit!

I don’t have anything. I don’t have any friends, I don’t have any family, I don’t have my horses, I don’t have my job’. Ant was very supportive, but I have never been in that situation before where, I don’t want to sound dramatic & go as far to say that I lost my identity, but it was really, really hard.

I was suddenly somewhere unfamiliar, I wasn’t able to fly home to see my family, but the main thing was that I didn’t have that day-to-day contact with the horses.” She immediately went on a job hunt and found herself, for the first time since she was 16, in a role that wasn’t outside or with horses. After a few months working as a receptionist at a local aged care facility, she started to think about seeing if there would be any interest in riding lessons.

“I was just very determined to create something, be doing something that I wanted to do and be in control of that part of my life again.”

To her surprise, requests came from far & wide, from ‘weird & wonderful’ places, where lessons from an International FEI rider were not something that had ever really been on-offer before. Alice found herself travelling North to Bowen & as far West as Roma to coach. That led to weekend clinics & more regular trips to include students at Taroom & Biloela. “I’ve always loved travelling and I love that my job takes me to new places and new scenery and to meet new people. In the UK, I only coached in my spare time for pocket money, whereas now it’s very much an integral part of my business. I do enjoy it, it is very rewarding.” After about a year, they moved to the Gladstone area where Alice would be able to have the facilities to train a horse & by that stage she had managed to save enough money to buy one for herself. Having not owned a horse for nearly 10 years, Alice said she was ‘just very determined to be riding again. That’s what I love.’ When asked what she loves most about riding, she replied, “I feel like I’ve got two different loves of riding.

I love to just get on and go for a hack. Be out in the open, go for a gallop or a jump, just play around & have fun. The other side of it is, like with 99.9% of dressage riders, that addiction to improvement. Problem solving, improving, all the time striving to be better, making the horse stronger.

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It’s an addiction & an obsession.”

R I D E LI KE A G I R L

The focus of that love & obsession is now ‘Buddy’ (Kalimna Quick Wyn) - a quirky 3 year-old, chestnut warmblood gelding whom she bought sight-unseen from the stud in Victoria at the height of Covid. Originally, she’d been hoping to find a PRE like one’s she was used to riding & training overseas, but it was much easier to find a Warmblood which fit her criteria & budget. While Alice admits it’s been a challenge getting to know Buddy over the last year, she thinks she’s finally getting the feel for how he needs to be ridden. “He’s a nice horse, he’s just a unique horse. He’s quite stubborn and a bit hot. Every time I ride him, I am concentrating so hard, I am trying to improve myself every time I sit in that saddle, more so than anything I’ve ever ridden. I’m constantly having to make these tiny little communications and adjustments. I just want him to trust me more & let me have a say!” she says with a laugh, followed by “But he is only 4 so I can’t discredit him too much. If I think about all the four-year-old’s I’ve ridden, a lot of them were nightmares until they were 6 and then they’ve really come into their own. So, while there are improvements to be made & he’s got his weak points, he’s everything I want in a horse. The quality is there, he’s got a lot more potential than most, if not all, of the horses I’ve ever ridden in terms of his quality.”

Alice has gradually built her business out of the sand in Theodore to sand arenas all around central Queensland.

The comparisons between where she’s come from & where she works now are as never-ending as those western horizons she now regularly travels between. “It's wildly different in Australia, especially up here. The distances people are willing to travel to go and compete… We did travel those distances in Europe, but they were competitions that we have been qualifying for all year or planning our whole year around!” I asked her if there had been a big show or win that she loved most or that meant the most to her.

“One of my fondest memories was competing at the Barcelona Spring Tour. I’d been on holidays to America at end of January to visit my brother when my boss had rang me and said she’s entered me in this comp in March, and the horses had to do flying changes by then. I only had about a month to teach them so I went with zero expectations. It was held at Barcelona Horses, in Can Alzina, which is just the most beautiful setting, amazing surfaces, gorgeous sun, Ibiza-style chillout music pumping the whole time & a bar in the middle of the arenas.

There were two CDI’s back-to-back, a 3-star and 4-star, so we were there for 2 weeks. Carl Hester was there and Edward Gal – there were amazing people everywhere!

‘Des’ won the SICAB qualifier so we were in the prize giving, we got a medal, it was perfect. That moment was not just about the win & the tests, the whole experience was just really cool, I absolutely loved it.

Amazing people,

amazing arenas and lots of gin & tonic!”

Whereas I’ve found it difficult in Australia because I feel like I’m always the outsider. I’m really trying to emphasise a more inclusive community; I try very hard to be penetrative into people’s negativity about other people. I try to encourage from grassroots right up to the Prix St George riders that I coach that people need to be a bit more kind and considerate. It’s really hard as well because I may have done ‘xyz’, but you’re only as good as your last ride so it’s even harder that I don’t have a beautiful medium/grand prix horse that I can just go out on. I’m really trying to work on my mindset, it’s something that I’ve struggled with for a long time, but I’ve been more aware of it since Covid, I’m just trying to be more positive & foster more positivity within my students. Most of the time I’m pretty driven and pretty determined. You’ve got to be.”

“Life is hard & horses are hard -

we’re all in this together!”

Alice’s ultimate goal is to compete at Grand Prix – having ridden & trained at that level, it is something she is striving for, no matter how long it takes, & firmly believes Buddy has the talent to move up the levels. Having represented Great Britain in the pony, junior & young rider classes, Alice changed her sports nationality to represent Ireland when she hit Small Tour & hopes to be able to ride with the tricolours on her jacket once again. “I’m very happy with that decision as it has opened up more opportunities for me.

Irish people are just lovely. If Ireland had better weather, I probably would have ended up there. I always wanted to move somewhere warmer. I do love Australia; quality of life here is amazing. It’s been tough. It’s the land of extremes, but we love the space.”

Well, Alice, we’re glad you’re here! EM

I don’t know about you; but I just added that to my list of ‘must-do’s!)

Alice has only done a handful of comps so far here in Aus, few & far between compared to the weekly/fortnightly competition routine she was used to but she’s working hard towards being back out there again. It’s been a big adjustment also going from a team environment to working mostly on her own now. “Being a professional rider & trainer is hard work, mentally & physically. I do find myself lacking motivation at times. Not only are you on your own a lot, it’s also a very lonely community, particularly in Australia. I find in Europe there’s a lot more camaraderie, you’re competing against each other but you’re also having a beer together at the end of the day.

Alice & Buddy. Photos by Equine Collective

ALI C E H URLEY

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Northern Lights I CE L AN D I C H O R S ES

My name is Thorun. I live in Jimboomba Qld with my husband Terry and our children. I have Icelandic heritage and our little farm, Ystibaer (named after my grandparents farm in Iceland) is home to Northern Lights Icelandic Horses. For as long as I can remember I have always loved horses. I was that pony mad kid, growing up all my books, posters and toys were horsey. I lived and breathed them. I would daydream staring out the car window on long road trips imagining myself galloping along next to the car on some fantastical steed. My father is Icelandic and my mother Australian. They met in Iceland in the 1970s while my mum was working in a fish factory in the West Fjords region of Iceland. Like many young Australian and New Zealanders at that time, mum went to London to work as a nurse. She and her nursing friends were all living in a tiny flat in London when they saw an ad in the newspaper for a summer job working in the fish factory in Iceland. All flights and accommodation were provided and the pay was better than nursing so they headed over. My dad was an engineer working in the factory.

Because Iceland is so close to the Arctic Circle, they have 24 hours daylight for most of summer. The midnight sun! I think my parents had a wonderful summer because my mum ended up staying, marrying my dad and having my brothers over there. They moved back here in the late 70s. Iceland was a very faraway place back then, quite different from the tourist hotspot it is today.

I was born in Australia and spent all of my childhood here. I didn’t come from a particularly horsey family but somehow it was in my blood. Some people are just born with horses flowing in their veins! I have withdrawals if I am away from horse contact in my life for too long. My family talk about when I was a small child and we would travel around Iceland in the summers, camping with our extended family.

When I was 3, I was the one pointing and calling out ‘hestar hestar’ or ‘horse horse’ all across the countryside. In Iceland they usually turn out their horses to roam and enjoy the lush summer grazing. I have really fond memories of those trips. No one had heard of Iceland when I was growing up in Brisbane in the 1980s and 90s.

I don’t know what my parents were thinking giving us all really Icelandic names! I’m grateful for it now.

It’s a link to my heritage, but growing up I definitely felt like an alien always having to repeat my name several times before anyone could comprehend it. Iceland is a small country but it really is full of viking descendants. Many ex pat Icelanders are living in Australia, New Zealand, American, Spain, and Europe.

So while the population is only around 380,000, there are random Icelanders all over the world. I always manage to find an Icelander where ever I am! We have some radar for each other.

Nowadays Iceland is well and truly on the map with so many shows and movies filmed over there. It is a gorgeous and exciting place in terms of the nature and environment, along with having a really interesting and intense history. The extremes of weather and landscape shape really interesting people and places. It has an energy, from the geothermal activity (all the hot springs and volcanoes) and spiritually also. Plus, being so close to the arctic circle they have 24 hour sunlight in the height of summer and really long dark deep winters. Icelanders live outdoors in the good weather and then stay inside producing art, music and literature over the long winter months. This makes for a really interesting culture with lots of contrasts.

But back to horses...

N ORTHE RN LI G HTS I C ELANDI C S 11

My mother grew up in Queensland, on the Gold Coast.

She is of Irish descent and as we know the Irish have horses in their blood too. She always loved horses but didn’t have the opportunity to be around them when she was young. So as soon as I was old enough, like so many mums, she fulfilled one of her own dreams with my first pony. My father grew up on a small island off the north coast of Iceland called Hrisey. Like so many Icelanders in that era horses were a really important part of his everyday life. In many other cultures, horses were only for the very wealthy, the landed gentry or military. In Iceland it was different. Icelandic horses were vital for food (yes, they eat horse meat), transport and work. The breed is so hardy. They are easy keepers, robust and willing. Farmers would turn out their horses to forage and dig in the snow over winter, while keeping their valuable, and more fragile, sheep and cattle inside barns eating scarce hay.

Historically there were some really dark periods in Iceland, after volcanic eruptions when everything was covered in ash, and really harsh winters. Having hardy livestock that could survive those conditions was important for the early settlers of Iceland.

Back in the olden days, no one could afford to have a horse that needed special food over winter, had poor hooves or was not strong enough to cope with work.

Qualities of the breed like dependability, strength, reliability, steadiness and willingness to work were naturally selected because horses were so essential in daily life. It was not possible to keep a horse that was difficult or temperamental. Easy to handle, useful horses were needed for family chores and transport.

Horses were the main form of transport in Iceland for many years as the road system was very poor and the treacherous terrain was unsuitable for vehicles. The national ring road highway in Iceland wasn’t completed until the 1970s, and even now bad weather can make it inaccessible. So, the horses of Iceland evolved alongside humans to be an essential part of everyday life.

Iceland has very strict quarantine rules around importation. Just like Australia, it is an isolated island with a very unique and fragile ecosystem. When I lived and worked over there in my early 20s, I dreamt of one day having Icelandic Horses here in Australia but was not sure if it could ever be possible. Once an Icelandic Horse has left Iceland for overseas it can never return due to quarantine restrictions.

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STU D FEATUR E

The legacy of hardy horses, SUREFOOTED, STRONG,

SENSIBLE, BRAVE – with very comfortable gaits for

TRAVELLING LONG DISTANCES across varied terrain is what we see in the modern Icelandic horses today. Icelandics are famous for their character, but also their five gaits. Beyond walk, trot and canter, they have the smooth, ground covering tolt and also flying pace.

N ORTHE RN LI G HTS I C ELANDI C S

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I had heard rumours that someone had imported a herd of Icelandics over to the southern hemisphere but I had never been able to locate them (back in the day before google and social media). On a 30th birthday trip to New Zealand, I discovered a German family in the South Island of NZ who had indeed imported some Icelandic horses.

The breed is really popular in Europe so you will often find the Icelandic horse owners here in the southern hemisphere are ex pats Scandinavians or Europeans. From my contacts in New Zealand, I was able to find a lovely lady here in Queensland who had some NZ bred Iceys and an Aussie bred Icey from Victoria. Thrilled to find the breed here in Australia, I purchased a little mare from my friend in Qld and a riding gelding from an Australian family who were breeding Icelandics in Victoria.

Then I met my husband (who also now loves Icelandic horses), and in between breeding humans together we have also been breeding Icelandic horses here in Queensland!

Our herd has grown over the last 15 years. Now we have six mares, a stallion and various youngstock (I honestly try not to count how many we have in the paddock... Denial is a good strategy for me. It helps that I have a lot of chestnuts, they all just blend in together!)

Having Icelandic horses here is truly a dream come true for me. My passion for horses combined with a significant link to my Icelandic heritage, I never take for granted how lucky I am to have such a wonderful herd of horses in my life…and around that herd, some really fantastic humans who are also passionate about the breed. Icelandic horses definitely attract a certain type of person –interesting, passionate and unique humans!

We are based in southeast Queensland about 45 minutes south west of Brisbane and about 45 minutes north west of the Gold Coast. We have a subtropical climate here, so it is pretty different from Iceland! People often ask me how they cope in Australian conditions. My answer is always the same - they cope very well, they are vikings! We do have to be mindful of them consuming extra calories, so we are pretty careful with good nutrition.

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STU D FEATU R E

In addition to our lovely stallion (who is Australian born, from a German Icelandic stallion and a Canadian Icelandic mare) we are now also able to make use of frozen semen from some excellent, quality stallions overseas. It’s very exciting and means a lot to the Icelandic herd out here in Australia – we are rather isolated from the rest of the world, and even from each other. The two main breeders (with herds of over 100 icelandic horses each) are in separate states (one in Victoria, the other NSW) and there are several smaller, boutique breeders like myself across the countryside. Frozen AI semen means we can safely and reliably use outside stallions in a more cost-effective manner than importing new livestock from overseas.

I run my herd mostly all together and they keep themselves fairly trim just being the playful, active horses that they are naturally. Icelandics are honestly really playful – they never seem to outgrow that foal like habit of wrestling and play fighting. It’s pretty entertaining to watch them all together in the paddocks.

Some individual horses can be prone to the dreaded itch (Qld itch, summer itch, excema). So while Iceys are generally low maintenance – I do keep mesh rugs on our itchy horses throughout summer, and when it is hot and wet, with many insects around, I stable overnight. This also helps keep them trim and healthy because we can monitor their grass intake. We just stable overnight with slow feeder hay nets full of low-sugar grassy hay. Other than that, their care and upkeep is very straightforward. They have particularly good hooves and are pretty sensible, so good on fences and no fuss in general. Icelandic Horses are an extremely hardy breed.

ROBUST, HEALTHY,

They do grow a full winter coat over here, even in

STRONG, UNCOMPLICATED. Queensland. As soon as the days begin to grow shorter in autumn, the growth of their winter coat is triggered.

They are pretty adorable with their fabulous mane, tail and feathers. After the winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year, as the sunny days get longer, they again begin to shed their hair. Over summer their sleek coats are just LIKE MANY ‘NATIVE TYPE’ PONIES, THEY like any other horse. I usually trace clip our riding horses ARE GOOD DO-ERS WITH GREAT FEET! in early autumn, just so that it is easier to manage them sweaty from work. But it is not necessary, especially if you love the floofy look!

N ORTHE RN LI G HTS I C EL ANDI C S

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Icelandics are the ultimate people pleasers. They seem to truly enjoy engaging with humans. This makes ground work lots of fun. They also have a great inner drive under saddle.

While they are really steady and sensible, you won’t find them to be ‘dead quiet’ or half-asleep underneath you.

They call it the ‘Icelandic Fire’ - horses with lots of forward and sensible brains!

to perform. The conformation should be functional and promote the health and durability of the horse where carrying ability, natural gaiting ability and the capacity to move under a rider in balance and correct body function are paramount. The conformation should also be characterized by beauty and attractive appearance with an emphasis on strength and muscularity.

What sort of person or rider is an Islandic best suited for?

Everyone! An icelandic horse in every Aussie paddock! I feel like I need some kind of disclaimer – I am 100% biased, like some kind of proud mother boasting about her children, because honestly Icelandic horses are simply the best! They are a very versatile breed. If you are looking for a forward moving horse, in pint size form, reliable and sensible – Icelandics are for you! Icelandics really can apply themselves to any discipline but seem to excel out on the trail and as pleasure horses. Here in Australia, we do not have the breed specific competitions they have in Iceland and Europe (where the classes are focussed on tolt and pace). As the breed grows in popularity here though, I am sure the competition side of things will develop. Icelandics can compete in any discipline really - dressage is becoming very popular (in Iceland they have special Icelandic tests that incorporate tolt). There are many very successful Icelandic endurance horses and many competing at local pony clubs, adult riding groups and in working equitation. Here in Australia we do present demonstrations at various local shows, ag shows, Equitana etc.

The aim is to breed a quality gaited horse that has a natural ability to carry a rider in balance, self-carriage and is beautiful when ridden, a horse that is agile, sure-footed and with good stamina – a true Icelandic gæðingur (a horse of great quality).

With just over 300 Icelandic horses in Australia, the breed is still in its infancy here. It can be quite difficult to purchase one as they rarely come up for re-sale once they leave the breeder. So, if you are looking for an Icelandic in your life I would definitely recommend getting in touch with the breeders here or the Icelandic Horse Association.

We are a really friendly, inclusive community, and all the breeders support each other. We all share the same goal – to promote Icelandic horses here in Australia. If someone doesn’t have a horse for you, they will put you in touch with another breeder who might have something suitable.

The official breeding goal of Icelandic horses is to produce a healthy, fertile, and durable riding horse, a robust and yet elegant and versatile horse with five excellent gaits. The conformation should offer optimal natural balance, and the movements should be supple, high and ground covering in all gaits, giving an elegant and powerful image.

The horse’s character should enable it to be used for different roles. It should be calm, friendly and cooperative, as well as courageous and reliable. The breeding goal encompasses everything from sensitive and willing horses to calmer types, but always with an emphasis on willingness 16

STU D FEATU R E

We want our horses to have

long, happy, useful lives in partnership with humans.

To register your horse, it has to have an Icelandic nameyour name can be rejected if not Icelandic! Icelanders are fiercely protective of their language- such a small country- they have a national language department which also approves the names of humans (also must be Icelandic names for children!) and creates new words (rather than adopt English words for new things).

‘A good horse has no colour” but if you do happen to have a favourite colour, you will be happy to know that Icelandics come in almost all kinds of colours and combinations!

The Icelandic horse is one of the most colourful breeds in the world. It has over 40 colours and up to 100 variations and most of the known horse colours can be found within the breed. I think almost every colour except appaloosa.

My personal favourites are the horses with contrasting manes/tails compared to their coats. So, the light duns, with dark manes and dorsal stripes and zebra legs; and the silver dapples or liver chestnut with flaxen manes/tails. Just something about that light on dark really makes my eyes sing.

