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I was born in WA and grew up in a horsey family.
My grandparents trained racehorses in the Victorian town of Kyneton and my Mum began her adult life as a jockey back in the day when female jockeys were to be ladies and not permitted to race ride with the men. This resulted in me growing up around the racehorses and getting my own pony at age two.
When I was younger we moved around a lot due to my parents having high end jobs. It also meant that the houses we got were smack bang in the middle of suburbia, with no room for a pony.
As my grandparents were still training, they offered to have us every school holidays and look after our ponies. This resulted in me spending most of my younger years flying with my sister back and forth to my grandparents place in Victoria.
I grew up galloping around the bush on my pony in a stock saddle pretending to be the Man from Snowy River. At age eight I went to my first gymkhana, (still in the stock saddle) winning the Champion local rider. This activated the competitive side in me! The ponies were brought back to WA, where I began pony club with local instructor Sharon Jarvis (small world!).
I did my first ever one day event when I was 13 on my Arabian pony and after years of eliminations and trying my hand at other equestrian pursuits such as hacking, dressage and barrel racing it was decided that I needed a horse and so my first competition horse was purchased. He was named Fearful Symmetry, a poem about a tiger and that’s when the Orange and Black colours were born!
Now, I live in Woodanilling – a tiny town halfway between Perth and Albany, where I have been since I started high school. In 2008 I started at University – choosing to study Criminology with the University of New England, doing the degree completely externally. This allowed me to travel lots with the horses, whilst listening to Uni lectures in the car!
My aims for the future are to get to the Olympics, and I have a great team of horses and new sponsors so the near future is looking very exciting.
