Peter Shaw, dressage coach and dressage judge can often been seen with his third passion - his camera
If you were to look at Peter Shaws website you would see that he didn’t come from a horsey background …
“My story is not your typical horse person's story. Mine is a story to give hope to every rider and child with a dream, with a passion for something that moves them. I grew up in the city, with lovely parents, a twin sister with an elder and younger brother, but not horse people in the slightest. I saw horses ridden past our suburban house every Saturday afternoon. Packs of very rough and ready horses and dare I say, riders, rode past bareback. I told my parents that I wanted to ride horses. Goodness knows why, I just did. I begged them to increase my pocket money from 20c a week to 50c a week so I could pay for my riding. Finally they agreed. I rode every Saturday rain, hail or shine. Two years riding bareback around the streets and within 5 years I had won at the Australian Dressage Championships as a 16 year old.”
Peter is as passionate about horses today as he was back in his early years although these days he spends more time coaching, rather than riding. He is a highly successful coach, who is highly regarded not just close to his home in NSW but across Australia (he must have clocked up lots of frequent flyer points in his trips from NSW to WA!) A lot of the understanding for his job must come from the 22 years he spent as a primary school teacher, with 11 of those years being a principal. As well as his coaching and judging commitments Peter is also busy studying for his EA Level 3 and can often be seen with a camera in hand capturing those 'special' equestrian moments. It appears that this man spends little time doing nothing!
It is clear when you talk to Peter that he has a great depth of knowledge when it comes to what is required to get the best out of each horse and rider he helps and we were delighted to catch up with him at the recent Berrima Horse Trials. As Peter was at Berrima as a member of the CIC* Ground Jury our first question was to ask him what he prefered to do – judge or coach?
(Please excuse the background noise. Despite moving round the corner from the Berrima crowd they were still quite loud.)