They are a bit quirky – they are definitely a horse that you get noticed on! With their bright fun personalities, crazy hair dos, and a bold, vikingesque vibe about them, people always ask me about the breed when I am out and about with them.

So, if you enjoy having a horse that is a bit different, then you will enjoy an Icey!

Thorun - Northern Lights Icelandic Horses For more info find them on Facebook or go to northernlightsicelandichorses.com.au

N ORTHE RN LI G HTS I C EL ANDI C S

17

MONGOL DERBY

Meredith Jarman

Photo by Shari Thompson.

When my friend Holly told me she had a friend racing in the Mongolian Derby this year and that I could contact her about doing an article for the magazine, I went down a bit of a marmot hole researching it. I’d heard of the race before but assumed it was some sort of endurance ride. A quick google search led me to The Equestrianists website which has a plethora of info, stats, photos and blog posts from previous races. Passionate about preserving horse culture and traditions the world over, horse welfare is their top priority as well as supporting the communities they venture into.

Coined as the ‘longest and toughest’ horse race in the world, the Derby takes place on the Mongolian steppe (Russian for grasslands) which is, according to UNESCO, the largest remaining intact temperate grasslands of the Earth. Riders race over 1000km, through 27 ‘Horse Stations’ approximately 40km apart, navigating with coordinates and paper maps. There’s no route marked out. It’s a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ type situation. They’re given Garmin GPS and allowed to carry 5kgs of gear only. At each Horse 18

ADVENTU R E

Station, their horse must then pass a vet check (trot-up, heart rate & temperature must all be within certain parameters within 30 minutes of arrival). Then a new horse is chosen from the horse lines and off you go again. The horses are small and sturdy ‘semi-wild’ types, incredibly tough and accustomed to the relentless extremes of summer and winter. They live in herds out on the steppe as they have done for centuries Totally invested, I reached out to this friend of a friend and asked if she’d be interested in doing a story for us. Meredith wrote back that she was currently in Namibia training for the Derby but that she had some free time in the evenings to chat so about a week later we jumped on a call.

Meredith holds a degree in equine science and veterinary science and has just completed a postgraduate in advanced vet practice. “So, you’re a bit of an over-achiever then?!”

I asked her. She laughed but didn’t deny it. She worked for a few years here in Aus after she graduated, first in Ballarat then on the Gold Coast before heading back home to England where she works as a locum vet. She explained that

she’d applied for the Derby a few years ago, pre-Covid but still remembers the day Erik Cooper, one of the organisers rang for an interview as part of the selection process. “I was in New Zealand and he phoned me just as I was about to go on a skydive! I remember saying to him, I really want to do this crazy horse race but I’ll have to talk to you later because I’m just about to jump out of a plane!” A lot of people apply to participate but it’s not just about being a good rider, there’s an emphasis on being an adventurous person. Merdith must have made a good impression as she won herself not only a place in the Mongol Derby but was also offered a vet position for the Gaucho Derby to be held in Patagonia at the beginning of 2022. Although working as a vet in that race, lots of riding was involved as most of the horse stations were inaccessible to vehicles so most of the crew was also on horseback. That race takes place over half the distance of the Mongol Derby but the mountainous terrain of the Andes test both the horsemanship and survival skills of the participants. I had a quick look and was thrilled to see the winners of that race were two girls, Anna Boden and Holly Conyers (both from the UK).

So, in preparation for her own race ride, Meredith rode the Gaucho Derby as part of the vet team, then rode racehorses every morning before work when she went back to England. “I’m not a morning person. Getting up to ride a racehorse is the only thing I’ll wake up early to do!” (Don’t you just love her already!) So how did you end up in Namibia?!

“I’m a big believer in making your own luck.”

Wow, so this isn’t even the thing that she was doing... this part was only the thing she did before the thing she was doing. (I haven’t been on a holiday in 5 years but ok..)

We chatted easily for over an hour and wrapped up with ‘Safe travels. Have fun. Goodluck. And crying is allowed.’

Meredith suggested she could make voice notes throughout the race and send them though at the end once she was back on wifi. I thought that sounded like an awesome plan. I asked her what her goal was. “I want to complete it.

Only about half the riders do. I feel like just getting there is something I’ve achieved,” she said. We said our goodbyes.

The next time I heard from her she was crying beside a baggage carousel in Frankfurt airport on route to Ulaanbaatar. Then a voice note came when she arrived safely in Mongolia, lost luggage in tow. I lived for the social media update. I never even had a Twitter account before, now I was checking it every time a notification chimed. Meredith was still posting on her Instagram and shared a photo of a piece of tooth in her hand with the caption, ‘Day One of pre-race training. Yet to see a horse. Already fractured a tooth. Things are going well.’ What happened?! I asked.

“Chewed a hard candy. Got a temporary filling from the medic but it didn’t work so like a typical horse vet I asked them to file the sharp edges down with my nail file!” Oh Meredith, aren’t you wonderful.

For the next 10 days I watched her purple GPS dot on the live tracking map day and night. Some days the dot went slow, some days it went fast. As the days went on, the kilometres she’d covered on horseback were into the hundreds. I drove to Tamworth and back (a 14-hour roundtrip) and covered less distance than she had.

I’ll let Merdith take it from here.

“I don’t really have much shame when it comes to asking for something. I just figured that the only way I could really get fit for spending that much time in the saddle was to spend that much time in the saddle! I just put it out there that I was looking for somewhere that I could spend a lot of time riding before the Derby. I posted on a bunch of random horse sites and was inundated with offers. When a girl named Ceri, an FEI endurance rider who is also English and my age AND who rode in the Derby 5 years ago offered me a volunteer position at their stud and training facility in Namibia, I booked a flight and hoped for the best. It sounded almost too good to be true! All I had to do when I got there was ride these beautiful Arabian horses through a game reserve which was basically like going on a horseback safari every day. I’d never ridden endurance before. Kerry made a training plan for me. At first, we would ride all day at a walk and eventually I was riding up to 170km a day.”

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“The start of the race was incredibly exciting, all of us riders, 46 of us, jostling at the start line. We had a count down and then all of us went off on mass which was very exciting.

I took the excitement to heart and unfortunately didn’t ride particularly well in the first leg, I was over excited and when everyone galloped off together I didn’t really pace my horse correctly so when I got to the first vet check my horse had a high heart rate. It was a ridiculously hot day. The horse was really sweaty. I was trying to cool him down, watering him and pouring lots of water on his back but unfortunately, I didn’t get it down within the half hour. I was quite disappointed in myself as a vet, to get a vet penalty at the first station. It isn’t a great feeling. Then seeing everyone else picking their next horses and leaving while I was stuck seeing out my 2-hour penalty was pretty disheartening.

I wasn’t the only one. There were maybe 5 of us. Whilst I was sitting there I got talking to a girl named Nat. She’s based in Darwin, Australia. I’d hung out with her a bit at the start party and her 2-hour penalty was due to be up within about 10 minutes of mine so we decided to go out together. The frustrating thing about being left at the back of the field is that the horses are picked on a first-come first-served basis so the people at the start of the field tend to pick the more athletic looking horses. Unfortunately, as I was one of the last ones to choose a horse, the horses that were available were not the really strapping, muscular, fine type that the people at the start of the line were choosing.

That was tough because you’re just chasing your tail on horses that don’t have the same athletic potential as the horses in front of you.

Nat and I picked our horses and went off. There was a Swedish girl called Maria who was also finishing her penalty but she chose a feisty stallion who reared up and she fell off. The medics wanted to assess her so we rode on.

The next leg was pretty tough. It was incredibly hot and we were slightly disheartened that we were so far behind already. Our horses were feeling the heat quite a lot and struggling a bit so we kept the pace pretty slow and found water on route to keep them hydrated. When we watered them, I took the pulse of my horse and it was pretty high so I didn’t want to push too much. We went very, very slowly to the next horse station.

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ADVENTU R E

We ended up camping there that night. It was a disappointing first day. We were told from the start that we needed to be doing 3 horse stations a day otherwise you weren’t even going to finish. So, I’d gone into the race thinking I want to be up there in the top finishers and be really competitive and in a day, it had gone from that to ‘Oh my God, am I even going to be able to complete the race in the time given!? It was certainly a change of mentality. But Nat and I tried to stay positive. We knew it was only the first day and a lot can change throughout the race. The person that had won the previous Derby had actually come in last to the first vet station as well, so we knew we could certainly improve on things going forward.

We knew it was a long game.

The 2nd day we woke up early. We were allowed to start riding at 7. We had looked at the horse lines the night before and already decided which ones we wanted to pick so we could get up and go. I’d been studying the maps carefully because one of the best ways you can make up time is by getting your navigation absolutely spot on. So, I led the way and navigated to the next horse station quite quickly. Throughout that day we rode really well and had some good horses. At the end of the 2nd day we had actually caught up with the riders at the back of the main group of the field, riders who hadn’t had any penalties yet. We’d made up 2 hours with good horses and good navigation and trying to be as quick as we could through the horse stations. My technique of moving through the horse stations got honed throughout the race. Obviously when you get to the HS you need your horse to be vetted in and pass.

Even though you’re given half an hour for the heart rate to go down, you’re better off going in with a low heart rate so you don’t have to wait with your horse. So, I made sure about 3km out I would start walking my horse. Some of them would let me take a pulse on their face at that point so if they were not actually that high I would carry on trotting for a bit longer, if they were a bit high and they needed to go down I would just walk very slowly. Waiting at the horse station for your horse’s heart rate to go down is just wasted time when you could have been walking it down on the way in. About 1km out I always got off and walked them in on foot. One other thing that I did when I got off was to have a wee. I normally needed a wee at every horse station but the long drops are always a bit of a walk. I would have a wee so I wasn’t wasting time and also letting my horses HR go down at the same time. I was drinking about 3L of water every leg which kept me really well hydrated. I had a 2.5L bladder of water on my back and also a separate 1/2l

Photos by Shari Thompson.

of electrolytes in my front pocket so I could manage my hydration. I think having worked on the Gold Coast in the

heat stood me in better favour than some of the other riders who weren’t necessarily used to doing things in hot conditions, because for the first 3 days it didn’t rain at all and it was incredibly hot!

The morning of the 3rd day, I was one of the last people to pick a horse. Looking at the horse, I wasn’t overly sure about it. Its toes were just slightly long and I did question when picking horses if they had slightly longer toes whether they were not ridden as much. I otherwise quite liked the stamp of the horse, so I chose it. It was a very hilly section of the course and I could tell that it wasn’t very fit.

It was already blowing quite hard just from trotting up one hill. At this point I did question whether or not I should turn back and pick another horse, but I knew because we were at the end of the field there weren’t many left to choose from. I thought, ‘Oh how hard can it be, I’ll just carry on for one leg’. Unfortunately, I think this is the mistake that really made my race unravel. Because the further I got into the leg, the more I realised that my horse really wasn’t managing the heat or the hills too well. I wasn’t happy with how the horse was coping. It started blowing heavily. I watered in where I could but even after a drink it didn’t pick up.

I ended up just getting off and walking it into the HS but it meant that leg took me 7 hours instead of 2 or 3 hours which dropped me so far behind. I knew it was going to be a struggle to get back to the rest of the field. At this point, I told Nat to ride on and leave me to it because I didn’t want to drag her behind. But she had the mentality of one in, all in and refused to leave me behind so, bless her, she walked with me even though she really didn’t have to. When I got to the HS the horses HR was only 48 and it wasn’t sweating.

ME RE DITH JARMAN

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I’d been slowly walking it in, letting it pick grass and I honestly believe that if I’d have kept riding it I wouldn’t have brought it back in in a good state. You know you’ve got to look out for the welfare of your horse, but it’s a difficult situation doing that knowing that it’s at the detriment of your race. I knew at that point we were probably going to be too far behind to catch up with the front runners. The focus very much turned from me wanting to be competitive to just trying to get through to the end.

The next few days Nat and I carried on riding together.

Maria would ride some legs with us also. It was mentioned a few times that if we dropped behind much more, the race organisers wouldn’t let us continue. If the field spreads out too much it makes it very difficult for them to provide vet and medical care to everyone so they put the back runners into what’s called the ‘adventure category’ which means you’re no longer a competitive participant and they drive you forward a few HS. You then only ride periodically, on and off. That was literally the last thing that I wanted and the challenge put a fire in our bellies. We were still struggling with the less athletic horses. Again, that’s just the nature of it. Also, when you’re riding as a group you’ve always got to ride to the pace of the slowest horse. Obviously, we had gotten to the point where we had been through so much together that we couldn’t split up. We were riding well together; we were our own little team.

I took over the navigation. On the evening of the 3rd day we got into a HS with about another hour of riding time left so we decided to carry on and sleep out that night. The herders at the HS told us that there were multiple families sleeping in gers about an hour away. They said we’d find somewhere to stay. The Mongolians are very hospitable.

In their culture it is completely normal to go and knock on someone’s ger and ask if you can stay for the night. It seems like a bizarre concept when you’re not used to that kind of set up but that’s what’s normal over here. So, we went off and it got close to 7 which is the cut off for the riding time and we couldn’t find them anywhere. What we did find was a sheep shed. Complete with sheep poo. Both floor and roof lined with dried manure. We thought it was a good place to sleep, it provided shelter and secondly, we could also put our horses in the pen and close them in so we didn’t lose them overnight like many people do. We still tied and hobbled them as an insurance policy. The horses are used to being tied up and hobbled so that’s not an issue. We made sure we grazed them for a good few hours before we went to bed and then when we woke up in the morning. That night it started to rain. We basically woke up in, as Nat so eloquently put it, a ’shit sandwich’. I was just happy that my horse was still there! We cracked on and finished the leg in really good time.

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ADVENTU R E

Photo by Shari Thompson.

Fortunately, we got some really good horses so we made up some time. Despite being about 7 hours behind the leaders, we were kind of clawing back time every leg that we did. Whilst the notion of becoming adventure category riders still loomed over us, we were doing what we could.

Unfortunately, on the morning of the 6th day, I woke up to find Nat and Maria had been unwell. Nat had been sick all night and really didn’t look good. Quite a lot of people had been getting sick. She wasn’t in the best shape to ride, however being the gritty determined woman that she is, she decided to get on and give it a go anyway. She rode one leg in a very unwell state. I messaged the medics and asked that someone be waiting to check her at the next HS.

It meant at this point that I lost

both my riding partners and I was all by myself.

Riding by myself was good in some ways and really bad in others. I’d lost my companions but also when the horses are slow or lazy and you’re trying to get them going, you’ve got no one else, not horse, not person, to motivate you. I had some really tough times trying to motivate some of the horses. On the other hand, it did mean that if you had a fast horse you didn’t have to hold it back, you could pace it to the horse’s own ability rather than trying to average it out between the horses so I had some really fast legs too.

HS 17 was an absolute game changer for me. The organisers had decided to move from competitors picking their own horse to a horse draw. This was incredibly beneficial for me because it meant I was potentially going to get some of the more athletic horses that were typically being chosen first and which I hadn’t had the chance to choose from until now. At the next HS I drew an absolute gun of a horse that I was basically having to hold back so it didn’t go over 25k an hour for the whole leg. Normally you’re wanting to kind of pace your horse between 15/20k per hour over the leg but this horse just ran with me which was absolutely incredible.

On that leg I started to overtake people. Bearing in mind I had been 7 hours behind. I felt so happy to be back in the race. As the horse draws continued, I just kept getting these fantastic animals. At this point my navigation was honed to perfection and my strategy at the HS was paying dividends.

I went from getting further and further behind to overtaking people every single leg.

body would fail me during the race and be the limiting factor, but my body was incredible with how well it stood up. It was more the emotional toll that was getting to me.

As I carried on riding, I realised it wasn’t going to be a question of whether or not I actually finished anymore. I still did get the odd slower horse which was incredibly difficult riding by myself. Being in the middle of nowhere with a horse that just does not want to go, not because they weren’t fit enough, just because they were a bit lazy was really tough.

That was the toughest thing about the race. Being on a lazy horse. It got to the point where I found that the most draining aspect. I actually wanted horses that were going to buck and bolt with me at the start because then at least I knew they would keep going. Before I went, everyone was telling me how wild and feral the horses were but I just looked at them as any other horse. Obviously as part of my job I have to quickly assess a horse’s temperament and decide if they’re scared and need a softer approach or are being a bit naughty and then you need to be a bit firmer with them.

I genuinely found most of the horses that were playing up were doing it because they were uncertain of the situation.

When the herders were tacking them up, I would stand behind them and just put my hand on the horse’s wither. I think there’s just something about just putting your hand on a horse’s wither and giving them a little scratch that just grounds them and gets them used to your contact. I tried to do that with all the horses that I got on. Even though the herders wanted you to get on quite quickly, I didn’t mind standing there for a minute just getting them used to my presence. I did find it quite amusing because there were a few horses that I rode that the herders thought something exciting was going to happen when I was getting on them. They were getting their phones out to video me. But I didn’t have any acrobatics when I got on. They were all pretty good. I’d always get the herders to get on the horse and ride them first so I could see what they did because obviously they’re not used to saddle bags or riders with brightly coloured clothes. If the horses did have a bit of a buck when the saddles first went on I personally found that to be perfectly excusable.

This started making me pretty emotional. At this point I started crying for the first time in the race. The last few days, I tended to alternate between crying with happiness and crying with despair when the horses wouldn’t go quite as fast. My emotions really started to unravel. I thought my Photo by Ochiroo Bayarsaihan

ME REDITH JARMAN

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Photos by Babi Photography

I had one dramatic rotational fall. I was actually really chuffed with myself about how it went. There are loads of marmot holes everywhere that you ride. You are constantly trying to avoid them. Some of the horses are super nimble and avoid them themselves, being careful with their foot placement or just jumping over them. I was riding this one horse that wasn’t that great on its feet. I could tell even coming off the horse line it was a bit stumbly. We were cantering along and there was a marmot hole that I didn’t see because it was covered with foliage. He got a leg in it, I could feel him going down so I tried to sit back and pull his head up but I knew it was too late. He basically summersaulted over. Because I could feel him doing it, I managed to hold onto the line and tuck and roll out of the way and thankfully we both got up completely unscathed. I was right next to a ger with a family who held him while I got back on. Everyone that I met, all the Mongolians, were always so happy to help you and I never asked anyone for help who said no. Everyone always did it with a smile on their face.

It was really quite humbling. Everyone we met were just incredible horse people. It seemed to be the way of the Mongolian culture that they would do anything they can to help you. It’s beautiful.

