I was born in Sydney and have been based in Duffy’s Forest, on the Northern Beaches of NSW. My family also own a farm, known as Lamondale, which is located in Wilberforce. This is where we breed our quality performance horses for dressage, showjumping and eventing.
I don't remember a time when I didn't want to be on a horse. My parents were not horsey at all; my mum was always in love with horses but never had the opportunity to have her own. Despite this I do have horse riding in my blood as my great grandfather was a jockey and my grandfather’s brother owned the infamous racehorse Luskin Star.
At five years of age I started having riding lessons, beginning at Pony Club at seven and did my first event in the year of my twelfth birthday. After I finished school, instead of studying I decided I wanted to pursue my riding career. I spent six weeks over in the USA with Phillip Dutton and Boyd Martin in 2008 which was an eye opening experience and I knew I wanted to get back over there as soon as I could!
I have had up to 12 horses in work, from top level eventers to breakers, also taking on horses for schooling. For some extra money and a huge amount of fun, I rode trackwork for 3 years for some of Sydney’s top racehorse trainers -that was a huge buzz and far too addictive!
I have been incredibly spoilt to have that ‘one in a million horse’ so early in my career, that horse being Kootamootoo who took me to a huge amount of wins and successes but sadly I retired him from high level competition a couple of years ago.
My results so far are as follows:
Junior Horse and Rider of the Year 2005, 2006, 2008
Member of the National A Squad 2008, 2009, 2010
Member of the NSWIS Emerging Athlete Program, Young Rider Trans Tasman Team Member 2009 & 2010, Member of the Inclusion Squad 2014
2015 1st Australian International 3DE CCI**
2008 1st Sydney International 3DE CCI**
2008 2nd Sydney International 3DE CCI**
2009 1st Melbourne International 3DE CCIJ*
2008 1st Sydney International 3DE CCI*
2014 4th Melbourne International 3DE CCI*
2014 Placed 2nd Individually - Young Rider Trans Tasman Team Member 2009
2014 was a fantastic year for Guido Hatzis and myself. It has been a long journey with him and I am now starting to reap the benefits! My parents won EFA NSW Owners of the Year which was a fantastic result for us!
Onto the really exciting stuff!!! 2015 is going to be a huge year for me! I have been lucky enough to have been given the opportunity to bring horses over and train with Boyd and Silva Martin in the USA. I have brought Guido Hatzis and Lamondale Bisou over with me and we will then send Lamondale Florinia, a beautiful 4 year old mare we bred, over in a few months and maybe later Guido’s first baby Lamondale Gautier who is a 3year old.
I will be blogging while I’m over here and I hope you enjoy the read!
