Eleanor and Highborne Rocker just missed out on the CCI2* winner's rug but still took the Best Performed Retired Racehorse at MI3DE
I first met Eleanor Osborne in the stable block at the end of the first day of dressage at the 2015 Melbourne International 3 Day Event. Eleanor and Highborne Rocker, her nine year off the track thoroughbred who raced under the revealing name of Off His Rocker , were in the lead of the CCI2* after the dressage with a score of 42.30 and Eleanor was delighted with their performance despite a couple of mistakes.
“It’s been a long time coming” said Eleanor at the time as Highborne Rocker contentedly munched his hay “He’s been working his way up to a good score like this and there were actually a couple of little mistakes in our test today. That gives me a lot of confidence that we can break that 40 barrier, which is a nice feeling”.
On cross country the pair maintained their lead jumping clear and under time but just one rail on the final day cost them dearly, allowing Tim Boland to win the championship rug. Despite that, Eleanor was still smiling broadly as she took second place in the line-up and Highborne Rocker sported his own rug as the best performed off the track thoroughbred in the class
Eleanor and Highborne Rocker at Sydney Winter Eventing Weekend
Off the track thoroughbreds have played a large part in Eleanor’s eventing career with a bay thoroughbred called Mighty High taking her from 80 centimetre classes to CCI4* in six years. In 2011 they finished eighth in the 4* class of 35 competitors, qualifying them for a start at Badminton in 2012 however the next two seasons were marred by minor injuries. But in 2014 they were on track to return to Adelaide when sadly Mighty High, or Lofty as the 17hh gelding was known, suddenly passed away in his paddock at home of a suspected heart attack.
‘Home’ at that stage was Highborne Farm, a 220 acre property at Allora on the Darling Downs in Queensland which had been purchased when Eleanor’s father, Dr. Cameron Osborne, and his cousin, appropriately named ‘Couzinz’, devised a plan to put their passion for thoroughbred breeding to the test
“The dream was to be the Widden of the Darling Downs” smiles Eleanor “But the business was dissolved after a few years but, fortunately for me, it coincided with my decision to defer my architecture degree and give riding full time a go”
Eleanor opted out of University and went to live at Highborne Farm, which her parents had now bought outright, with a new passion for riding. At that stage her competition experience was fairly low level but Mighty High inspired her to give it a go full time
“The only way I could really afford to do it was to base myself at the property which, although it had good facilities for breeding thoroughbreds, didn’t have an arena or those sorts of work areas. I used to ride in the black paddock, which is black soil so either really mushy or rock hard, and I jumped this poor horse all the way up to 4* on that!”
Over the years an arena was finally built and Eleanor continued to base herself there as she and Mighty High rose through the levels, but more recently Eleanor made the decision to move from the more remote Darling Downs to ‘civilisation’ near Brisbane. Eleanor’s mum Andrea has retired from work and now manages the farm, enabling Eleanor to make the move to Belcam Stud in Biddaddaba.
“It’s a bit of an experiment” admits Eleanor “But so far it’s been a good one. I moved there to be closer to my coach Tony Manca and it seems to be working; as we have had really good results this year. We’ve also narrowed the performance horse team down and we’re now doing the same with the breeding horse numbers with the focus being on Quality over Quantity”
One of the up and coming stars is Aces High, a 6 year old thoroughbred gelding by Another Warrior (sire of Shane Rose’s Shanghai Joe and Fantastic Mr Fox) who was sourced out of a paddock as a 2 year old prior to a racing career
The family continues their love of breeding horses, albeit performance horses now. Their first progeny are now four years old and starting out with other riders in competition and there are more in the pipeline
“We only have three broodmares in foal at once but they have turned out to be good producers; a rangy, athletic mare from the thoroughbred breeding days, a talented performance mare that incurred lung problems due to travel sickness and a thoroughbred mare we bought in foal to Jaguar Mail”
“I was pretty excited about Jaguar Mail as a stallion and we’d tried to get various mares in foal to him without success then I managed to buy a client’s mare that I’d ridden and liked, already in foal to Jaguar Mail”
This mare has produced a colt and, with this little fellow, Eleanor may have her own breeding stallion in the future or hopefully a very nice competition prospect.
“We’re really just getting started in the performance horse breeding business; we do it because all the family love it and we are mainly breeding horses for eventing although at the moment I still have to source horses as I can. I’ve had good success with sourcing horses off the track and retraining them for eventing with the help of my coach Tony Manca - he has an excellent eye for a horse. We have managed to find good homes for both the young horses we’ve bred and sold as well as the ones I have produced from other sources and it is a viable little business”
The recently purchased Kitara Veuve, an 8yo gelding by Budweiser out of a Dreamtime Invader mare “I think he has the potential to be an extremely good eventer, however he will take a bit of time and perseverance to make the switch from straight showjumping to eventing” says Eleanor
The other keen interest for both Eleanor and her father is the re-invigoration of the Queensland International 3 Day Event (QI3DE) which this year will take place at the Noosa Equestrian Centre in Tandur in early October.
The three-day event will be held in conjunction with the Queensland Eventing State Championships, giving Dr. Osborne, the event’s President, plenty to work on at the new venue. Wayne Copping has been brought in to upgrade the track on this privately owned purpose- built facility while the usual venue for the QI3DE at Warwick is undergoing a facelift of its own with improvements to the going and new, more adaptable, courses being designed by Ewan Kellett
“It’s very exciting to have a new venue for the QI3DE this year” says Eleanor “I haven’t actually been to the Noosa site yet but I’m definitely going to be having a look before I turn up to compete there! Dad’s certainly focused on his vision for it and making sure that everything is ready for October. He works full time as a GP but pretty much every other spare minute is spent working on the event”
The 32 year old Queenslander who has ‘High’ in her horses’ names also has high hopes of one day making it to the very top of international competition but believes that it can be done from Australia. Having just recently made it onto a national squad for the first time with Highborne Rocker, Eleanor is considering her options for the 2016 season and beyond as far as where to base with the performance horses.
“I definitely would go overseas but I don’t know if I would base myself permanently over there. I’d like to think that you can ride for your country and still live in that country even though we are very isolated here in Australia. Stuart Tinney does it, Shane Rose does it, Megan Jones does it and I would like to go over for short stints as they do, if I had a horse that was competitive enough. I would also be interested in training over there for a while and I have a bit of a dream to go train with Ingrid Klimke and am looking into a visit there during the upcoming off season. She is not only a fantastic rider but I think she is a great trainer and a wonderful communicator which is such an important part of learning”
Follow our 4* coverage of the QI3DE from 1st – 4th October 2015