My favourite horse of the race was a really dark sooty grey coloured pony. That horse was an absolute demon. It was,

in my mind, exactly what Mongolian ponies should be. Stocky and compact but so nimble. Pretty sassy too! That was certainly

one that even a few kms into the leg I still had a half-hold on the rein keeping its head up because I was pretty sure it was going to put its head between its knees and just bronc me off. But thankfully it didn’t. I had planned to go around the mountain. Going up and down mountains tired your horse out quite a lot so I would always try to go around them if I could. My general navigation technique involved sticking to where there were tracks because they tended to traverse the best routes and meant that you stayed out of the bogs. This leg I left the horse station 1.5hrs before the close of riding so I hadn’t planned on getting to the next one. I planned on camping out. When I got on this pony it had a completely different idea to me and because I was having to hold onto its head I couldn’t look at my GPS. I just knew what direction the next HS was, so we went straight up and over a mountain at the rate of knots. There was no chance I was going to be able to stop it, camp out and be able to get back on it the next morning without any help or without losing it overnight, so I did get to the HS at bit late and incurred a late riding penalty. But that was better than losing the horse overnight. I loved being up in the mountains. I kind of felt like I was in the Sound of Music or something! That was a moment where I actually really enjoyed riding by myself. There were times when I really hated it, but that was one of the good moments.

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ADVENTU R E

IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE HORSE AND AN INCREDIBLE RIDE. The next night I was riding by myself and I knew I wouldn’t make the next HS but I had an hour left of riding do I decided to kick on. Around 7pm I came across a valley with a few gers in it. It was just the most beautiful valley. There was also a well so I knew I would be able to get water. I walked past a ger and saw a lady milking some cows and a 5-yearold boy playing outside so I thought it would be a nice safe place to stay for the night. I pointed at myself, then pointed at the horse and made a sleeping gesture. She obviously understood and started making arrangements for me to be there. Going into the ger, it’s always so amazing seeing old traditional culture with more modern conveniences. There was a big flat screen TV and a landline telephone... I have no idea how that works... as well as the traditional family beds and guest bed. You should always walk into a ger with your right foot first, then go left because guests tend to be accommodated on the left side and the family sleeps on the right. Your feet should always face the exit of the ger when you sleep. The little boy was so lovely. He got out his toy chest, showing me all his toys and while I played with him, I noticed the woman was making lots of phone calls. I didn’t really know what was going on. We attempted sign language with one another. There was lots of pointing and

smiling. An hour or so later, 4 or 5 people turned up with a big bottle of vodka and it seemed like we were having a bit of a party. I don’t know if they were planning on coming around already or whether they had invited them for my benefit, but I sat around with a Mongolian family and their friends and drank vodka. when it was time for dinner she had boiled what I assume was a bulls penis, so I politely tried a little bit of that while they all laughed at my attempt to eat it. You have to accept if someone offers you something. Even if you don’t want it, you need to have a little taste to show your appreciation. There’s no expectation to finish things. Sometimes that actually shows that you want more and you’re not satisfied. I couldn’t really manage more than a small nibble but I had a little bit!

One of the ladies then went to her car and came back with a pizza and some Coke. I have no idea where she got it from, in the middle of the Steppe, miles from anywhere.

It wasn’t that fresh, it had probably been around for a few days, but having a bit of pizza and a coke was just the best thing ever! Particularly after a bit of vodka. I was super grateful. One thing that did amuse me was that the woman whose house we were at was also given a slice of pizza and she took a bite of it then didn’t eat any more. She obviously thought that the pizza was the weird, gross thing that you take a bite of and not finish. It was quite amusing seeing that juxtaposition.

As the race went on, the days started blurring into one. I couldn’t remember which HS I was between. I could barely remember what horses I’d ridden or where I’d been.

I was still catching up with people and riders behind me started dropping off, either due to illness or the fact that they had lagged too far behind and had been made to join the adventure category. But I was determined not to. I kept cracking on. On the morning of the 9th day, the heavens opened. I’ve never experienced rain like it. I was absolutely sodden, the visibility was terrible and again I was riding by myself. The maps we used to navigate were old 70s Soviet Union maps so not particularly accurate. Sometimes where there’s meant to be roads there are no roads and sometimes when there are roads they might not be on the map. One thing I had learnt was that if it looks like there’s a marshy area, don’t go though it because you normally can’t pass it. However, this one particularly large area of marsh looked like it had a solid road running through it and it looked so much quicker than going around. So, I thought I’d take a gamble. I did find a road, but as it went along it petered out. I crossed a few ravines and creeks but then I got to a point where there was a large river in front of me and I was stuck in the marsh. Due to the rain, it was flowing so fast, the visibility was still poor and by this point I was absolutely freezing and completely alone. I had been walking along the river to see if there was somewhere passable but I was just going so far, the river was just getting worse and worse and the rain was getting heavier. I decided at this point that it was worth going back even though it was frustrating that I’d wasted a few hours, it wasn’t safe for me to be there so I begrudgingly turned around.

My only focus was that I needed to complete this race.

Whatever happened.

Photo by Shari Thompson.

ME REDITH JARMAN

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ME RE DITH JARMAN

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When I’d got about half way back I saw the shadows of three riders coming towards me, they were the riders I’d camped with the night prior. I told them it was completely unpassable so we went back out the other way together.

Just the fact I was with them made me feel so much better and thankfully we managed to find a bit of the river that we could get across. By the time we got into the HS we were absolutely freezing. My horse had a slightly high heart rate but they wouldn’t even let me hold it until it came down, they told me I absolutely must go into the ger immediately because of how wet and cold we were. Inside the fire was lit and the medic was there, he made all of us all strip down to our underwear around the fire then piled coats and blankets on us to get warmed up. Some of us were limit hypothermic. When we were all warm and dry, we were able to continue the leg. Riders that I had overtaken the previous day weren’t quite so lucky and they ended up having to retire because of the weather conditions.

I started off riding with the group, but I had picked a very, very slow horse and I ended up having one of the worst legs of the race. My pony was so slow I physically couldn’t get it to move. I basically spent the entire leg going down this valley by myself, crying. I felt like I would never get there. The vet and support crew were so kind to me when I arrived, the crew really help support you and everyone

Photo above by Babi Photography. Photo full page left by Shari Thompson.

is gunning for you to get through. It was so nice seeing all the familiar faces. I got a faster horse and cracked on.

It did mean unfortunately however because that leg had taken me so long that I knew I wasn’t going to get into the next HS that night. About 8km out I knew I couldn’t make it before dark. HQ had said I could ride on a bit later if I wanted to, but I knew even with that I wouldn’t get there.

I found another sheep shed; this one was actually a luxury sheep shed because it had a proper roof! As it had been raining that morning I could see where the water had leaked through and where had stayed dry. I found a dry patch, put my bivvy in there, settled my pony down for the night and had one of the best night’s sleep that I’d had. It was completely peaceful.

Obviously being a female sleeping out by myself it was always a worry that someone was going to ride past. I had encountered a few drunk herders at other points of the ride who would try to ride up to you wobbling around trying to proposition you. I knew where I was in the sheep shed, no one could see me from the outside road so it would be very unlikely that someone would come in. I never wanted to sleep out in the open because there weren’t any trees, and I didn’t know who was going to drive past when I was sleeping. I did always make sure that I had my knife next to me just in case but thankfully that wasn’t something that I needed. It was more just for my own peace of mind.

ME RE DITH JARMAN

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That next morning was the last day of the race. I was knackered by this point. I hadn’t planned on sleeping out, so I hadn’t had any provisions for dinner or breakfast.

Whenever you sleep out, the organisers will always come and check on you and make sure you and the horse are ok.

They took pity on me and gave me some biscuits, but I’d pretty much lost my appetite by this point. I didn’t want to eat. The last few days all I could think of was keeping on going, getting through the race and surviving. I was crying

ahead of me that night. If I wanted to I could have ridden hard, overtaken people and finished in a slightly higher position but at this point I just didn’t even care. I felt quite weak and wobbly because I was so drained. I tried to eat when I got to the gers. The penultimate was when I had a bit of a meltdown over some maps. I got to the HS and there weren’t any maps, I was expecting that there would be but there wasn’t. I just burst into tears, wailing ‘Why are there no maps!!’ I had a GPS with the maps… but I was at breaking point.

When I was on a good horse I was crying with elation, when I was on a lazy horse I was crying with frustration.

Sometimes I was crying with pride. I got to the point where I didn’t even know why I was crying.

I got to the last horse station. All the adventure category riders were there. Quite a lot of them I had ridden with while I was working my way through the back of the field so it was really nice seeing them. They were all so lovely.

Nat was there, she was telling me how she’d been watching my dot on the map, just absolutely gunning for me.

They could see the grit and determination that I had from being at the back and riding by myself. It gave me that extra push that I needed to ride that last leg. The last horse was awesome. This horse really stood out for me. He was a very clear pick of the bunch. Firstly, because he really reminded me of my first pony with how he looked but also a very solid, stocky but athletic looking horse that was just a nice type. He was also hobbled whilst tied up on the line which to me insinuated that he potentially had a bit of spark to him and he was one that all the herders were

quite a lot by that point.

It was just my body’s way of responding to what I was going through. The mental toll was a lot more than what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be physical things that got in my way but it was more mentally tough. Particularly when you’re spending that much time by yourself, it was really quite challenging. I woke up on the last morning and knew I only had 8km to the HS and then two more legs ahead of me until the finish so I knew I was going to do it. It was just a case of getting it done. At this point people weren’t actually that far ahead of me. I knew quite a few people had camped at the HS

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ADVENTU R E

whispering to themselves when I got on because I think they were expecting a rodeo. But when I did move off he was fast. For the first 10k he went at a very fast canter but he wasn’t too keen on slowing. Going up to the finish line, I had got off and been walking him but I decided to get back on and have a gallop through the finish line. I kicked him on and he went full pelt. I had to pull him up pretty quickly because I thought he was going to run into the crowd! It was so nice to see riders that I hadn’t seen for days. Everyone was telling each other their stories. I got off and one of the girls thrust a beer straight into my hand. It was really nice having finished and I couldn’t quite believed it had happened!

Riders also raise money for Steppe and Hoof who support the herder community with veterinary and welfare projects. That’s what I love about The Equestrianists, they really want to honour the culture and the people. It’s very much an integration into the local communitierrather than just going there with our Arabs and plastic bridles, making it into an endurance race. The grand plan is to do more of these races. They’re working behind the scenes to try to put on a world series. Thinking about all the different and exciting horse communities around the world, it’s exciting to see where they’ll go next!’

“THE RACE WAS ABSOLUTELY INSANE.” As well as the horses, the cultural experience was nextlevel. The organisers really try to immerse you in the local culture, as a part of it, honouring it rather than being a bunch of over-privileged western folk, coming over doing our own thing then leaving. A lot of herding families now base their lives around the income that the Derby brings.

They produce horses particularly for it. It’s good to put some money back into the communities to say thanks for hosting us, to try to give back as much as were taking.

Photos courtesy of Shari Thompson.

So, there you have it. A race within a race. As Bob Dylan said, the slow one now will later be fast. It’s amazing what a girl can do with grit, determination, a nail file, a few good horses and a bit of vodka. EM The Mongol Derby’s official charity is Steppe and Hoof .

If you’d like to find out more or make a donation go to www.steppeandhoof.org If you’d like more info on the world series check out www.equestrianists.com

ME RE DITH JARMAN

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POSTALES D E S OTO GRAND E

E XC LUS I VE

Helen Cruden

helencruden.pixieset.com/helencrudenprintshop

L AU RA CHESH I R E

Life After Racing

I met Laura almost five years ago. I knew she was a jockey and I was just starting to play around with my camera back then.

I sent her this message. ‘I’m working on a project photographing strong women and their horses, would it be possible to photograph you at the track sometime?’ (When I looked back at this, I reminded myself that I am still, in fact, working on that project!) I went to the Gold Coast Turf Club at around 5am on a ‘fast morning’ in November 2017. My bestie Nina came with me. She’d just had a baby and I think this was one of the first times she’d been away from him. We ordered $1.50 instant coffee in paper cups and wandered through the tie-ups to find Laura. One thing I love about visiting the track is how busy it is, but not in a frantic way. Everyone seems to move with purpose from one task to the next, knowing where everything is and where things need to go. It’s orderly & efficient. As someone who never knows where anything is (from that hoof pick I literally just had to that good pair of boots I haven’t seen in a while…), I find this very satisfying. I also love the clippity-clop sound of horseshoes on the concrete, those fine thoroughbred coats, metallic with sweat, the steamy wash bays, the sawdust in the air, the fluro PVC gear.

We found Laura, introduced ourselves and followed her out of the dark stalls into a flood of golden morning sunlight. Huge jacarandas and flame trees in full flower bordered the track.

It’s only 5kms from Surfers Paradise so the Gold Coast skyline provides the backdrop. It’s pretty spectacular, especially at that time of year. We climbed up into the stands, sipped our coffee and watched her gallop a few horses. I snapped some shots whenever she came past us. Since then, I have followed Laura’s career and see her at events a few times every year.

According to her racingandsports.com.au profile she’s had more than 4,500 starts, ridden 250 winners & won over $3,400,000 in prize money.

She’s had a few epic injuries in the last few years and is still recovering from the most recent one. She’s already proven she can bounce back from previous set-backs and has recovered from major surgery (twice), but whether she will make another comeback or hang up her boots for good, she’s yet to decide. So, what happened, where did it all start and where to from here for Laura Cheshire? I caught up with her at home on a winter’s afternoon to find out..

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After she had a horse roll on her and destroy her shoulder two years ago, Laura has since had two reconstructive surgeries on it, the type mostly used to repair professional footballers. She had a winner on her first day back racing on Boxing Day last year then by the 27th March 2022, Laura was injured again. “That day I had a ride in the first race, that was over 2200m and I rode that fine. My second ride was on a horse that was only having his second start. As I was riding him over to the barriers he was very fractious and felt unsure of himself. I’d drawn barrier 2 which meant I loaded up second. As I was waiting for the rest of the field to load, the horse reared up and I slipped down, finding myself trapped in the back of the gates behind the horse.

I’ve been thrown out of the gates before, many times, but this had never happened to me. It’s the first time I can honestly say that I felt scared in a fall or an accident. In other falls I’ve been aware of what’s happening, but I’ve never had time to think about it. Normally it just happens, then you’re on the ground, broken or injured, and the ambos come to pick you up and take you to hospital. But this time I was pinned behind this horse and I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to die’. I had the weight of a 500kg horse coming down on me. I felt like I was going to get bent in half. I thought it was going to snap my spine. Then I had this thought that I was going to get paralysed and for some reason that was worse than dying.

Something flicked in my mind & I went into survival mode.

I tried to squish myself into the corner of the barrier & managed to scream.

The barrier boys were loading up other horses, they’d seen the horse go up but they didn’t know where I was, it happened so quick. For me it felt a lot longer, but I was probably only in there for less than a minute. The vet had been watching my horse because it was quite unsettled. He said to me later that he felt like something was going to go wrong. He started running as soon as he saw the horse go up in the air so when I yelled out, he was there but there are two gates and they both have to open out. He opened one side and then one of the boys opened the other. The barrier attendant dragged me out by my colours and because the horse was cast on the back of the gates, he fell back out behind me. It could have ended really badly. One of the boys messaged me that night and said ‘I thought we were going to run over and find you dead in the gates. It wasn’t until you screamed that we knew you were alive.”

Laura’s voice is matter of fact as she recalls the incident, but I feel quite emotional listening to it. I feel scared that she could have died, relieved that she’s alive and totally fascinated as to why someone would choose this as a career.

As far as hazardous occupations go, it’s actually one of the most dangerous on land. According to a study* published by the Medical Journal of Australia, boxers, skydivers, motorbike racers, structural metal workers, roofers, loggers, pilots and flight engineers are actually less risky professions than riding racehorses. The conclusion of that study was, ‘Being a jockey carries a substantial risk of injury and death’. I ask Laura what she thinks about this. “You’ve got to have a pretty passionate drive to be doing it considering the risks. One of my best friends was killed in a race fall in New Zealand. That didn’t make me feel like I need to give up riding. Like, if one of my friends had been killed in a car accident, I wouldn’t stop driving. That was the first time that I dealt with a death in racing, but since then most of the funerals I’ve been to in my life have been racing people.

Some have been older trainers that have passed away, but I’ve been to lots of funerals for people who’ve had a race fall or an accident. It is a dangerous job...

there’s no other job where an ambulance follows you around.”

Sitting here in the afternoon sun, her horses graze peacefully in the paddock next to us and a flock of alarmed Guinea fowl are doing laps of her yard. Three months have passed since the accident and she’s finally been given the go-ahead by her doctor to start riding her own Thoroughbred again. “I’ve loved racing my whole life. I’ve been in racing since I was sixteen, I love my career and I love racing horses but I don’t want to die doing this job. We just had those three girl jockeys get really hurt, three head injuries, in the space of three days. I’m in a female jockey’s chat and a few of the girls were saying this happening did make them feel like giving it up. I haven’t made a decision yet, but I want to live the rest of my life. I’ve got so many more things I want to do.”

Despite her kiwi accent Laura was actually born in Sydney so, unlike Phar Lap, we can actually claim her! She moved to NZ when she was two and came backwards and forwards between here and there a few times a child. “I’d said since I was 7 years old that I was going to be a jockey.

I didn’t know what a jockey was, but I knew that they got to ride horses.” Her mum was a rider but like a lot of us had a break from horses when she had small children.

Laura remembers the day her mum brought home a Thoroughbred. Her dad looked at her when it got off the truck and said, “You didn’t buy that horse for Laura!” Mum swore she didn’t realise the horse was that big (well played Mum!) When she was nine, they ended up buying her a pony of her own. A little grey mare from the RSPCA who Laura described as ‘a neurotic little spitfire’ (ahh, ponies…).

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“She would rear, run backwards. She knew every trick in the book. My mum would just say to me, ‘You’re a good rider Laura, so you’ll be ok!’ I say to her now, ‘You actually made me the rider I am today because you bought me that pony!

I sadly lost her in a trucking accident on the way to a show when I was 13 which was heartbreaking. I eventually took on the ‘big’ thoroughbred that mum had bought and I had him for the rest of his life. When I moved to Australia at 22, I paid for him to stay there on agistment at a beautiful racehorse facility. I would fly back every 18 months and always go to visit him. I went back at the end of summer one year. He was 36, his health and weight were declining and I decided not to put him through another winter. I had the vet come to put him down while I was there so I could be with him. He had such a good life.”

Laura learnt to ride trackwork when she was fourteen. She had gone down to the track one morning during the school holidays and met local trainer Davina Waddell and said she was interested in learning to ride racehorses. Davina had said, ‘Oh well, bring your hat and your boots tomorrow,’ so she went back the following day and she put her on some horses to warm up in the trotting ring. Laura remembers the first time she rode a horse out on the track. ‘I got put on a little horse that pulled quite hard and I just remember thinking ‘OMG! This is hard... Then the next one didn’t pull. Going through trackwork I was always put on pullers because I loved to try and settle them.

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I LOVED RIDING THE

DIFFICULT HORSES

because those were the ones that I ALWAYS WANTED TO RIDE when I was a kid.”

Laura started her apprenticeship with Davina when she was 18, splitting her time working for her and also ‘a Russian guy’ who trained his own racehorses. “I got a reputation for being able to ride the horses that other people didn’t want to ride. I loved trying to work them out, rather than just kicking them on and forcing them. I used to ride a grey horse. She had a barrier bar on her (which means she wouldn’t load in the gates). We managed to work through that and ended up having six starts for two wins before she was retired to stud by her owner/trainer. That’s what I have always loved about every horse, trying to work them out.”

