In June 2020, An Eventful Life celebrated 10 years since the launch of the book that started everything for us
The book, An Eventful Life, published in 2010, provides a written and pictorial insight into the lives of five elite Australian Olympic eventing riders; Megan Jones, Sonja Johnson, Shane Rose, Wendy Schaeffer and Stuart Tinney and a young professional rider just starting out, Emma Scott
We are sharing some excerpts from the book this year to celebrate its 10th anniversary, but it is also the 20th anniversary of Australia’s gold medal-winning eventing performance at Sydney 2000. So what better excerpt than this one taken from the chapter on Stuart Tinney
Heroes at home
The Sydney Olympics in 2000 provided Australian equestrian fans with a rare opportunity to see the best in the world compete in the disciplines of dressage, showjumping and eventing on Australian soil. The new, custom-built equestrian facility – the Sydney International Equestrian Centre (SIEC) at Horsley Park – had a strong flavour of native Australian bushland with 25 kilometres of trails winding through more than 80 hectares of bush heavily planted with gums, wattles and paperbark trees. The SIEC was approximately one hour from the centre of Sydney and almost on Stuart’s doorstep. For once he wouldn’t have to take his horses halfway around the world to compete at the highest level.
Despite living less than an hour from the SIEC, as part of the Australian team Stuart and Jeepster were subject to all of the usual Olympic and quarantine requirements, so Stuart stayed in the athletes’ village with the rest of the team. However, it was good to know that his friends and family were all there to cheer him on – and there was plenty to cheer about!
Having won team gold at the two previous Olympic Games in Barcelona and Atlanta, the Australian eventing team was considered a strong hope for a medal – preferably another gold one. Stuart, true to form, maintained a low-key approach and tried to keep the enormity of the event in perspective. In many ways, the Sydney Olympics was just another three-day event, but he admits that it was pretty good to have such a large crowd cheering as he came out from his dressage test – something he hasn’t experienced often!
During the competition, he stuck to doing what he knew was best for his horse and focused on his job. When Jeepster scored well in his dressage test at Sydney, leaving him in fourth place, Stuart felt he had been rewarded for all the hours, days and years of hard work he had put in. His cross-country round was amazing: as the Australian riders headed around the course, the crowd rang with the chant of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy” as they cheered them on. The pressure on the final day was huge, but Stuart and Jeepster kept their cool in the show-jumping arena, having only one fence down and finishing with the ultimate reward: a gold medal.
Riding Jeepster, not only was Stuart part of the gold-medal winning team, but he also achieved the best overall score. Prior to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics an individual gold medal for best performance within a team had been given out, and had this still been the case Stuart would have collected a second gold medal. Having been long listed for Seoul, short listed for Barcelona and long listed for Atlanta, making it onto the Sydney team represented 12 years of determined effort. But it was better than that: he was a team gold medallist and the best rider on the team competition at the Sydney Olympics.
Karen describes the wonderful reception that Stuart was given by the Australian crowd when they were finally able to get near him after the medal ceremony.
“Stuart was the last of the team to appear after all of the official procedures, which had taken a while. As he walked out, a group of friends and supporters picked him up and carried him on their shoulders as people were clamouring to get his autograph and see the medal. The press was everywhere, and it was such an amazing experience. It still gives me goose bumps!”
Stuart’s memories reflect his quieter nature and workmanlike approach to his job
“Everything ran pretty smoothly up to the Games, which is so important, and during the actual competition I just tried to stay focused on what needed to be done. Of course, after we won and got the medal the sound of the cheering was deafening – that’s when you realise how great it is to win in your own home country. In the next few days I had such a mixed feeling of relief, exhaustion and happiness as I started to wind down after a time of so much intense focus and determination.”
Stuart sees eventing as an individual sport and although the individual riders at major championships such as the Olympics are put into a team situation, he still sees them as a group of individuals doing their own thing but riding under one banner.
“Eventing is not like a game of soccer, which you can’t play by yourself and you rely on another team player to kick the ball to you. It is very much each rider putting together the best performance they can and then four individual scores being added together.”
Stuart has, at times, been referred to as the ice man. He shows little emotion and just gets on with the job in hand. But he softens when he talks about his horses, especially the Olympic gold medal– winning Jeepster.
Jeepster, for obvious reasons, holds a special place in Stuart’s heart. He wasn’t the easiest horse or even the most talented horse Stuart has ever ridden, but he gave his all and that’s what Stuart found special. Jeepster, bought by Michael Pribula, came to Stuart as a wilful five-year-old in 1993 from show jumper Chrissy Harris, who had found him quite difficult.
In an attempt to make him more agreeable Chrissy had asked her husband Heath, who trains horses for films, to do a bit of work with him. Prior to arriving at the Tinneys’ he had been taught to do a few tricks: how to bow, lie down and do the Spanish walk. Over the years the Spanish-walk trick would reappear the minute the big bay horse felt under pressure and it took Stuart a long time to put together a good dressage test that was consistent throughout rather than diving from eights to threes!
During his career, Jeepster won the Melbourne International and Lochinvar Three Star Three Day Events, came eighth in the World Equestrian Games at Rome in 1998, won a team gold medal at the Sydney Olympics and came second at the Adelaide International four star event in 2003. He was retired sound and well at eighteen after the Athens Olympics in 2004 and is now living out his days at home.
Postscript:
Following the publication of An Eventful Life – Life Stories of Eventing Champions, Jeepster died in 2013 at the grand age of 26, having spent his retirement at Tinney Eventing, close to the venue of the 2000 Olympic Games
© An Eventful Life - Life Stories of Eventing Champions
Read the excerpt from the chapter on Megan Jones here
Read the excerpt from the chapter on Wendy Schaeffer here
Read the excerpt from the chapter on Shane Rose here
Read the excerpt from the chapter on Sonja Johnson here
