I began
riding when I was 6 years old. A family friend of ours had horses, one was a Black Shetland Pony named Brenda
who was given to us when they moved house and had to sell all of their horses. I would walk and trot Brenda up the road following dad
while he walked.
Because I
enjoyed riding Brenda so much when I was 8 years old mum decided that I would
be able to get lessons. I began riding at Wallington Park Equestrian Centre
with Michelle O’Connell as my instructor. I got to ride many different horses
and eventually I got to a point where mum agreed that we would look for a
bigger pony as Brenda was to small.
I ended up with a grey pony named Pepper who was extremely cheeky but taught me heaps and after a year I joined Drysdale Leopold Pony Club. Pepper was great for dressage but at pony club it became clear he really hated to jump which was something I really wanted to be able to do.
I stuck with Pepper until eventually the next size pony was needed and this time it needed to be one that
could jump. So I got a Chestnut Quarter Horse mare named Bella. Bella was
extremely slow and quite safe so mum loved her but she was also very grumpy. I
took her to pony club at Drysdale and she got me out to my first competitions and made me
love Eventing. Eventually though Bella couldn’t go any faster or jump any
higher and I was limited in what I could do with her.
We started
yet again looking for another horse and we were quite lucky to come across ESB
Golden Ambition (Greta) who is my current horse.