What was it like starting out as a woman in the industry?

“When I was younger, early on in my apprenticeship, it was always ‘No, they want a bloke on. They’re stronger riders,’ but when I came over here (to Australia) more female jockeys were starting to come through. You do get really kind male jockeys but girls are, as a rule, naturally kinder.

Racing photos courtersy of Ross Stevenson

Some trainers figured out that these horses were happier to run for a jockey who’s being really kind to them rather than someone who’s being forceful. So, I think that’s why girls started getting more of a go.

When I was an apprentice there were normally four, sometimes five, other girls in the room at one time. When I moved over here, some days I’d be in there by myself at the Gold Coast, whereas now when I go down to ride at Grafton, you could have ten or more of us in the room. Probably in the last six or seven years a lot more girls have started to come through.’ I asked Laura if she thought that was a result of Michelle Payne winning the Melbourne Cup on her hundred to one long-shot in 2015. The timeline certainly adds up. Laura think’s it certainly gave females in racing ‘a boost’ but strongly believes it’s also been a natural progression. There are lots of girls coming through the industry now and lots of female trainers succeeding in ‘the sport of Kings’. “You don’t actually need someone big and strong on a racehorse to flog it. You just need someone who’s going to ask the horse to go, and for it to respond. Some racehorses always want to be in front during work & will do everything they can to win a race; others couldn’t care less. Horses have got personalities just like people do.”

So, what’s it like being a jockey? “It’s such a different job, I don’t think there’s any other job in the world like being a jockey. It’s a job where you get to be around an animal that you absolutely love every day and at the same time you can earn good money doing it. A lot of jobs with horses pay average wages; you can’t earn more than what you’re offered, whereas being a jockey you can kind of earn as much as you can put in. I’m competitive,” she said with a smile, “I love to win, I love winning races, but I’ve always been happy to take rides for anyone and everyone. I don’t mind taking the slowest horse on paper and trying to improve it for a trainer or an owner. I’m also about work/life balance.

Through my whole career I could have ridden seven days a week. You can go all over the place. There are races every day, but I’ve got 6 horses here of my own. I like to be able to have time here with my friends and my animals. I love the fact that I have a job that balances with my home life. I now have the horse rescue also, so I need time for that.”

Is it glamourous? “It’s not glamourous when you wake up and you’ve got 2kgs to lose to make weight and you’re walking around picking up horse poo in five layers of clothing, trying to sweat it off. Or sitting in a bath at night with water as hot as you can cope with. Or in a sauna for hours on end. Pulling weight is a big part of being a jockey.

You have to be really mentally strong to do it because it’s not fun.

I did it for so many years. I just know what works. If I was riding down at Port Macquarie and I woke up heavy, I’d leave at 5:30 in the morning, put all my sweaters on and drive for five hours with the heaters on.

You dehydrate but your adrenaline kicks in. It’s crazy, it’s not good for your body, but it’s what you have to do. It’s part of the job.

You have to be disciplined.”

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I asked her about her opinion on anti-racing groups & protestors? “Their hearts are in the right place but some of the ideas people have are pretty skewed. Unfortunately, in every industry and discipline there’s going to be losses. So many things can go wrong and when you do lose one, so many people feel that. More horses die of colic in paddocks than racehorses breakdown on track. Do people just care less about them because they’re not on tv?

The racing industry cops so much if an ex-racehorse ends up in the sale yards, and I do think there is enough money in racing that Thoroughbred’s should not end up at the doggers. Most of the ex-racehorses that do end up there are often passed around after they finish racing before ending up in the saleyard. The last sales were full of unhandled youngstock (not Thoroughbreds), selling for meat prices.

There are too many horses of every breed. If we could curb breeding it would clean up so many problems. People who pick up free or cheap horses often don’t have the money or means to look after them. There are more regulations overseas. It would be good if Australia followed suit.”

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The ‘horse rescue’ Laura makes mention of is Save A Horse Australia (SAHA), a registered not-for-profit horse rescue and sanctuary based in Beaudesert. She has been involved with the rescue since messaging their Facebook page and offering to donate some rugs eight years ago.

She had mentioned she was good with unhandled and hard to catch horses, a skill in high demand with their mix of abused, neglected or surrendered horses. She’s called me a few times over the last few years when the charity needed photos for various fundraisers. I’ve met sassy little ponies, mares, foals and plenty of adorable oldies. Laura became president of the rescue mid-2021, the first person to step into the role as a volunteer. She is responsible for 70 horses, six staff and a 77 acre property.

“Every horse out there gets a hard feed once a day, supplements, everything they need to give them the best chance. We need money to do that. Our feed bill is $2700 a week. We don’t have a major sponsor or a company that’s donating regularly, so it’s always a struggle. Donations have been heavily impacted over the last few years with Covid and the increased cost of living. We sometimes have to stop taking in surrenders. Horses need to be adopted out to amke room for others to come in. We just don’t have enough money to keep taking more horses. We are always there for something desperately in need, otherwise we

have a waitlist for non-urgents. We have to look after what we have. I would love to have more corporate sponsorship.

If we had more money, we could bring on more staff and take more horses, but we have to work within our means.

It’s so much pressure. There have been times when I’ve wanted to walk away. I thought my life would be so much easier if I didn’t have all this responsibility on my shoulders, but then all I do is think about the horses out there and know that it’s totally worth it.

If things didn’t work out well for those

horses, I couldn’t live with that.

In the time I spent interviewing her for this article, she received phone calls from both a ‘dogger’ and a racehorse trainer, subsequently saving a Thoroughbred from processing. She tells me the calls and messages for help never stop. A few days afterwards I saw her post about an orphan foal in urgent need. Calling on her network of friends, within hours she had the filly in her lap and on its way to life-saving vet care… in the backseat of a friends BMW. I think when you see someone doing so much for others, it makes you feel like you really want to help them.

That’s how I always feel, anyway. EM

THAT WOULD BE WORSE FOR ME THAN ME BEING STRESSED.”

Laura is one of the most active and pragmatic members of our local horse community. If there’s a horse in need of help in any way, she’s the first to put her hand up to coordinate the effort. During the floods I know she spent a lot of time down in the Northern Rivers helping with the search/ rescue and identification of deceased stock. It’s hard for me to actually find the words to describe Laura. A true horsewoman and horse lover, a natural rider, a force of nature, she’s an articulate and vocal advocate for not only racehorses but all horses. It’s easy to be loud about the things you don’t like, or to say you wish things were different, but not many people GSD (Get Shit Done) like Laura. Maybe the Queen emoji is most fitting?!

If you’d like to help Laura help the horses, here’s how you can. Donate or Volunteer at SAHA – all the details are on their website www.saveahorse.org.au or email

laura@saveahorse.org.au.

Adopt a horse. They accept applications up to 4 hrs away from Beaudesert, 4285 Qld. *‘The incidence of race-day jockey falls in Australia, 2002–2006’ Peta L Hitchens, C Leigh Blizzard, Graeme Jones, Lesley M Day and James Fell.

Medical Journal Aust 2009.

LAURA C H ESH I RE

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My name is Lara Baeriswyl and I am a 23 year old equine photographer from Switzerland. I work with a Sony a7II and a Tele-Zoom lens. Since I am a little girl, I have been fascinated by horses and this fascination is still growing, I've actually just bought my very first own horse, a young Freiberger gelding called Cantico. I've always loved drawing and being creative too.

Almost ten years ago I picked up my first camera, since then one thing led to another and it was natural that horses became my favorite subject. I've always loved sitting in a pasture, watching the horses just be and socialize with each other. Many of my favorite photos have been made like this.

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By simply waiting and watching.

One of my favorite subjects has become horses in the alps. There is nothing as beautiful as these raw, wild structures with horses living peacefully in them. But my goal is not only to take pretty pictures. I want to take pictures that are deep, that tell a story and that really show the character of the horse. People can book me for a photo shoot with their horse. I live in Switzerland but I'm open to travel anywhere in the world where horses are!

Pictured above. Haflinger foals in the Swiss mountains. This shoot was a dream come true. Pictured right. This is a very recent photo I took last week. It shows my favorite view at sunset. I love to combine landscape and equine photography.

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p42. A Freiberger mare, excited about the snow. This shot wasn’t planned at all. p43. This is a Shetland foal named Stella very early one January morning. p45. Haflinger mare and foals in the mountains. p46, top right. The two horses in the photo have a very close bond. This might be one of my favorite photos ever! p46. Photo shoot at a Freiberger stud. I was taking photos of the herd during golden hour. (Freiberger is a breed from the Jura region of Switzerland. Also known as Franches-Montagnes.)

LARA BAERI SWYL

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LU XLI FE

www.lara-baeriswyl.ch

@larabaeriswylequine

LARA BAERI SWYL

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‘Our darling Lil ‘

GOLDMINE LATTE - HSH All show photos by Andrew and Katrine Graham, Kangra Photo Graphic

5 November 2003 – 7 June 2022

Every year as a child, I would hang through and over the arena fence at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds looking at the beautiful horses on the green grass and wishing one day I could just walk on that hallowed turf. Dad used to leave me there, watching through the railings, just for a little while, whilst he went to look at the cars in the Motor Vehicle pavilion, and then as a family we would eat sandwiches watching the horses and night time entertainment.

I was the kid who used to run to the front gate of the house whenever I heard the clip clop of horses’ feet down the road and hang around on the curb hoping the riders would stop so I could ask endless questions about their horses and give them a hug. I stashed every $5 and $10 of birthday and Christmas money from my Nanna, Aunts and Uncles to go trail riding once or twice in the holidays. I read and collected all the horsey series – The Silver Brumby, Green Grass of Wyoming, Jill Had Two Ponies. As I got older, I used to catch an extra bus after my orthodontic appointments to hang out for half an hour at the famous old saddlery, 46

MAR E TALES

Bonnets, in Adelaide. I’d pick up all the brushes and feel how soft or coarse they were, look in awe at all the different bits and pieces, and just breathe in the new leather smell from the saddles and bridles. The folk were always polite, though I’m sure they wondered why I came in every month and didn’t buy anything. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was building a dream.

It became a running joke with my family that every birthday and Christmas I silently wished for and (not so silently) asked for a horse. My parents said I had to wait until I could “feed it, pay for it and travel to it by myself”. I didn’t know at the time, but horses were “in the genes”, an unescapable fate. My Great Uncle, Brigadeer John McKinna, started the South Australian Police Grey Horses, and my Great Aunty on the other side, Beryl Markham, from the age of 17, was one of the first female racehorse trainers in the world, in South Africa. I was the first girl in our family to go to University, and I specialized in Genetics as part of a Science degree.

This would become an important tie into my love of horses.

In 1989 after finishing University, when I could first afford to “feed it, pay for it and travel to it by myself”, I bought my first horse. A fantastic grey anglo arab with a blood mark called Avenida Dalketa. Dal was a superstar jumper, and fantastic first horse. We were used as the “lead” for all those having jumping lessons with my instructor and “adopted father”, Mr Noel Vears. Noel said he’d teach me how to ride, but only if I came up every morning before work and exercised his 17.2hh rangy chestnut thoroughbred ex-steeplechaser in the paddock – 10 laps each way up and down the hills in a 2-point seat, 5 days a week, for 6 months. If I did that, he would teach me to ride. I did.

I loved Dalketa, but as Noel put it, “flat work and dressage was just not his thing”. After a couple of years, Noel and I made the decision it was time to find the next horse.

I’d always dreamt of a golden horse, inspired by my Silver Brumby Series. Nobody in Australia seemed to have one or be breeding one suitable. They were all around the 14 – 15h mark, with not enough movement for English performance (dressage and jumping), or pale gold instead of true gold.

For weeks, then months, then years, I hunted for the “right horse”. I researched all of the lines in Australia, and found the famous Claredale Champagne Charlie and Chico d’Oro lines. I’d call the breeders and the Dilute Associations and explain what we were looking for, to no avail, and when I found one that sounded “half right”, I would take video tapes up to Noel on a Friday night, to have him say “no, no, no and … no”. I met Gail and Peter Rossington in Ipswich, QLD, who with Peter’s mother bred and owned Claredale Champagne Charlie. They had almost stopped breeding, but they sure knew who was who in the zoo. They put me in touch with multiple people to see what they had available.

We ended up still not being able to find one, and instead purchased a beautiful black warmblood, PPP Kohl, who I rode and competed for until he suffered a terrible, serious shoulder injury during a thunderstorm. After over a year of trying everything to help him heal, Kohl went to heaven, and I gave up riding to have human babies for a while.

I never lost the dream though, of a golden horse, and between 1994 and 2004, I kept researching, learning, looking, and taking tapes up to Noel.

Then I met Jeanette Gower, of Chalani Stock Horses, South Australia. In 2000, Jeanette published one of the first ever books on horse colour genetics, “Horse Colour Explained”.

Jeanette showed that cremello horses have two cream genes, as compared to palomino and buckskin horses with one cream gene, and other than that were “perfectly normal”. As a Geneticist, I devoured Jeanette’s book. I contacted Jeanette and spent hours asking questions by email and telephone, and worked out, if no one had what I wanted to buy, and I could find a very nice cremello filly or mare,

I might be able to breed a palomino of “the right” quality, temperament and colour, using a chestnut stallion. Cremello x chestnut = 100% palomino.

So, I went looking for a cremello girl. Only problem was, there was so little known about horse colour genetics at the time, that the palomino breeders, if they mated palomino x palomino and ended up with a cremello foal, had been putting them to sleep at birth, thinking cremello colouring was a genetic abnormality that may be linked to deafness or multiple other undesirable traits, similar to the overo lethal white gene. Jeanette and I knew it wasn’t, but trying to explain that to breeders with many years of belief, was extremely difficult. They were also convinced that you could never get a decent colour palomino from a cremello, which Jeanette and I also knew was not true. In 2002 the ASHS studbook first started recognising Cremello as a registerable colour, rather than including them under palomino or “albino”.

In April 2004, Horse Deals (the morning it came out) there she was! A typed ad in the Coloured Breeds section, page 194 which read “Goldmine Latte. Cremello filly, DOB 5-1103. Reg ASH. Mature 15.3 – 16h. Sire Multi Supreme Royal Champ Goldmine Ashanti Gold. Dam, Multi Supreme Royal Champ Goldmine Champagne Blush. Double x Claredale Champagne Charlie. Exceptional conformation, elegance, movement and temperament. Sunbury, VIC.” Before making the call, I looked through the section and found an ad for a palomino weanling Australian Stock Horse Filly two pages before, which sounded very similar. I rang about the palomino first, and met Lesley Lowe. Lesley asked what I was looking for, I explained it and she said “what you really want is something like my other filly, she’s cremello”. Then we worked out that her filly, Goldmine Figurine, and Goldmine Latte, were full sisters, born a year apart. Lesley and I have been very best mates ever since.

Goldmine Figurine and Goldmine Latte were two of the first ever cremello foals registered by Goldmine Stud. I made the call, and could not wait to go see Latte in VIC. We arrived on the Friday night, and I called the breeders begging to come and see her “just for a minute” that night rather than wait until the Saturday morning. They agreed.

When we arrived, it was not what I was expecting. Lil was initially quite unusual to look at for those who haven’t seen a cremello. She had a pale ice-coffee coloured coat and two blue eyes. Her hind socks and star were able to be distinguished from the coat colour, indicating she was not actually white, but a very light cream colour. Cremellos also have apricot skin rather than the traditional black skin, and white hooves.

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She’d had very little handling at that stage, and wanted to bury her head in the corner of the stable and double barrel kick anyone who came close. I couldn’t even lay a hand on her. It was extremely daunting. They assured me “she’d come round” but I just didn’t think I had the skills or knowledge to handle a weanling like that, never having owned anything other than a ridden, experienced horse before.

We went back to the motel in Sunbury and I rang home. I tearily said “No, definitely not the one.”We went back the next morning out of politeness, and I asked to just stand in the stable with her. Every time she buried her head in the corner I softly clapped until she looked at me and then I stopped. After about three minutes of this, she turned her head, looked at me, and then to our sheer disbelief, she walked straight over, put her head under my arm and let me stroke her. She was the most beautiful, fine skinned, ethereal looking creature I’d ever seen. You could say that was Game Over. I said to the breeders that I’d like 24 hours to think about it, to work out how or if it was possible to take her on, and we politely left.

In the end, he had to unclip the transport halter and we ran her off into the round yard using Gerry’s gelding as the lead horse. We couldn’t catch her to get the transport halter off.

For the next 3 weeks, Lil stayed in the round yard, and slowly, we were able to win her trust to unwind and replace the fetlock bandage, and after a few days, take the halter off. Once we could catch her, we put her out in the paddock with an old grey gelding. He was a fantastic companion for her, and it wasn’t long before she “came around”. From then on, she was a fantastic youngster and horse to handle.

During the “road trip” home, my friend Gerry and I had 6 random songs recorded on a cassette tape that we’d been listening to and singing to on rotation the whole way over.

We were a bit sick of it, and turned the radio on instead, for the trip home. As we came through Keith, we started talking about Latte, who by then we were calling Lil, as in Lily White. I was undecided whether I could manage her or not, and was still in disbelief she had come over to me.

Then, one of our songs on the tape played on the radio.

Then a second one, straight after. Then a third one. Gerry and I just looked at each other. Half way through the third song I said “ok, if they play another one, I’m taking it as a sign and I’m just going to buy her”. To our absolute astonishment, the fourth song was from the tape as well. We turned the radio off after that, because it was just freaking us out. At that point, the decision to buy Lil was made.

Between the time we saw Lil and her vet check, Lil had two accidents. The vet check showed an infected wire puncture wound in her fetlock, needing bandaging and antibiotics, but more unfortunately, that all 4 spinal processes in her wither had been broken and were very sore and swollen.

The vets called me after the spinal x-ray, and said it was likely she’d never be able to be ridden, and had been very tricky to examine. I spoke to the breeder, and we discussed it. Their view was “you only wanted to breed with her anyway, so take her or leave her.” I took the gamble. There was something I had felt between us that could not be undone.

When she was 3 years old, we decided to see if Lil’s wither had healed enough to be broken in, to help us with her future breeding and handling. The vets x-rayed, and suggested we try. I chose John O’Leary and his wife Linda, due to their combination of skills and abilities, horsemanship and Grand Prix Dressage. I told John and Linda all about Lil and her wither. They promised to see how she went and assess her. After 3 weeks, John called and said “this is one smart horse. Come and see her.” John could see no sign of pain.

On her third birthday, 5 November 2006, I had my first sit. I burst into tears. John said to me “You can’t just breed from this filly, Jen, you have to ride her. You have to give her a go.

She’s an 8 in all paces, and that’s at warmblood standard, but let her fill out and mature more first. Turf her out for 6 months and then bring her back”.

When she came across on the transport truck to the agistment property, the driver said he couldn’t get in the bay without her trying to double barrel him.

