Never say ‘Never’ to Priscilla

When Priscilla Macmillan fell off her horse four years ago, she was told she would never ride or walk again. She sold her beloved grey Arab, Slipper, and beautiful 700acre cattle property, Braeside, in Kilcoy, which she ran almost single-handedly, and moved to Buderim, to embrace a new, more sedentary lifestyle.

Following spinal surgery, four months of rehab and absolute fierce determination, she learnt to walk again and, after a year, felt fit enough to tackle the 1000km celebrated sacred pilgrims’ path in Spain, the Camino, from San Sebastian to Santiago de Compostela – alone.

“Being told I would never walk again was like a red rag to a bull,” the grandmother of five and former nurse recalls.

The following year, just before her 70th birthday, she climbed to Base Camp in Nepal, and although she had earlier conquered nearby Annapurna in the Himalayas, admits this Mt Everest climb was the hardest thing she had ever done. “But once I could walk again, there was no stopping me,” she insists.

In July this year, sleeping under the stars with meals cooked in a camp oven, she walked 150kms from Cloncurry to Mt Isa in a Walk, Ride or Run for Palliative Care initiative raising more than $7,000 to fund cuddle beds for the Mt Isa Hospital.

Growing up on a wheat and cattle property in Outback Queensland in the tiny township of North Star – between Goondiwindi and Moree, Priscilla, the eldest of four, was always a “self-starter, a doer and was always fairly organised,” she says. “You had to be living on the land.” She still lives by the adage: If you can, you should.

Over the years, the energetic mother of three strapping sons (she lost a daughter at just 13-months-old with a congenital heart defect), became a fine horsewoman, qualifying in 2016 for the 2019 event of the country’s most prestigious endurance horse ride, the Tom Quilty Gold Cup. This gruelling 24-hour event is one of the biggest endurance rides in the southern atmosphere attracting more than 400 riders from across the country over a distance of 160kms. But of course, she could not compete – a decision that still haunts her.

“Slipper taught me everything I knew about endurance riding,” she laments, “but of course, I had to sell her.” She has, however, kept in touch with the new owner.

Not one to sit still, Priscilla is already planning next year’s adventure: walking the 5,330km Bicentennial National Trail from Cooktown in northern Queensland to Healesville, in Victoria. And in a lightbulb moment, she’s recruited Slipper, who will be 14 by then, to accompany her on the year-long trek as her packhorse.

“So, we’ll be back together again,” beams a very happy Priscilla at the mere thought. “I just love her.”

“Being told I would never walk again was like a red rag to a bull.”