“After winning first Three Day Event in Australia I was dead set that this is what I wanted to do and I wanted to ride at an Olympic Games” says Neale Lavis “And in 1960 I made the team”
In 2017 the Sydney International 3 Day Event will be celebrating their champions past and present, including the winner of the very first 3 Day Event in Australia, Neale Lavis.
Neale Lavis OAM is a legend of Australian eventing, having won a team gold medal and individual silver at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome and represented Australia at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. But Neale is not just an Olympian, he is a horseman. Born in June 1930, he grew up on a dairy farm in northern New South Wales, where riding horses in the natural terrain of the bush became second nature to him
“It was the greatest thing in the world for me, going cross country. I had no fear of galloping through the bush, jumping logs, creeks and ditches so it was a great introduction to three day eventing”
After winning the first three day event at Sydney Royal, Neale became part of an Australian team heading to Rome that set the equestrian world talking. They took Badminton by storm in 1960 with Bill Roycroft winning and Neale finishing fourth on Mirrabooka, a horse he had purchased for 100 pounds
Neale and Mirrabooka also won several showjumping events in England and the Great Auclam International but shortly before the Olympic Games Mirrabooka went lame. Neale had the choice of a second horse but, when Mirrabooka recovered, he made the decision to ride him instead even though he had not had much work leading up to the event. Mirrabooka and Neale provided the first clear cross country round on a very tough course which saw two horses killed and only 35 of 73 entrants completing the competition. Neale and Mirrabooka however jumped clear the next day for an individual silver medal which he still treasures to this day
Following the Olympics in Rome Neale met and married his wife Velma. They had four children and he turned his focus to breeding cattle and racehorses including the Melbourne Cup winner Just A Dash. He continued to ride, especially loving his bush riding, and he mentored many young riders including Bill Levett who went on to ride for Australia at the 2014 World Equestrian Games.
Bill worked his for Neale, becoming the stud manager, looking after the stallions and around 150 mares, and he finally had the opportunity to event. The fact that Neale’s children were not interested in competing was to Bill’s advantage as Neale not only trained him but loaned him everything he needed to start his career in eventing, from his saddle and boots to the trailer for transport. But most importantly, Neale gave Bill the horse that he eventually took to England - Mirrabooka NJ. The NJ (which is Neale’s nickname) added to the names of the horses now owned by Bill and his wife Jenny is in recognition of Neale and everything he did for Bill
Neale was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1989, received a Medal of the Order of Australia in 1999 and received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000 but his real legacy is in the horsemanship he has passed on to many
“The thing is about all the riding that I have done, and I always put it back to the fact that I rode in the bush and became fearless in the bush, that really stuck with me and it still does when I’m riding. The schooling of horses is a slow process and it’s a very interesting process and it doesn’t happen overnight. Hasten slowly”
Here is Neale’s story