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I think the real turning point in our relationship came when Lil was about 2 years old though. I found her lying on her side in the paddock in a canvas rug with her knee caught up through the chest strap. She was stuck there, unable to get up. I found I was able to undo the strap without her struggling and either of us getting hurt. As I folded the rug back and away from her, she just stood up and licked my hands.

There is always a “turning point” in a relationship with the great horses. This was Lil’s and mine.

In 2007 – 2008 as a late 4yo and 5yo, we finally started “getting our act into gear”, trail riding, some flat work, pole work and a small amount of jumping, under Noel Vears’ careful tutelage. Lil was starting to fill out, and was the most incredible magic carpet ride. She made me feel like a Princess riding a magical horse. She just “sat in the frame”.

She was a super quick learner, and although a tiny bit feisty at times as a youngster, was always looking for the answer.

In September 2009 when we were training at novice dressage level at home and jumping around 1m, Noel decided it was time for us to “get out in public to a combined competition day at the Adelaide Hills Dressage Club (dressage and jumping). Not having floated her anywhere of significance, I called Lesley Lowe and she suggested we “take Lil to a show” first, to give her some floating and tie-up experience “out and about”.

In November 2009, Lesley found a Dilutes Australia show in South Australia. I registered Lil and Lesley flew down to help wash and plait her. I saw Lesley cut hair off places that I didn’t even know had hair. After four washes and stitched in plaits, she was ready.

It’s fair to say that show changed our whole life. I had a skirt and a Pollyanna hat on and pantihose that were falling down. To me it was supposed to be just a float and tieup practice. There were so many beautiful dilute horses attending I was just a bit overwhelmed. When we first stepped onto the oval, everyone stared at us. I could feel the weight of a hundred eyes. I’d been told often that Lil looked “like a freak”, but I loved her for who she was, my Special Unicorn Horse.

The Judge and stewards were all bemused. I was so excited when she won a blue ribbon, in her first class, against the other horses. We progressed through and in the Championship class I remember the Judge saying “You really haven’t ever shown before, have you? I will give you the pattern again, see if you can get it right this time”.

That day was the first time that someone other than my friends thought that my “weird looking, blue eyed, possessed” Unicorn Horse was beautiful too.

To my total disbelief and shock, she won Champion female, Grand Champion cremello or perlino, and then was called in for Supreme Led of Show vs the most beautiful palomino mare I knew of, Chalani Silk, bred and exhibited by Jeanette Gower. Jeanette was ever so gracious, she came over and said “Ok Jen, bring your Lil and follow us in”. I just followed and copied, and when the Judge called us in first, I seriously almost passed out. As the Judge was sashing Lil and putting on this beautiful garland, the Judge turned to me and said “Where has this horse been?” I replied, “what do you mean?” She said, “What has this horse been doing up till now?” I said, “standing in a paddock eating grass and growing?” She said “Don’t do that anymore. Ok?” That day, Lil won SA Supreme of Supremes Led Horse of Show, (unbeknownst to me) the State Dilute Championship, and Reserve Champion ridden horse. At the end of the day, sitting on the float tailgate, I turned to Lesley and said “What just happened? Did I dream it and am I going to wake up soon?”

There was another show about 3 weeks later, and despite having zero idea of how to do things, Lil and I decided to give it a go on our own. That day, somehow, she again won Supreme Led Dilute of Show and Supreme Ridden.

In February 2010, our third time out about 2 weeks later it was the combined dressage / jumping. We were entered in the preliminary dressage test and show jumping, and the novice dressage test and show jumping. Noel had said as a practice, to enter the walk / trot test as a warm-up. She’d never seen a dressage arena in the open or chains. Unfortunately, we had an accident. Apparently, I hadn’t done her girth up, and to this day I don’t know who did. During the second trot across the diagonal, her saddle slipped underneath her and I went with it. My head and hip hit the ground first, and unfortunately, I incurred a traumatic brain injury, and ended up in an ambulance to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. My first memory is at about 3pm, looking at a nurse’s blue shirt with an upside-down watch and asking “What happened?” I didn’t realise I was the patient. The nurse and my partner turned to each other, and said “that’s 67”. I said “What do you mean?” and they replied “That’s the 67th time you’ve asked the same question, and we can tell you what the next questions will be. Write down the answers so we don’t have to go through it again”. Of course, one of the first questions was “How’s Lil?” They reassured me that she was fine and safe.

I lived in Groundhog Day for athe next 8 -10 weeks, lost about 5 – 7 years of permanent memory, lost my sense of smell, judgement of distance and word recall of anything over about 5 letters. The brain injury rehabilitation specialist joked I had killed off the 30% of my head that most people didn’t have. Slowly, I taught myself to re-learn things, like doing up shirt buttons and tying shoelaces. It took me 9 months to get back to work full time, and I have permanent short term memory damage. The doctors said I would never ride again, or if I did, and hit my head again, I would likely not recover.

A week after my accident, something happened to Lil. She ran into a yard gate full pelt so hard it snapped the thick pine gate strainer post clean off at the bottom and bent the gate. She fractured her skull in 3 places. The vets said she would likely not survive. It broke my heart. It was a huge co-incidence that such a similar thing happened to us both.

Somehow, Lil made it that night, then the next day, then a week. I used to sit out with her in the paddock. We’d lay down together on the grass and I’d tell her to be strong and brave and we had to hang in there and heal together. She was a swollen mess and I couldn’t remember what the heck I was doing, but together, we kept healing. About 3 months after the accidents, the entries to the Adelaide Royal Show opened. I remembered as a child always standing and looking over the fence. I decided I would enter us as a likely unreachable goal, but it was something positive to aim for.

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During this time and having been told I wouldn’t ride again, we built Skyview Stud. If I couldn’t ride again, I wanted to breed a few beautiful golden foals, just to be able to keep my dream alive. We were extremely fortunate to purchase Lil’s aged (21yo) dam, Goldmine Champagne Blush and two other quality weanling fillies, a tall palomino stock horse filly and an elite chestnut warmblood filly.

I had a lot of help over the next 7 months from my family, in particular my 12yo son Link, best mate Wendy Brown and neighbour Patty King, as Lil and I healed. We pottered around at two or three local shows, led classes only. I was too tired and not well enough to do much, so Wendy, Patty and Link would wash and prepare Lil. When I became too exhausted, Link took her in for me. We had a special bridle made for Lil with a noseband to cover her worst scars from the fractures, and always made sure it wasn’t tight.

By some miracle, Lil and I were both cleared to be able to try to ride / be ridden on the same day. It was about 6 weeks before the Adelaide Royal. Looking back, I have no idea what I was thinking. We started a small amount of ridden work together, always supervised, and she was entered in the Stock Horse led and ridden classes. I don’t think I’d ever done Stock Horse classes before, but it said in the ASHS rule booklet that they could be taken in in English or ASHS gear, so I just naively thought “ok, I have English gear” and we decided to try.

It was a huge deal. I had never been to a Royal Show before and I was just in awe. We went through the official measuring bay, and Lil measured 15.1 5/8, not quite the 15.3 she should’ve grown to due to her wither bones being broken and compressed, but she was beautifully deep in the girth with lovely free flowing, big movement, and although she was the “shortest” horse I had ever ridden, as a size 14 rider I never felt undermounted.

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Link and my mates helped us get ready, and the first class was the 3yo and over led Australian Stock Horse mare class.

I remember lining up with many other horses, when the steward came to check our number. He said “Is that a Stock Horse?” I said “Yes, this is Lil, I mean Goldmine Latte”. He said “Well, it’s different”. We did our workout, and didn’t place in the top 6, but I was fine with that. The most important thing was Lil and I were out there, in the sunshine, together, and we’d made it. After the class I went to see Jeanette Gower who was watching outside the ring. I was still super excited just to be there, and said “Did you see our workout?” Jeanette nodded, so I asked “Ok, what can we do next time to improve?” and Jeanette said “Nothing, you and Lil did an awesome job, we were surprised you didn’t place in the top 2 or 3.” I didn’t understand, and Jeanette said “What you don’t know is the steward came over to see me (Jeanette was on the SA ASHS Committee at the time) and asked if we could eliminate you from the line-up due to Lil being an albino against the ASHS Rules. I told him she was a full stud book Stock Horse, a cremello, eligible to compete… and to judge the horse, not her colour.

In the years that followed, Lil and I continued pottering away. In the beginning, there were people who used to stand on the edge of the ring and point and laugh at us, and make loud comments. I didn’t care, I was out there with My Darling Lil, and we were just hanging out doing our thing together. They said she would only be successful in the Dilutes ring, so we did more Stock Horse classes. They said she might be ok in South Australia, but she would never do well at a National level, so we took her to Canberra.

Photos by Sharanpa Photography

There was a flood that year so the Hay Plain to Canberra was impassable and we had to go via Shepparton, from memory a grasshopper plague, a drought so we had to take all of our own hay, I broke my foot 5 weeks before and was on crutches but wouldn’t let the doctors plaster it because I had to go to Nationals, and then my dear father passed away 2 weeks prior, but we had talked about it in the weeks leading up whilst I was nursing him, and he very much wanted us to go, so we pulled out all stops and went.

We could not have done it without help from dear friends and family.. They’re right when they say it takes a Village, and I have been so lucky and fortunate to have their love, care and support. My father when we first started showing, said “you’ll never do any good, all the ladies out there showing are a size 8 – 10 and you’re just not”. The day Lil won her first Champion ribbon at the Royal Adelaide Show, Dad was so proud of what Lil and I had been able to achieve even after our injuries, and as he put it, “against all odds”.

When Dad passed, I put that first red, blue and white felt ribbon with golden tassels in with him at the funeral, so he could keep it safe for Lil and I until we saw each other again.

She is the only horse of her colour

in the 50-year history of Australian Stock Horses across Australia, that has been successful at Royal Show level.

Lil and I kept pottering along, slowly and carefully. There were times that I was exhausted, and she would lift me up and tell me in my head that she would look after me. And there were times when she was exhausted, so I would whisper to her softly that I would look after her. We could sense or “speak” to each other without words. I remember a couple of times really not feeling like going at all. She always listened, and then licked my hands or curled me towards her like she did later when reassuring her foals. I swear she

said to me “Let’s give it a go, and just keep pottering, and if we have to pull out at some stage for either of us, we’ll do that”. Once or twice we did have to pull out, but mostly, we were brave and courageous and careful and hung in there together.

From around 2011, Lil developed a small “following”. The general public and other horse people, would always stop to look and ask about her, especially the younger children.

Fortunately, she enjoyed the attention, so it was a “win win” for Lil as an ambassador, and for them to see a real, live “Unicorn” or “Fairy Princess Horse”, as they called her. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked “She is beautiful, what is she?” to which the answer was always proudly “An Australian Stock Horse”. Breed and quality first, colour second.

In the 2012 breeding season, my 3 mentors said “Ok Jen, if you do want to breed with Lil, you’d better get on and do it”. She was 9 years old and we had frozen semen set aside for her, especially chosen 8 years before. Lil’s first colt foal was born on 23 November 2013. We called him Skyview Premier D’Or. I have heard that often, great performance or show mares can be terrible mothers. Lil was exactly the opposite, she was the most incredibly patient, kind, understanding, on occasion firm but fair mother with her foals. She always shared them with me, never once jealous, or protective.

There were days I would wander down and sit on the ground or in the grass with one of the foals whilst they were sleeping. Lil would come and lie down with the two of us, and we’d take turns to be “on watch”. I would whilst she rested, and then she would whilst I sat there just feeling the foal’s breath on me, whuffly soft whiskers and velvet-smooth coats, gently rubbing them. I always felt blessed that she held me in such a position of trust.

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In 2014, we carefully chose Lil’s second mating, a beautiful Thoroughbred stallion called Regal Banquet in QLD, with the intent to try and breed a buckskin heritage Australian Stock Horse. We were informed by Dilutes Australia that Lil was just shy of the points needed to achieve her Lifetime Opal and Spectrum awards. My mentors reminded us that “pregnancy is not a disease or a disability”, and to “give it a go”, so slowly, we prepped her, and at 4 and 5 months in foal, Lil again did extremely well and achieved the points she needed for her two Lifetime Awards.

In 2016 we decided to try for another Heritage Australian Stock Horse foal by embryo transfer, so she would not have to carry a foal herself. We purchased frozen semen but unfortunately, despite recovering several very high-quality embryos, none took in the recipient mares, so on Christmas Day in December 2016, we inseminated Lil with the same Gwaihir Aubusson frozen semen and she went in foal first time. Although we watched her like a hawk, the pregnancy went like clockwork. On 1 December 2017, a stunning palomino colt, Skyview Ambassador, aka “Sam” was born.

Again a daylight birth. Every time I was there with Lil when she was foaling.

The after-foaling process was a disaster. Lil retained her placenta, and the “process” to remove it was not performed properly. 10 days later, she passed further large pieces of placenta. In shock and under veterinary advice we took her immediately to the University of Adelaide Equine Hospital, where Lil and Sam spent 14 days in Intensive Care. We will be forever grateful to the vets who saved her life.

In December 2021, Lil had her first episode of mild colic. By the time we got her to the vets, about 45 mins later, it had gone away and she was ok. In late April 2022, Lil started having multiple colic episodes. At first, 3 weeks apart, and then by late May 2022, every 4 – 5 days. Lil had every test and diagnostic investigation the local and experienced vets could provide, but a cause could not be determined. On the last episode, 28 May 2022, we took her straight to the University of Adelaide Equine Hospital. For 7 days they too ran every test, but could not find an answer. Lil was stable and not colicking. We were starting to question everything environmental at home we could think of.

On Friday 3 June 2022 and the day before they were due to release her, the Hospital rang. Lil had multiple colicked overnight. The pain medication was not holding her. We had to choose – put her to sleep or operate, with a 50 / 50 chance of being able to find the cause and fix it.

From then on, we retired Lil from the show ring. Lil’s second foal was born on 10 November 2015, a beautiful buckskin filly. This pregnancy was extremely tricky, and at 257 days Lil started to dilate and we found out she had an infection in the amniotic fluid. We managed to nurse her through to 337 days gestation, and although the vets had prepared us that the foal would likely be born dead, by some miracle, the filly was ok at birth. We did have to give her two bags of plasma as her antibody levels were so low, but Lil stood patiently watching and supporting both us and her foal, as we “fixed her up”. We called the filly Skyview Champagne Grace. It was only by the Grace of God she survived.

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Despite always saying we would never agree to colic surgery on an 18-year-old mare, this was Lil, so we made the choice to try. Her welfare was always the most important consideration to the vets and us. They prepped her for surgery and took her straight in. When the phone call came, they’d found a large, ugly tumour which had almost completely blocked her small intestine. The specialists could not believe how brave and strong Lil had been with such an awful tumour, but that was just Our Lil, true to form.

Four hours later the specialists called again. It was a long operation and they had been able to remove it, but it was tricky surgery as it was close to other organs. Now we could only wait to see if she would recover from the anaesthetic.

Lil’s first night was rough. The vets told us the next morning they had to do everything possible to pull her through, including 2 litres of plasma to “pick her up”, and she was in 24 / 7 ICU. We went straight up to support her, and she improved with us there. We went up the next day too, not being sure what we would find. Lil was looking amazing. She nickered to us and licked us all over. Our Lil was back again.

On the fourth day, at 5.30pm, the vets called us. Lil was crashing. The two sides of the re-joined gut were not “talking to each other”, nothing was going through and she was incredibly unwell. We drove the two hours straight to see her, and together, were advised and decided to make the hardest decision of all. We stayed with her, and will be eternally grateful for the love, care, support and kindness given to us by the University of Adelaide Equine Hospital Team. It is still very raw, and brings me to tears writing this.

On 7 June 2022, Lil returned to her mother, and to truly become Our Angel watching over us.

Late that night coming home, we stopped at the Balhannah Hotel and bought a bottle of Shaw and Smith Sauvignon Blanc. It’s our favourite white wine but we hardly ever have it as it is expensive. When we got home, we made a toast to celebrate her wonderful life and had a glass together under the stars. The reason we chose Shaw & Smith is every year there’s this one vine that won’t conform with the rest. It reminds me of Lil in this lovely photo taken by Jenny Scheepers at our first ever Royal Show.

She might be ok as a Dilute, but you can’t put her in stockhorse classes, they’ll never accept her. No horse like that has ever won a ribbon. You can’t put a horse like that in the Royal. No one ever has, and that’s because of a good reason. She might be ok locally, but forget Nationals. She’d never do any good and it’s a really long way to go to get your arse kicked. She won’t live more than 24 hours, Jen, she’s fractured her skull in three places and is leaking brain fluid.

Clearly Lil didn’t speak English, and didn’t understand because from 2009 to 2015 she won: 148 Championship titles in led and ridden classes 49 Grand Champions 27 Supreme Champions And 19 Australian Horse of The Year titles as a Coloured Horse, Stock Horse, and Australian Saddle Horse.

We can still feel her presence, and at times in the last few weeks we’ve turned around feeling she was cantering up behind us for a hug and a cuddle and to lick our hands.

In our grief and efforts to be positive and optimistic, we don’t know if this is also fate or serendipity, but on 12 October 2021, the day after my birthday, we were present to see and help our first ever double dilute baby come into the world, again a daylight birth, at 2.30pm in the afternoon. A cremello filly with a blaze and 4 socks, Skyview Infinity, “Our Izzy”. Infinity is out of Eternity, Our Lil’s sister, and their dam Goldmine Champagne Blush’s last ever foal. Izzy has a long way to go to follow in her Aunty Lil’s footsteps, but maybe, just maybe, it might be possible…

Jenni Phillips Skyview Stud, South Australia www.skyviewstud.com.au

We made the abnormal decision to have Lil cremated, so we can spread her ashes at home across the paddocks then we put white standard roses out the front of the house so they would always remind us of her, and she would welcome us home every day. Lil’s first grandchild (out of Skyview Champagne Grace) is due to be born the day after Lil’s birthday, on 6th November 2022. It feels a bit like handing the baton on from one generation to the next. Two days after Lil passed, we think we felt the foal move for the first time.

I remember they said: You can’t show a horse that colour, the judges will laugh at you and her. She’ll never do any good. She looks ugly, evil and possessed. She won’t ever be a ridden horse, Jen, she has 4 broken bones in her back.

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Helen Cruden

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HERNING DENMARK

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Worldwide Equestrian Sports Photographer | Reportage | Bespoke Photography @hcruden

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THE CAMPDRAF T COACH MEAGAN HOPKINS

For ethical riding and training practices to become common knowledge and standard practice, for the good of the horse, the rider and the future of campdrafting.

The Campdraft Coach - Mission Statement What does competition day feel like for you? Oozing calm confidence? Totally in the zone, excited to see just how much you and your horse are going to smash this performance out of the park? After all, we participate in our chosen sport because we enjoy it, love spending time with our horse and challenging our skills.

Well, that was the plan, right?

Maybe not. Perhaps, instead, the intense flurry of butterflies, jacked up on adrenaline, cutting through your insides is more the feeling you can relate to as you prepare to compete? You’re not alone. Performance anxiety is something that affects most riders to some degree. Whether it is the slight tickle of pre-run jitters or completely freezing up, unable to control a body that is seemingly not your own, one thing is for sure.

