“It would be great if you could talk about what you do outside horses as well” were Alison’s words to me when she asked if I would be a blogger for An Eventful Life.
In theory, an excellent suggestion – I know that I, for one, always like to read about the riders I admire from more of a ‘personal’ perspective, rather than just as a rider and competitor. In practice, somewhat tricky - my current schedule doesn’t really allow much time for an eventful life (pardon the pun) outside horses. My alarm is generally set at 3.50am each day and the schedule from there goes something like:
4.30am Start riding
8.00am Dress/drive to work in a panic because I’m running late
8.30am Work at Conditsis Lawyers, Gosford (preparing Wills, advising on commercial leases, drawing up various horse contracts and dealing with siblings squabbling over their parents’ Estates)
5.30pm Leave work and go to gym, ride more horses or teach, or a combination of both
8.30pm Pour a wine
But on Tuesday nights I do set aside some time for playing Oztag, so I thought I’d talk a bit about that…
My Tuesday night therapy - Oztag
I actually blame Oztag for the delay in posting this blog: I wanted to wait until we won a game before writing about it and that didn’t happen until last week. (Well not quite true … ‘we’ won a game whilst I was competing at Adelaide last year, but I’m not sure that should count!)
I play in a mixed guy/girl team called “Threefingers.com” (don’t ask). The team is a wonderfully random mix of eventing riders, including some well-known’s like Tim Boland, Sophie Adams, Jess Rae, Brett Davey and showjumper Renee Willis, vets, a farrier, a carpenter, a book company executive and a good-looking young guy called ‘Young Guy’.
Oztag is a bit like touch football, except that instead of touching, the defence has to grab the tag from the shorts of the attacking player. The tags are attached to each side of the shorts with Velcro (although when I’m trying to take a tag, you’d swear they were sewn on), and on the sixth ‘tag’, its changeover. There are eight on the field at any one time, four girls, four guys and a girl has to kick off. A ‘girl try’ is worth two points and when a guy gets over the line its one point.
Brett Davey, Sophie Adams and I all looking pretty happy to be taking a break from horses
It’s a lot of fun, and pretty obsessive: Tim, Soph and I walked the course at Adelaide last year tossing a football around and on my rare trips home to Brisbane to see the family, I drag Dad out to kick the ball with me. A recent visit home was no exception and this time I had a new ‘move’ I was working on – The Spin. The idea is that if you can run toward the opposition and then spin around just before you get to them, it’s almost impossible for them to take a tag. Dad dutifully came out to the front paddock with me to practice and I told him to pretend that I had tags on my hips and to try and tag me. After about 15 minutes, Dad stopped, puts his hands on his hips, and we had a conversation that went something like:
Dad: “I’m tagging you easily”
Me (gutted): “Even with The Spin?”
Dad: “Especially with the spin”.
Needless to say, I haven’t pulled that move since.
Threefingers.com hasn’t yet had the success we perhaps deserve (I look at us like a young horse that has potential, but has yet to get it together over all three phases). And when we lose, which is most of the time, the guys console themselves by saying ‘at least we had the hottest chicks’.
On a more serious and personal note, I want to thank everyone for the incredible support and words of encouragement following the news that Phazzy and I had not been selected for London. It is difficult to put into words the disappointment I felt when I received the selectors’ phone call, not just for me but for the team at home who have worked so hard and have been behind me all the way. Then of course I feel so disappointed for Phazzy, (pictured below at Sydney) who may not trot like Taurus or boom the fences like Billy Elliot, but did absolutely everything he was asked to do (with a smile on his face, if that was possible) and posted some outstanding results.
That aside, I wish the Australian team the very best at London and I’m looking forward to sitting in front of the TV in the early hours of the morning, cheering them on.
I’ve learned a lot from the whole experience and you can expect me to be fighting for a spot on the team for Rio in four years’ time ...