Performance anxiety can be a performance killer.

Are you tired of putting all the time, effort and money into preparing for your comp, only to choke at the finish line?

Want to get back to a place where you can simply enjoy the experience of competing with your horse, no matter the outcome of the day? Take a second to stop and picture how different your experience would be if you could step into the competition arena with confidence instead? Would you be more competitive? How much more enjoyment would you feel?

It’s no secret that mindset is a key component to any competitive athlete’s successful performance. But unlike athletes across most sports, we are in the unique position of having a partner that has their own set of needs, thoughts and feelings.

Campdrafters and cutters even have a third, sometimes less than willing party, to contend with.

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Add to that the self-consciousness of doing it all in front of an audience and it’s no wonder riders can have a tough time stepping into the arena with confidence. The ironic thing about performance anxiety is that the fear of failure often causes the failure you fear. It will rob you of the ability to perform at a level you know you’re capable of, and spoil the enjoyment of attending competitions. However, it’s easy to be left disheartened when attempts at mindfulness, breathing techniques and positive thinking- common sports phycology techniques, don’t help all that much.

That’s because they’re only part of the more complex solution to a complex problem.

A close friend of mine once remarked that she has always thought my mindset heading in for a final or run off is my strongest asset. It doesn’t seem to matter how big or important the final is, I can always step in there leaving the few butterflies at the side gate, and ride like it is any other run. So, as my friend commented, is it simply a strong mindset that allows me to not feel the pressure of competing in front of a large crowd, often with large amounts of money on the line? Reflecting on her comments, I discovered that competition mindset is only one piece of a three-piece confidence puzzle. Each piece vital, but incomplete and ineffective without the others.

So, if you have tried to overcome your own performance anxiety using mindfulness breathing and positive thinking techniques but have been left disheartened by ho-hum results, it’s not your fault. You have only had part of the answer.

Here is my three-pillar approach to competing with confidence...

Pillar 1 UNDERSTANDING BASIC SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY Why is it such a performance killer for riders, and how do sports psychology techniques help to overcome it?

We have been talking about mindset, so let’s start there.

To summarise what performance anxiety is, it is the body’s mental, physical and emotional “fight or flight” response to a perceived threat. It’s the onslaught of adrenaline that causes the racing heart, tense muscles and a mind that can focus solely on the ‘threat’. I’m sure this was a super helpful response to have thousands of years ago when human survival depended on the ability to quickly evade or fight off an attacker. Not such a helpful response to the perceived threat of not winning that ribbon, or concern about what people will think. The way performance anxiety affects riders ranges from a gentle fluttering of pregame jitters to debilitating nausea and black outs. It is the physical response to this perceived threat that is the real performance killer- and much more so for riders as any deviation from absolute relaxation impacts how effectively the rider communicates with their horse. Rider muscle tension leads to jerky, mistimed aids that are delivered either ineffectively or too harshly. Not a recipe for riding success.

So, if it is the physiological response (adrenaline fuelled tense muscles, brain fog, etc) to a perceived threat that is causing such a problem, the first step to creating a shift in mindset is to identify your perceived threat. Now, this is going to be very individual. Here are some common ones, but not limited to: Self-consciousness: Preforming in front of a crowd and being concerned with what people might think.

Not achieving a certain result. Craving a competition result for validation and fearful of not achieving validation. This one would be mine if I hadn’t found a way to shift my mindset.

Safety. Fearing for physical safety. Perhaps you’re an eventer or showjumper where a wrong decision could result in a fall, or you’re a campdrafter that worries their horse might slip at speed or become out of control.

Jonathan Adler says in his book, ‘Golf Psychology- When Positive Thinking Doesn’t Work,’ that having a strong craving for or, an aversion to, a certain result disrupts an athlete’s ability to function from a relaxed state. Here is the first step a rider must take in overcoming performance anxiety. The next step is to shift your perspective, so you don’t crave or fear that particular outcome. My unique solution was to change my perspective on what role competition plays within the bigger picture of developing each horse to their potential.

Pillar 2 HAVING AN EXCELLENT TRAINING FRAMEWORK Take yourself back to the moment that you’re about to compete. Are your competition nerves triggered by your horse’s inconsistencies- or that particular performance issue that consistently shows up? Maybe your horse is very strong on course and you don’t know if that will merely cost you the performance, or if you might end up in a crash. Maybe you don’t know if they are going to nail that flying change and you just have to cross your fingers that today it will happen. I would not be able to compete with confidence worrying if my horse was going to let me down or become dangerous. This pillar is my secret sauce. It is the key to my competition confidence and the basis for everything I do with my horses.

I don’t train to compete; I compete to TEST,ENJOY

& REAP THE REWARDS

of my training.

This is the most important pillar as it about our big ‘WHY’.

Why do we ride and train? What do you want to achieve from this journey with your horse? What are your morals and beliefs when you are responsible for another individual’s life, mind and body? How does competing fit in to your bigger picture? Is winning the goal, even if it means using forceful tactics that erode the integrity of the mind, body and spirit of another being?

My answer to the question, “why”, is to develop each individual horse mentally, physically and emotionally, to the best of their potential, so that we can achieve sustainable high performance. Then, getting to enjoy the rewards of riding such a horse. Notice I didn’t say my goal is to win. Or to be competitive. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the validation of competition success as much as the next person.

But winning is simply a bonus- not the goal. The goal of competing a horse that is still developing is to allow them space to learn their craft. To allow mistakes so they can learn from them. To develop confidence and relaxation.

These formative years are sacrificed competitively for the greater goal of having the best finished horse I can. I know that if I take care of the training and development part, the competition results will take care of themselves.

MEAGAN H OPKI N S

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Does competing with the goal of winning have any place in a sustainable training program?

Sustainable meaning to stay happy, willing and sound for the long term - to not get worse with age, but to get better!

In my experience, and from what I have observed, no.

How many horses do you know that get better with age when they are used solely as a vehicle to win? On the other hand, how many do you know that continue to decline in performance and develop soundness issues to be forced into early retirement? I don’t want to ride and train in a way that uses horses up. If that is what it takes to win, I wouldn’t want it. However, I do believe that truly exceptional performance that is sustainable for the horse long term is not only achievable, but necessary.

In my training program, competing with the hope of being competitive belongs solely in the realm of the ‘finished’ horse. This is a horse that has been thoroughly developed mentally, physically and emotionally to completely understand their job. They know how to do it. They like doing it. I want to be able to sit quietly, stay out of their way and let them do their job.

Any support I offer is responded to softly and without hesitation.

Okay, okay, this pillar has got a little heavy, talking about training, morals and goals, but how does it fit into the competition confidence puzzle? In a few ways. Remember that the ‘fear’ that triggers your fight or flight response stems from having a craving or aversion for a certain result? Changing your perspective on what successful competing looks like, shifts the desires and aversions from, “need to achieve a certain score/result, avoid mistakes/ failures”, “can’t let anyone see the holes in my horses training,” to “discover, expect and welcome the mistakes so that I can fill that knowledge gap for my horse”, “the horse did the best he could at his stage of development = successful day”, “I am ok with looking less than perfect in public because I know it won’t always be this way and my horse will be so much better for it”, and “my horse did the best he could today, AND it was good enough to win = extra good day!.”

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Carly Domrow & ‘Sinders Sovereign’

See how this takes away the need to avoid mistakes or be validated solely by Competition results. Encouraging you to not only expect that publicly finding holes in your training is inevitable, but also necessary.

Then, in the end when you have achieved your ‘finished horse’ and are ready to show that training off with the hope of being competitive, you aren’t trying to be successful on a horse whose education is full of gaps, and therefore problems.

Things you can do to be more successful in this pillar. Have a vision of what a finished horse is so that you don’t try to be competitive on a horse that isn’t finished. Be your own best teacher. Never stop searching for better training techniques. Study healthy biomechanics and improve your horsemanship, so that you can keep improving your ability to nurture your horse in every way. Get good at receiving feedback from your horse. When a problem comes up, try not to interpret it as your horse being difficult, lazy etc, and go for the quick fix. See the problem for what it really is- most likely a gap in his understanding or a physical inability to do what you’re asking at this time.

Pillar 3

HAVING A SOLID GAME PLAN. You have to know how you want your run/test/pattern to go so well that you don’t have to think about it. It is about knowing your horse, their strengths and weaknesses, knowing exactly how every step is going to feel. If you are a campdrafter, you will know what the cattle are running like, how you want to start up your cut-out, and that you need to wrap up the second peg to get a good line to the gate. If you’re a dressage rider, it’s not enough to know the test- walk at A, 10 metre circle at B- you have to know where every half-halt will be, what type of canter you need to nail the canter/walk transition, and exactly what every stride is going to feel like. This is where positive thinking and visualisation comes in. You need to know your plan so well thatyou don’t have to think about it. Now that I have said that, here is the real secret.

Knowing you have what it takes to recover when things don’t go as planned.

The problem with relying solely on positive thinking and thinking things will go well just because you believe they will, is that as soon as one part of your plan doesn’t go exactly right, it can shatter your focus in a second. It can leave you extremely vulnerable to one thing not going right completely rocking your confidence. Then, like a row of dominos, the rest of the performance comes crashing down. My secret is not only having a solid plan A and fully intending on executing it, but know my plan B and C as well.

Know your horse and how to ride to his abilities. Know what your goals are for that particular day. Maybe you’re developing a young horse and so your goal for the day, and therefore game plan, might be based around achieving relaxation and focus. At this stage your plan wouldn’t be aimed at achieving a certain score or result. Maybe you are riding your finished horse and looking to show off your training in a way that could lead to competitive results.

Here is where your plan would be to know exactly how to prepare and show your horse in a way to achieve that.

How do the 3 pillars complete each other and combine to give competition confidence? Having the best laid competition strategy and positive thinking are not going to achieve much without a well-developed horse. What good is sitting on the best trained horse on the ground if your nerves cause you freeze up and choke? How could you have a successful performance if you’re not exactly sure of what your ideal run will look like and what you need to do to achieve it?

My three-pillar approach allows me to compete with confidence by having horses educated so well that I don’t have to worry if they’re going to let me down, having a healthy perspective on competing and what constitutes a successful day, and finally, having a solid game plan going in where I am confident in my ability to improvise if things go wrong. I hope you have found some interesting pointers that you can take on for yourself.

Here lies the key to a resilient competition mindset.

You wanted to cut your beast clean, but ended up with three up together? No, problem, you know how to nail a separation at the front of the camp. Put in 4 long strides when you planned on 5 sitting strides? You know you can manage that long spot and focus on nailing the next line.

Had a trot too big for the 10 metre circle? You know the 10 points for the next movement are still untouched and won’t let one poorly executed movement spoil the next.

Having a good competition strategy and mindset isn’t only about making sure everything goes perfectly, but perfectly knowing what you’ll do to recover when they don’t.

Things that will help you be successful in this pillar are learning more about the technicalities of your sport. Improving your ring craft. Knowing what the judge is looking for, strategies, techniques and methods.

If you would love to dive deeper and get more help in finding your campdrafting confidence, join our community on Facebook - The Lady Campdrafter Training Forum and check out my coaching program at thecampdraftcoach.com.au

MEAGAN H OPKI N S

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Horse paddock herlbalism Yo u r g r a n d m o t h e r ’s m e d i c i n e

It has long been said in traditional herbalism that the plants one needs most will be the ones that are found growing abundantly around them. The ones right outside the back door. The ones we see every day on our way to work or play, brushing against the cuff of our jeans as we hurry by paying no real attention. Quite often, it’s the ones we wage war against by way of lawn mowers and herbicides. The weeds. The untameable ones. These sorely misunderstood plants, how they persist.

Take the humble Dandelion. Botanical name Taraxacum officinale. Known all around the world as an icon of resistance.

Pushing up through cracks in city sidewalks, courageously shining their little lion faces. Growing proudly with hardly a breath that wasn’t mostly car exhaust fumes, nothing to drink save the odd drizzle of spilled soda and eagerly lapping up any spattering of sunlight they can beneath sky-scraper stolen skies. And yet, Dandelion continues to offer us optimism by way of joyful yellow blooms that soften to playful powder puffs, capable of transforming even the most life-wearied grimace into a child-like exhale, eyes sparkling as they trace the path of the seeds spinning through the air, carrying away wishes to wherever they go to become realised.

So, beyond the hopeful daydreams offered by Dandelion, how else can these “weeds” help us?

Beyond the simple truth that we need them to support a robust pollinator population, our grandmothers learned from their grandmothers the importance of these currently cast-aside pesky plants. The ones that vigorously took root, hitching a ride on bootstraps and hats, hooves, and swishing tails, establishing themselves along the path of human evolution, carving a robust green passage around the globe.

Our grandmothers knew of the deep nourishment and healing wisdom they hold in their cells, that our own cells so deftly communicate with, if only given half a chance.

They knew of the immense value these plants offer to the health and vitality of their families. There is an abundance of historical evidence of people using plants as medicine on themselves and their animal companions since time immemorial. And you only have to watch animals living their best lives to notice how they self-medicate, choosing grasses and herbs that alleviate a churning stomach, eliminate parasites and bacteria. There are even mammals who 64

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use plants to modulate their fertility and lactation. In some of the oldest texts on herbal medicine, the most potent and relied upon medicinal plants are those very ones we modern folk hastily label weeds. Not only were they known for their medicinal uses but were also regularly eaten.

Abundant, free, nutrient dense food you don’t even have to cultivate and care for! What could be better than that?

In this time of such climactic and political upheaval, where we may well need to re-mortgage our homes in order to put lettuce on our families’ sandwiches, getting to know these weedy friends popping up in our paddocks is not such a bad idea. So, what helpful plant allies grow near you?

There are so many useful plants around us at every turn.

Take Bidens pilosa, or as you probably know it - Farmer’s friends, or Cobbler’s pegs. Yep. The bane of your sock’s very existence. This pervasive plant’s antioxidant filled young leaves are a nutritious green leafy vegetable traditionally eaten across the world cooked or in salads, anywhere you’d usually put baby spinach leaves, and the compounds contained therein have been demonstrated to be anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, anti-bacterial, anti-malarial, and exhibit wound healing comparable to use of neomycin sulphate, a strong antibiotic used for serious skin infections.

The phytochemicals present in Bidens species have been studied broadly for their use in treating tumours, various cancers, and diabetes.

Let’s revisit the tenacious dandelion; whose blood cleansing mildly bitter, dark, and shiny serrated-edge leaves offer loads of easily accessible vitamins and minerals, including calcium, potassium, magnesium, vitamin C, zinc and phosphorous and can easily be thrown into a pesto or omelette.

Horses can eat all parts of the dandelion and will thank us for keeping them around for their grazing pleasure. We too, can utilise all parts of the Dandelion plant. Batter and fry the flowers or add a pop of colour to salads. Carefully digging out the slender yet tenacious tap root, washing, chopping in small pieces, and roasting until toasty brown makes for an exceptional addition to your hot beverage rotation. The root can be ground and brewed just like coffee and works as a digestion promoting mild laxative (comparable to coffee), bile stimulator and supports overall liver function by moving stagnancy and allowing effective toxin elimination, helping things like skin break outs, PMS, sluggish bowels, and restoring microbiome balance.

Keep blowing those seed heads around, more dandelion can only be a good thing in my opinion!!

Another field friend you may see in your travels is Plantain.

Not to be confused with the tropical starchy green cousin of banana, rather, the unassuming “White Man’s footprint”, broad leafed Plantago major, or narrow leafed Ribwort plantain, Plantago lanceolata. The seeds of these plants are the fibre rich psyllium that assists so many with digestive stagnation, aka Metamucil, or the husks we might sprinkle over our porridge. The fresh green leaves, full of soothing mucilage, are one of the most effective and fastest acting remedies for insect attack, encounter with stinging nettle or minor cuts and wounds. Simply chew or crush a leaf or two and pack the juicy wad directly on the sting for near-instant relief. This remedy can be used freely with your children and your pets and believe me, it works a treat.

Speaking of Stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, another powerful paddock pal, it is one of those plants that almost always grows in proximity to another plant that will give the remedy. That’s a synergy between plantain and nettle.

And ourselves. And a lesson in listening to our intuition.

Have you ever been thinking about someone right as they send you a message? Or decide to purchase something and then suddenly you’re seeing it everywhere? Next time you wander outside, notice which plants pop out, almost asking to properly introduce themselves. They’re the ones needed most; I promise. That synchronicity is a reminder that we are not separate from the natural world, but very much part of it.

And as for the ‘weeds’… Well, what exactly is a weed?

Depending on who you ask, this might be a wild plant, not intentionally sown. It might be an undesired plant, or a plant without perceivable value. An invasive plant, carried in by roaming or migrating creature and naturalising easily.

A plant in the wrong place. But what if it’s just exactly where it’s meant to be in time and space.

What if we & the weeds are supposed to live alongside each other. What if we let go of our manicured lawns a little more, put down the poisons and

let the borders of our pastures

grow a little wilder….

My name is Ambre Whatley, BHSc. I am a naturopathic medicine practitioner, lifelong student, and nature enthusiast living graciously with my husband and our three almost grown children on Yugambeh country.

AMB RE WHATLEY

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Anne-Marie Lasserre

RI DE FIT

What muscles do we use when we ride? Yup all of them.

No matter what discipline. It’s a total body workout!!

As exhilarating and satisfying as any types of horsemanship may be, one thing is for certain - you have to have a level of “Match Fitness” to keep astride in your next ride. In dressage, cutting, led classes or even chasing after the kids at your next show, your internal fitness will not only help how you cope with the stress of the event but also help you perform.

Do you find it hard to keep pushing through the last part of your test due to your legs burning with lactic acid? Are your shoulders raised due to lungs expanding at an increased rate to accommodate the big breaths needed to hold your steed on line to keep those percentages pumping? Or do you just feel breathless walking to hand your health declaration in or rushing back to the float when you hear your baby pawing in the dirt?!

Cardiovascular fitness is a health-related component of physical fitness that is brought about by sustained physical activity. A person’s ability to deliver oxygen to the working muscles is affected by many physiological parameters, including heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, and maximal oxygen consumption. It doesn’t matter what level of ability you are at. At any age, everyone can benefit from increasing their cardio vascular fitness.

How do we improve this on a personal level to help your ‘Ride Fit’ abilities?

Whatever your given discipline, aim for increasing your intervals or bursts of energy output for a longer time. If you are having a lesson and you require rest breaks every 10 mins, try to prolong the physical aspect with a further “active rest”, rather than throwing the reins away and grasping for your water bottle. As an example, come downward in transitions and then aim for a sitting trot drill or even a walking drill to keep pushing the boundaries of your lung and heart rate by at least 1-2mins. With each lesson over a month, aim to keep pushing this guided drill to 5 mins to feel the ability to keep a continued focus on the actual performance of the lesson rather than the breaks in between.

Another example is to give yourself a cardio vascular goal, giving yourself sets and reps as you would in a gym. Start your normal drill, for example, progressive warm up with laps around arena in trot and then before finishing with the stage, reduce to focus on one new component anatomically from this drill and extend for a little longer. You could take away stirrups, ride with one arm in the air (change on next lap) or only guide with inner thigh and abs (keep a contact but resist urge to use any upper body). Then go back to your original warm up with all body parts invested in drill and you will find the first activity even easier than before and thus too working your cardiovascular output and muscle endurance.

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On the ground, if training for lead classes, complete one lap of your workout performing body weight lunges, run the next part and lunge the next. Or step up x 10 times per leg on mounting block. If you are watching from the ground, instead of sitting, hover squat x 2mins before sitting down.

An even easier one to start is at the end of an average day run/ jog or brisk walk 100m more than you normally do.

CIRCUIT ONE: Perform each exercise one after another. Repeat the circuit three times with no rest between each set.

This circuit is designed to get your heart, lungs and muscles working, and focus the effort on your large muscle groups.

WALKING STEP-UPS – MOUNTING BLOCK OR A SINGLE STEP 3 x 12 reps (each leg) Step one: Start with your right leg, step up, then bring your left leg onto the step and step off with the right.

Step two: Imagine you’re running onto the box and then back off as quickly as you can. Keep your speed up and pump your arms, too.

PUSH-UPS ON YOUR KNEES/ TOES OR WIDE 3 X 15 reps

STABILITY BALL KNEE-IN (USING 65CM FITBALL) 3 x 15 Step one: Your hips should be off the floor in the start position, with your knees bent and weight engaged onto the ball. If you’re finding it difficult to find your balance, put your arms out to the sides for support.

Step two: Straighten your legs and force the ball out, pushing your hips upwards as you do so.

Step three: Using your hamstrings and calves, pull the ball towards your bottom and drop your hips down as if to touch the floor, but don’t be tempted to rest here.

Step one: Keeping your elbows into your sides, lower your chest to the ground, keeping your head in line with your body.

Coaching points: Lie on your back with the stability ball under your heels and your knees bent into your chest.

Step two: Pull your tummy muscles in and don’t allow your back to arch. You should pivot on your knees with a straight back.

STATIC LUNGES WITH BALL OR WEIGHT 3 X 20

Coaching points: Push your hips forward so that your shoulders are over your hands, and your knees, hips and shoulders are in a straight line.

Step one: Stand with your tummy pulled in, your arms straight above your head and your spine in a neutral position, which means pulling your tummy button in and not arching your back.

BODYWEIGHT SQUATS 3 X 20

Step two: Lunge forwards dropping your knee towards the floor. Keep your arms straight above your head and your chest up.

Step one: Keep your chest up, your knees over your feet and don’t lift your heels. Imagine you’re sitting down in a chair. Your knees should end at right angles.

Step two: To stand up again, squeeze your bottom and push your feet into the ground hard.

Coaching points: Stand with your feet directly below your hips and parallel with each other. Keep the weight in your heels and the balls of your feet. Lift your toes into the top of your shoe to prevent yourself from falling forwards.

Step three: Push backwards so you return to the start position. Repeat on the other leg.

Coaching points: Keep your shoulders and pelvis straight and level, and your weight equally distributed.

SINGLE LEG RAISE + THE FIRE HYDRANT 3 x 10 per leg (per exercise) i.e. 20 per side Step one: On all fours (knees and palms to ground).

Step two: Lift leg with a bent knee behind you and then return to hip. Then straight away abduct the bent leg to side as if it is a dog’s leg peeing on a fire hydrant. Repeat leg x 10 each movement Change legs.

ANNE -MARI E LASSERRE

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Where performance and comfort collide 43

R I D E FIT

SHAPE IT! Resistance training is the best way to increase tone and redefine any muscles. Keeping your reps relatively short over 12-20 and even making the workout a giant circuit will help recruit the tone you need in the areas that need to be strong and aesthically pleasing too!!

Lifting anything away from gravity, not just dumbbells in a gym can help you on your way to sculpt your body. I have developed a workout for riders that you might like to start.

This is a great entry level workout. If you struggle with any of the exercises, taper them down to suit you.

REMEMBER TO STRETCH We always seem to take the importance of our horses’ warm up and cool down seriously but the benefit for riders to do this as well is that it will increase your potential for recovery. Let’s face it how many of us have a day off after a show? That’s right, for the rider it’s back into it, sore, stiff or even limping. Some important stretches include: • • • • • •

Triceps – single arm over head and aim down spine. Push your elbow down, hold your head up Hamstrings- extend one leg in front of you. Flex ankle of extended leg and reach for calf Quadriceps- hold onto wall for balance – bend one knee behind you and grab toe or ankle. Keep your knees together Chest Squeeze your elbows together behind you Calves Front leg straight and lift your toes Back – lean forward, grab arms behind hamstrings.

Squeeze your knees into your chest

Although the science on the effectiveness of stretching for injury prevention and performance is still out for debate, I cannot emphasize it enough. Regular stretching improves your range of motion, prepares your muscles and joints for intense activity, improves flexibility, and may speed up recovery as well as reduce post-workout aches and pains.

Make it a rule to lightly stretch your major muscle groups used during exercise for 10 to 15 seconds before a training, a lesson, or your event at a show, and all major muscle groups for 30 to 45 seconds post event.

Anne-Marie is an aethetic conditioning & personal trainer, boxing coach, posing & deportment mentor.

She runs SASS by Lasserre @annemarielasserre AN N E -MARI E LASSERRE 69

AOR Q&A

Simone Wood

I’m a mum of two adult boys, almost a nan for the first time (baby due in November). I am a qualified vet nurse and teach Animal Studies at Tafe Qld. I’ve ridden horses since my teens after I annoyed my parents for years with constant requests for a pony. At 13 I had my first horse. His name was Luke and I loved him. He used to buck me off every other day and gallop home without a rider. My parents knew nothing about horses. We all learnt along the way. I went for a bit without horses in my life, had my kids and started riding again as an adult about 17 years ago; my introduction to the world of Western riding. I got a Paint Horse - Jim - who I still have now (he’s almost 18) and he taught me loads, particularly patience. My current riding horse is Dan (Bobs Dandy Rio). He’s cutting bred and definitely my heart horse.

Q What does ‘heart horse’ mean to you?

I think it’s a horse that means something special to you. I have an old paint horse ‘Jim’ who I’ve had since 18mths old and he was always a challenge. We argued a lot and he used to throw the best tantrums - mostly in the show pen. He’s a bossy old retired man (at only 18yrs). He makes an excellent lead horse for beginners and loves children. He taught me patience, how to ride a spook, how to stay relatively calm in public and what not to do with my next young horse. My current horse ‘Dan’ does it all. He is kind and he does what ever I ask of him - even when I ask the wrong things, he keeps me thinking about how I ride. He has a quirky personality and he has also taught me so much. Many others have come and gone, but Jim & Dan are both my heart horses for different reasons.

70 AOR Q& A

Q

What do you love most about the disciplines you compete in?

The variety. Western has such a broad range of events and they are ever evolving. It’s especially good to see Ranch and Reined Cowhorse events becoming bigger in Australia.

Q

What challenges you most about riding & competing?

Being better than the last time I rode. Competing in a variety of events at a show and having to learn so many patterns.

What drew you to western riding as your chosen discipline?

I worked with a vet who showed her paint horses in western. I loved the clothing and the gear and it looked easy because it was slow - that could not have been further from the truth. That was 20 odd years ago. We are still great friends and I still love to dress up.

Q

Q

The BIGGEST challenge putting chaps on by yourself.

Q

What motivates you?

My last ride - good or bad. The people I’ve met along the way that I now call friends.

Your horse is very versatile, do you think Quarter horses are generally a good breed for amateur owner/riders?

When you compete at a Quarter Horse show and a helicopter lands next to the arena and no one blinks an eye. That's a good sign they are a quiet breed.

Yes absolutely.

Dan is cutting bred however he can pretty up in an English class. My plan from the start was to create a versatile horse. I purchased him as a 2 year old and he has been dragged to everything.

Q

Words to live by?

JUST STAND UP. I was training in Olympic Lifting and my coach used to say 'just stand up' its that simple, dont overthink it. At that time in my life I had some challenges going on. It seemed to be advice I had to remind myself of in many other situations. When I’m riding, if things dont go to plan and I start to beat myself up over it - its my mantra. Just stand up.

Get on with it! I tattooed it on my arm and I refer to it often.

Q

Most memorable or sentimental win?

Winning my first cutting ribbon at my local club this year, something I never thought I’d achieve.

Q

What’s a show or event you would love to compete at one day?

I have set a goal for next year to compete ARBC reining and challenge and Tropicana Reined cowhorse.

Join a club. Meet new people.

Photos by Tania Hobbs

Buy the boots & have fun!

SI M ONE WO OD

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GOLD COAST SHOW 2022 SHOWJUMPING

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Mind. Body. Connect.

by Helen Huie

Connection – every horse person is chasing it. Connection in riding, connection in horsemanship. Connection, as defined by the 2011 USDF Glossary of Judging Terms, is the “state in which there is no blockage, break or slack in the circuit that joins horse and rider into a single, harmonious, elastic unit.”. Connection as described by horseman Warwick Schiller is meeting your horse with a well-regulated nervous system and awareness of self to support your horse’s ability to emotionally regulate in our demands of it - through awareness of your body language and your responses to your horses’ subtle signals of communication.

Humans have high demands of horses – an expectation to have our demands met with robotic commandment. Whilst asking things of horses like – being stabled for long hours, living alone, training up the; levels, we ask horses to obey with a level of submissiveness and not act like a horse.

Many horse people’s biggest challenges with horses,

is when their horse responds like a horse.

Shying, separation anxiety, balking etc. etc. are all normal horse behaviours, that when we develop better training, more submission, greater connection, will hopefully disappear. We ask a lot of horses in asking them not to act like horses. Meanwhile we interact with horses in all our complexity when we are triggered, distracted, anxious or excited.

My question is – how do we, the human animal connect with a horse, taking into consideration our ‘humanness’? What is our role in our horses’ lives, and how do we step up and take more accountability for our part in the relationship? Let’s try to connect with animals at their level, instead of demanding that they constantly adjust to us. What do we know about the influence of our body on horses? First, we need to do a quick jump into the horse neurobiology (I promise there is more in their heads then thinking about dinner or how to destroy the new rug you just put on them). The horse’s evolutionary success is largely due to their strong social connection. As prey animals, horses are in constant contact with their herd – take a moment to watch your horse graze to notice their sensory awareness of their environment - ears/ eyes/nostrils move, their head tilt and their body regularly repositions, in their constant awareness of surroundings and herd behaviour. If one horse identifies danger, their physical stance will immediately change, to which the herd immediately responds, thus keeping them safe. A horse’s sense of security comes from this shared awareness. When we remove a horse from its herd, we become a part of the horse’s information in this survival awareness. The horse looks to our body for signals of safety – both in response to their perceived threats of safety, and ours. By having greater awareness of our micro-cues of tension and being able to respond to those cues in our horse – connection happens. But wait…there is one major roadblock. Our brain!

Unlike horses humans have evolved

to be much more ‘in our heads’.

Our evolutionary success is partially due to our ability to be fearful and anxious…and what I mean by that, is we are hardwired to think about things that could kill us. Our brain is fantastic at perceiving threat and storing that information away for future threats.

The challenging thing for us as horse people, is our thoughts don’t exist just in our heads – our entire body is connected to our emotional states. So, when interacting with our horses, who are super focused on micro bodily cues, we can inadvertently alter our relationship with our horse, and the way we are connecting.

Riding with connection implies a deep awareness of self –

cognitively, physically, and emotionally.

As a rider, our body is in constant contact with our horse. Both horse and rider outputting information from their skin, muscles, tendons, weight distribution, and balance for each other to interpret and respond to. A rider, be it dressage or cutting must be aware of how every part of their body is touching or influencing the horse to be straight, precise, and receptive. Our minds must be clear to read them, be it by cognitive processing or intuitively. When we exist in a state of awareness, our mind calms, we become in-tune with our bodily sensations and environmental signals and we create space to allow choice points - awareness gives us greater choice to respond, rather to react. So how do we develop our awareness?

Awareness is our capacity to allow ourselves to notice, recognise and observe what we are experiencing – in our environment, our bodies, and our thoughts, without judgement or trying to change, manipulate or make it different. Through this, we learn to notice what is happening in our now - how our nose might twitch or tingle when we are talking about something uncomfortable, how our voice might catch when we are discussing something upsetting, how we feel sick in our stomachs when we are nervous, or how our jaws clench when we are angry. Our body gives us cues to our emotions long before we form conscious thoughts leading to behaviours, and our emotions are there to give us information to keep us safe. The idea is we learn to feel into our body so we can step in before those feelings become thoughts – when we retreat into our head, where things can get busy, messy, loud, and distracting.

Going back to the idea that humans are hardwired for anxiety to keep us safe – even if the fear source is stepping back into the saddle after a long break or waiting at the start line of the cross country, our brains are unable to distinguish between what is a real or perceived threat. When we flip into survival mode (our flight/fight/freeze response) all our brain knows is that our body is doing all the things it needs to, to stay safe – increase heart rate, re-route blood flow from your digestive tract to the muscles (dry mouth, need to poo, nausea), lower blood pressure, tense muscles, blink less etc. in preparation to run/fight. Frustratingly, most of us are so in our head, we often don’t recognise those first little flutters of butterflies in our stomach, or tense muscles in our jaw until we are quite dysregulated and disconnected from ourselves.

To check in with your own physical and emotional state to create awareness and connection with our own experience, here are a few techniques that can help. Please feel free to try these with the support of your horse (even notice how your horse responds to you). Take a moment to watch your horse/cat/dog, especially after a moment of stress – yawning, breathing out, licking/ chewing and shaking are all ways animals emotionally regulate themselves (try any of these yourself and notice any changes in your body). Polyvagal theory supports the use of breath to emotionally regulate and copying the horse’s beautiful low slow outbreath is one way we can help calm the nervous system. In fact, you probably are already trying to support yourself with your breath – sighing and yawning are examples! There are a growing number of empirical studies supporting that when we take long slow breaths out, our physical, chemical, and neurobiological systems regulate.

Notice how when we draw awareness to our body, our mind is quiet for those moments. Through connecting to our body and noticing how we are experiencing the world around us; we can make choices in how we support ourselves and notice how our horse is experiencing the world. When your horse is tense, taking some long breaths out can be enough to help your horse feel more secure and to calm. Use those moments of awareness, regulation and quiet to ‘hear’ your horse and their unique way of communicating, instead of expecting your horse to support you.

Play around with ways you can offer your horse support through your regulated body language and notice the ways in which your horse responds and connects to you in these moments. Mark Rashid quotes “horsemanship is the art of mastering our own movements, thoughts, emotions and behaviours.”. Through being knowing of our own awareness, we become more aware of others, have deeper relationships and deeper connections.

Like anything, learning skills like body awareness and self-regulation take time and practice. Be kind to yourself while you learn new ways. Please seek professional assistance for any concerns.

Helen runs The Stables Counselling & Equine Assisted Therapy www.thestablescounselling.com.au H ELEN H UI E

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Amy Ellison

H U NT SEAT PAPE R CO.

by Susan Friedland, @saddleseekshorse

All Hops, No Stops. Hay in Your Bra is Life. Be Resilient Like an OTTB. These are all quotes from Amy Summer Ellison, the creative behind the stationery and home goods brand Hunt Seat Paper Co. Since 2015, Amy has been pairing witty equestrian expressions with hip graphic design, elevating equestrian gifts and greeting cards to the next level of modern.

Although she doesn’t remember the specific moment she fell in love with horses, Amy knows it was when she was very young. “My mom grew up in Montana loving horses, but didn’t have one because of the expense. Her uncle had a ranch, and when she would visit, she got to ride. Since she was obsessed she always gave me horse toys when I was little. My drawings from childhood are Appaloosas, and I had a billion Breyers and My Little Ponies.”

At her fifth birthday party, a pony-ride company came to Amy’s house. “That was when my riding career started.

As part of my birthday gift, I got lessons at Bright Promise School of Riding in Bradbury, California. Little did I know what a huge role Bright Promise would play in my life.” Just as Amy’s equestrian skills were blossoming with Bright Promise, the barn was sold and the new owners didn’t want a riding school. Amy was devastated. Behind the scenes, Amy’s parents had dreamed up a brilliant plan. To Amy’s surprise, her parents said they were moving. They took her and her little brother to a run-down lay-up barn about six miles from Santa Anita Race Track. The shabby farm in the Bradbury Estates was going to be their new home!

Amy said, “They tore the old place all down to a giant fiveacre dirt lot, and built a five-star equestrian dreamland. To make it even better, it was the new home of Bright Promise School of Riding! I was the luckiest kid in the whole world!”

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“I would wake up every morning and run down to the barn.

I had lessons five days a week and went to horse shows every weekend. My whole life was horses. My mom had a dinner bell she would ring when it was time for me to come home, but she’d often have to come down and find me hiding under horse blankets, refusing to eat dinner because I wanted to eat with my horse!” Amy laughed. We didn’t have any grooms, so students were required to do EVERYTHING. I am so thankful that I was taught horsemanship first, riding second. It made my passion for horses what it is today. It is ingrained in my soul,” Amy said.

Amy’s first heart horse was a Thoroughbred/Appaloosa cross named Rusty. “I ate a lot of dirt in those days, but I learned from every mistake, because he wouldn’t let me do it twice! On the ground, we had an incredible bond. He would follow me around everywhere. Under saddle he was a total jerk, but I did my best riding on him. I was head over heels in love with Rusty, and I would sneak out at night to sleep outside his stall,” Amy recalled.

The storybook childhood horse dream faded when Amy was 18, on the brink of college and discovering the party scene. A new horse trainer came to the farm who tried pushing Amy to be something she wasn’t. Amy also had a young OTTB mare she described as “psychotic” who made her nervous.

“I got in an argument with my trainer one day, and never rode again. For ten years. In those ten years, I went to college, started a career, my parents retired and sold our beautiful ranch and rehomed all our horses. It was a tough pill for me to swallow. The ranch was a physical memory of the best years of my life. It sold to a non-horse person and was again torn down into a giant five-acre dirt lot. I was heart-broken.”

And then she met Rowdy.

After the ranch was sold, Amy posted on Facebook that she missed horses. One of her old riding friends commented she still had her old horse, but with three kids and a full-time career, she was looking to lease him. Amy went to meet him, and instantly fell in love. “I was a kid again, I was obsessed with Regal Rowdy.”

Rowdy was a 20-something off track Thoroughbred who had been raced by her friend’s family, then re-trained to be her hunter/jumper.

“Rowdy was perfect for me. He was seasoned, forgiving, and taught me how to ride again.

I would wake up every morning thinking about him, and would sit at my desk everyday counting down the minutes to barn o’clock.”

“He closed the gap in my life that was an open wound for 10 years when I didn’t have horses in my life. I was truly happy when I was with him. I groomed him for hours.

Sometimes I would just stand in the cross ties and hold his head in my arms. The relationship I had with Rowdy was different than any relationship I’ve had with a horse,” Amy reminisced.

Photo by Kristin Lee Photo LLC.

During one show, Rusty bolted from X and jumped out of the dressage court and ran bucking into the driveway.

“I was so upset, I made him halt and walk back to the gate.

We entered the ring and halted at X. I finished the test, which wasn’t bad if you weren’t counting the crow hops across the diagonal,” Amy said. Amy placed fourth winning reserve champion at the show and received a compliment from the judge about her impressive horsemanship.

“If it wasn’t for Regal Rowdy, I would have never started Hunt Seat Paper Co. On the footer of my website it says, ‘For Regal Rowdy,’ and that’s the truth!” Rowdy passed away in 2018, but his memory lives on in Amy’s art.

HU NT SEAT PAPER CO.

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Amy claims she has always been a doodler. From the moment she could hold a pen she was drawing and crafting.

When she was about 14-years old, her dad sent her to a three-day Photoshop class at a computer superstore so she could make the parts manuals for his manufacturing company. “I learned how to use Photoshop 4, and was sent home with the program on floppy discs! At my dad’s shop, instead of making parts manuals, I was making horse pictures and fake party fliers,” Amy smiled.

When she got to college Amy had no idea what she wanted to do, but one of her friends was the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper. He recruited Amy to the staff, introducing her to the department chair, Bud Little. Bud changed Amy’s life by asking a simple question: what are you good at?

“I’m pretty good with Photoshop!’ I said. Bud gave me a license to install the entire Adobe Creative Suite on my laptop, and taught me everything I know about design. In my two years with the Santa Ana College el Don Newspaper, we went on to win two National Pacemaker Awards for editorial design, and I won five Columbia University Gold Circle Awards for editorial design, along with several other national and state awards and scholarships.”

Amy was in love with design, but it never occurred to her to pursue an art degree until two months before graduation. Amy graduated with her political science degree, knowing it would be impossible for her to get hired as a designer. Fresh out of college, with a can-do spirit, she started her own freelance design company. She worked with small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike and eventually her business thrived.

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BEH I N D TH E B R AN D

Several years into her boutique graphic design career, Hunt Seat Paper Co. was launched as a side gig. As the equestrian brand began flourishing, Amy tapered back her design clients. In 2021, due to popular requests by Western riders, Amy launched Howdy Paper Co. Fueled with creativity by a road trip through New Mexico, Amy’s new line features paper goods and gifts with punchy cowgirls, turquoise and sentiments of the American West.

All the lessons from horses have sent Amy on a successful trajectory. Today Hunt Seat and Howdy Paper Co. merchandise is sold in 300 tack shops worldwide. She also sells direct at huntseatpaperco.com. “Hunt Seat Paper Co. and Howdy Paper Co. are a perfect fusion of my passion and my talent.

AS A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER, DESIGN AND BRANDING ARE MY SPECIALTIES. AS A HORSEWOMAN,

I JUST LOVE THE CULTURE. THE EQUESTRIAN LIFESTYLE

IS MY MUSE.”

Design inspiration greets Amy everywhere. “My iPhone is full of the most random pictures because I’ll see a cereal box or something with good text layout and snap a picture!

I never know when inspiration will hit, it just hits.

“My mind is free to wander at home, and that’s where I do my best work. My office has two big windows facing my pool. Generally, it looks like a tornado came through with coffee cups and paper scraps all over the place, but my desk is usually orderly. I can’t think when I feel cluttered, but if the clutter is behind me it doesn’t seem to affect me, haha! Business in the front, party in the back,” Amy said.

In 2020, during Australia’s ‘Black Summer’ of bushfires, Amy made this Instagram post.

“Half a billion animals lost. It breaks my heart to see the devastation in Australia. Being a Southern California native, I’m no stranger to wildfires, and stand in solidarity with everyone affected. I’m a bazillion miles away, but will do my part to help....and you can too! I’ve teamed up with friends to raise funds for @wireswildliferescue by offering these Equine Warriors Society buttons. I will donate 100% of all sales to WIRES emergency fund. I hope we can make a difference for our friends in Australia.”

The pins raised a total of $15,800 for WIRES.

Check out Amy’s collection at huntseatpaperco.com and follow her on Facebook and Instagram @huntseatpaperco Susan Friedland writes about horses and the equestrian lifestyle on her award-winning blog Saddle Seeks Horse.

Author of Horses Adored and Men Endured and Strands of Hope: How to Grieve the Loss of a Horse, Susan lives near Chicago and is owned by Tiz A Knight, a tall, dark and handsome Thoroughbred gelding.

Connect with her at @saddleseekshorse on Instagram or Facebook and at her site saddleseekhorse.com.

HU NT S EAT PAPER CO.

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EMOTIONS = ENERGY-IN-MOTION Emotional Intelligence + Horses

by Mel Spitall, @zenequestrienne

What does it mean to be emotionally intelligent and why would having such an awareness matter in our interactions with, and training of our horses?

What I am trying to say here is that emotions are energy and energy is frequency. All energy carries information and affects not only our own physiology but everything else around us.

By definition emotional intelligence is “the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict”. Honestly, what could be more important for our interactions with horses then?

The important point I’m trying to make here is…our horses can feel this! Yes, it’s true! Our biochemistry changes with our emotions and this is what horses respond to. They are extremely sensitive to the electricity in our bodies. Without going into the great depths of equine ethology here, what we fundamentally need to understand is that horses are a sensitive, feeling-oriented, prey animal. Their survival depends on their ability to sense any inconsistencies within their environment…and that one hundred percent includes us! So, when we are experiencing frustration, excitement, anger, or fear, it can create the same expression of emotion in our horses. Horses are extremely sensitive to our emotions and feelings and how they affect our energy levels.

Our horse will pick up those minute signals we are giving off and respond to the energy. They can’t help it. It is innate.

So, to get to the “emotional intelligence” part, let’s take a moment to unpack the science of our emotions first. Did you know that the physiology of our body responds to the vibrations of our emotions? What does that mean? Well, basically when we radiate joy, happiness, gratitude, appreciation, calmness or love, our chemicals/hormones (essentially the instructions from our brain) are expansive and opening. Our very cells actually respond to our high positive emotions and we experience pleasant sensations throughout our entire being…we are relaxed, our mind is clearer and our heart is more open.

By contrast, when we experience fear, anger, or frustration, everything in our body and mind contracts. Our cells and organs are bathed with stress hormones. Our heart may pound harder, our breathing becomes shallow and there is a certain level of being closed off. Our defences are up, we are somewhat shut down and our vibrations are dense and heavy.

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ZEN EQ U ESTR I E N N E

Now, I’m going to get a little more ‘sciency’ here before we move on, so please bear with me. What if I said we live in a reflected reality and that scientific evidence proves it. What does that mean you say? Well, it means that our beliefs, feelings and emotions affect EVERYTHING, from the healing of our bodies to the atoms of reality itself...and what if I said that the space between particles is not empty at all!

Scientists have shown that while we may think we’re only watching and observing our world, we are in fact creating it, we are building it...what happens internally is reflected in everything around us.

In the words of physicist John Wheeler, that makes us all 'participators'. When we focus our attention on a given place in a moment of time, we involve our consciousness, and in this vast field of consciousness it appears that there’s no clear boundary that tells us where we stop and the rest of the world begins.

When we think of the world this way, it becomes clear why the ancients believed that everything is connected...because it is! As energy, it is!

Scientist Gregg Braden goes on to explain how ‘paradigm-shattering experiments, published in leading-edge, peer-reviewed journals reveal that we’re bathed in a field of intelligent energy that fills what used to be thought of as empty space. Beyond any reasonable doubt, additional discoveries show that this field responds to us—it literally rearranges itself—in the presence of our heart-based feelings and beliefs to become the healing of our bodies and the peace of our world’! THIS is the revolution that changes everything...even the relationship between ourselves and our horses.

The animals we share our time with reflect our energy, the field of energy, that we are creating in our lives. Remember, energy is information and it is everywhere, it is everything. THIS is why people say the horse is our mirror, THIS is why Equine Assisted Therapies are so potently powerful, THIS is why to make any true progress or connection with our horses we need to address ourselves FIRST...because of science...the beautiful magic of science...it can't be palmed of as airy-fairy spiritual BS any longer...I frickin’ love science!

Unfortunately, humans have been taught to view and respond to our emotions differently though. We have been taught to either fear them or try and hide them. We hide behind happy faces and false masks. However, our very clever horses won’t pay any attention to these silly little masks as they tend to sense what is in our bodies, our hearts and our heads and they react accordingly.

So, with our personal happiness and the happiness and wellbeing of our horses in mind, I thought I’d share a few tips to help you recognise those moments of contraction. They may also help you move through those denser emotions should you experience them whilst out working with your horses: BE TRULY PRESENT. Not only is mindfulness one of the major keys to personal growth, it will help you become more aware of what is happening for you internally…physically, mentally and emotionally. Mindfulness is an awareness of what thoughts are running through our mind at any one point in time.

Energy follows thought and becomes e-motion…. energy in motion. Just think about it, you’re not paying attention to your horse or your mental or physical state if you are going through your ‘to do’ list for the coming week, thinking about what you’re going to cook for dinner, or chatting to someone on the phone. So, take a lesson from your horse and practise mindfulness. Our horses are masters of it.

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY. Body awareness. Feel and connect with your body. If you aren’t mindful and consciously aware of your emotions or feelings, your body sure is! They are one and the same. Your body is giving you hints and signals all the time. Tight chest, contracted muscles, tense jaw, heart pounding, sweaty palms, shallow breathing, holding your breath etc. These are all signals that you may need to stop what you’re doing and take some time to process what is going on for you.

DON’T FORGET TO BREATHE! Breathing is kind of important right!? I believe it is the single most important part of working with horses. I could write a wholearticle just on our breath and working with horses. If you are feeling emotionally shady, stop and breathe deeply into your diaphragm and release it with an audible sigh. Watch your horse’s reaction and behaviour change after you’ve done this. It’s almost like magic!

GROUND YOUR ENERGY. Grounding exercises are fabulous when you are feeling emotionally or energetically shaky or scattered as they work to calm your nervous system. Following below are a couple of very simple but effective grounding exercises I’ve utilised over the years that you can do anytime.

TAKE TIME OUT. If you are feeling extra scattered and overly emotional it is probably best for all that you take some time out for yourself. Let your horse have the day off. Don’t go out for that family dinner etc. If you don’t have the energy to hold space for anyone but yourself, that is OK. Honour your emotions with dignity and others will too. Walking away is so much more graceful than losing your temper and you won’t end up doing something you may later regret.

E-motion is energy in motion. Energy follows feelings, thoughts and words, so be present and mindful with your emotions and what you are experiencing physically, when working with your horses but within your personal life as well. This is emotional intelligence, an awareness of what is going on for you at any given point in time. Once you’re aware you can work to change things if you need to. We control our emotions, they are our responsibility, no one else’s and definitely not our horse’s. We always have the choice to follow their pull or to stop and honour our sensitivity by breathing into the emotion. Take the time to move the energy through you and then consciously release it. Unless we honour our emotions we cannot learn the lessons they teach us.

And PS: Your horses will definitely thank you for it!

Mel is an equine trainer, coach & mentor specialising in ethical, evidence-based horsemanship, equine behaviour & welfare.

She is also a professional animal trainer, a Diploma of Equitation Science student, free-lance writer, professional photographer & a lifelong horse woman. Mel lives with her family in the Gold Coast Hinterland & currently runs her business Zen Equestrienne out of CLM Equine in Boyland.

For more info zenequestrienne.com.au

MEL SPITTALL

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Coo-ee from Coleychelle HOME OF KENNALLYWOOD STUD, TRAINING, BREEDING & EQUINE REHAB.

Breed a foal they said, it will be beautiful. Yes, it can be… but a lot has to go right to have a positive outcome whilst so much can go pear-shaped in horse breeding.

In this selection process the world is your oyster with not only a full book of top Australian but International Stallions available to us in Australia.

YOUR CHOICE OF MARE IS CRUCIAL. The best time to breed your mare is when she is in peak health. You could choose to breed a mare for many reasons. She may be the last of a line, a fantastic performance mare, perhaps she is injured needing time to rehab or permanently injured etc.

A mare that can’t be ridden due to temperament issues, congenital health or conformation issues is not a good choice for breeding.

THEN THE FUN STARTS. Will you choose for your lovely mare to have her own a foal or will you want to embryo transfer her so you can continue her competition career?

Whether using a recipient mare or having her own foal, pregnancies can be so straight forward and the most incredible time for all involved. However this is not always the case and a multitude of issues may occur. This can range from gestational issues with the mare or foal, to foaling dramas, and then to post-natal medical complications for mare and foal. So, I guess what I am saying is,

So, let’s keep the positive process moving forward. Teeth being up to date with no infection in the mouth as well as clear and clean swabs are essential. A mare that is in good health, not too overweight and not too underweight is primary to successful breeding outcomes.

You have the choice of hundreds of very talented stallions specific to your field of performance. Choose wisely to compliment your mares breed, conformation, genetics, disposition and in some cases colour.

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CO O -EE FRO M CO LE YC H E LLE

the expense of getting your mare in foal

may be the least expensive part of the process

if any or some of the negatives occur. In saying that, good management and a great team of reproductive vets and breeding technicians can help make the process a rewarding and nurturing experience for you and your lovely mare.

Good horses are made with a combination of many factors: Breeding and Genetics. Not only the Sire’s and Dam’s genetics are important but the disposition of the recipient mare who raises your foal if it is an embryo transplant. The best mum for your foal would be calm, relaxed with and a great supply of milk especially colostrum. If you have all three, then you have hit the jackpot.

Health Maintenance of Mare and Foal. Good feeding with enough protein for optimal growth of the foal in all conditions (drought, floods and natural pastures also contribute to growth). Regular worming and hoof maintenance are essential as well as other veterinary milestones i.e. vaccinations etc. which protect your horse’s health.

GOOD HORSES ARE USUALLY NOT CHEAP AND THIS IS FOR A REASON.

Low Stress Handling. This plays a major part in the development of any young horse’s attitude. It sets the path for all future education and the enjoyment of experiences for not only your future star but also for yourself and the people who will interact with it.

Kennallywood Stud and Equine Rehab in conjunction with stud veterinarians offers a full range of services from Breeding (AI, Embyro Transfer and recipient mare hire), Stallion Station, foaling out, gestational agistment, rehab and care for mare and foal, handling and weaning to breaking, training, re-education, sale prep and sale presentation. We support quality training of the incredible team that work with us in our Equine/Agricultural Industry and are blessed to have some of the best consultant veterinar“Coleychelle Farm” 347 Coleyville Coleyville Qld your 4307journey ians available.

Call us toRoad, chat or pop in. Enjoy 07 5467 1800 info@hairtestlab.com.au wherever it leads you and best wishes. www.kennallywood.com.au

Team Kennallywood.

BRE EDI N G A FOAL

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Polo Wraps

Tracey Boyack

I’m a 33 yr old well seasoned polo groom of 11 years. I’ve groomed for some of the best players in Australia. I’m currently based at the incredible property of Hazelwood Estate located in the Gold Coast hinterland working for Andrew Northcott.

DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN THREE WORDS Workaholic. Horseaholic. Friendly WHERE DID YOUR INTEREST IN WORKING WITH HORSES BEGIN? My older sister got me into horses at a young age, When I was 21 a friend of hers gave me a call and asked if I wanted a job in Aus, I said yes straight away, got a passsport and have never looked back! WHAT DOES A TYPICAL DAY LOOK LIKE? Everyday is pretty busy, time management is a big thing. I currently care for and exercise 10 horses 6 days a week. As the week goes on it’s gets busier as we get the ponies ready to play on the weekends WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT BEING A GROOM? I love caring for all my ponies, my heart and soul goes into every minute of it. Plus winning a champion pony prize doesn’t go astray. WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO SPEND A DAY OFF? Doing absolutely nothing! HOW DO YOU TAKE YOUR COFFEE? Latte one sugar. I’ll never finish it hot - but iced coffee is still coffee!WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU READ? The slow cooking collection - My boyfriend dramatically outshines me in the kitchen! IF YOU COULD LIVE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD IT BE? I already live in my favourite place in the world , I just need a farm of my own here . HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH WORK STRESS? A good old vent to my partner at the end of the day over a can of rum! WHAT CAREER ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO YOUR YOUNGER SELF? Don’t break your back for people who don’t deserve it . Also you cannot control everything ( especially with horses ) so sometimes you just need to let it go. WHAT DO YOU PUT ON HOT CHIPS? WATTIES tomato sauce. MUSIC OR PODCAST? I have definitely become a podcaster now! Always true crime I cannot get enough! DOG OR CAT? Dog WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE HORSE MOVIE? War horse and Spirit stallion of the cimarron FAVOURITE POLO PONY? Blizzard aka Blobby - the fastest little chestnut pony , who I absolutely adored. DRINK OF CHOICE? Rum and coke. WHAT HAS THIS JOB TAUGHT YOU MOST? There is always something new to learn about horses! FAVOURITE SEASON? Summer - I love the heat ! Winter is the worst ….so many coats to try and brush out! WHAT IS YOUR DEFINITION OF SUCCESS? Waking up everyday and still loving what you are doing ADVICE FOR SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO BECOME A POLO GROOM? Always think ahead. It’s better to be too far ahead than too far behind FAVOURITE EVENT TO ATTEND? Ellerston was always my favourite tournament to go to.

The property is just incredible, all the facilities are on site for horses and people so everyone stays on the property for the duration of the tournaments which means you get to meet heaps of great new people every season Your ponies look amazing because you do an amazing job looking after them. And No knots, it’s the best tail spray ever. MARES OR GELDINGS? We do prefer mares in polo! They tend to be a bit smarter and faster to train than the geldings , they also tend to be more aggressive on the field as it is a contact sport. Also for breeding purposes we do embryo transfers from the mares into surrogates so our best of the best can keep playing! BEST HORSE CARE TIP? I always figure your horses are a representation of yourself. WORDS TO LIVE BY? Feel the fear and do it anyway. ULTIMATE ‘MUST-HAVE’? For a polo groom, it would have to be tape!

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POLO WR AP S

TRAC EY B OYAC K

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SPRING COCKTAIL

SLOE & STEADY 45ml Ink Sloe & Berry Gin 60ml tonic 60ml soda Squeeze of lime Build up ingredients, add more or less soda or tonic to your taste.

Add a squeeze of lime.

Image + recipe kindly supplied by Ink Gin www.inkgin.com 86

S PR I N G CO C KTAI L

We support and promote the responsible drinking of alcohol.

DRINK LESS - ENJOY MORE

Stay connected Image by Lara Baeriswyl

@larabaeriswylequine

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ARENA CONSTRUCTION & RESTORATION | SURFACE SOLUTIONS & MAINTENANCE | EQUESTRIAN PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT T 0407 149 637 W equestrianlanddevelopments.com E info@equestrianlanddevelopments.com