Stuart and Karen Tinney
Stuart Tinney has ridden all breeds of horses from many backgrounds but recently he and his wife Karen chose to bring in three horses from Germany, hopefully to be three of the next eventing stars at Tinney Eventing.
“We’d been looking for horses with Olympic potential for more than twelve months” says Karen “We had looked in Australia, we’d made three trips to New Zealand, including the one when we bought War Hawk at the end of 2012, but we were having difficulty finding several horses that really fitted the bill for us. We then started to look at show jumping horses in Germany through dealers but that proved to be too expensive so we decided to talk to a friend of ours with an eventing background who lives in Germany to see if we could find some suitable horses from less well-known stables”
It proved to be a good move and, as Stuart was heading to the UK in July 2013 to gain further cross country course designer accreditation, it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to drop by some German and English stables to view horses.
The two horses that really took his eye were at the same stable just outside of Frankfurt in Germany; Queen Mary (Q), a seven year old mare by Quality and Lansina (Sina) an eight year old mare by Landor.
Stuart and Lansina at Wallaby Hill
Their contact had done much of the homework for their requirements, having viewed many horses around Germany in advance and providing video footage of some, but even so Stuart viewed 37 horses during his short time there before settling on Q and Sina
“The stable that bred them have never sold horses overseas before and it is just co-incidence that they both really fitted the bill” says Karen, going on to explain what appealed about both horses
“Queen Mary is a horse that almost automatically is very soft and round. She had been jumping and placing in 1.30m classes and had been selected for the prestigious German Young Horse Bundeschampionate at Warendorf. Stuart rode her, really liked her and thought she could be brave enough to do the job of an eventer”
Queen Mary shows off her show jumping prowess
“Lansina hadn’t done as much as Queen Mary but was a super mare that moved and jumped really well. They are very different horses but they both showed a quality that we thought could be developed to produce two horses of international standard”
Importantly both horses were also in the right price range. Although it is assumed by many that horses bought in Germany are expensive that isn’t necessarily the case however, once the additional costs of transportation and quarantine are taken into account, it can add up.
“By the time they arrive at our home in Australia, they’ve become pretty expensive horses!” laughs Karen
Around the same time that these two horses were being purchased by Stuart in Germany, clients of Karen’s decided that they would like to buy a special horse for their daughter to show jump. They asked if Karen, as her coach, could help them find a horse in Germany and also come with them to view potential horses.
“Stuart had just arrived back in Australia and then it was my turn to take an unscheduled trip there myself” says Karen “ I headed off to Germany on a trip that was organised in just 10 days to look for a good horse suitable for a junior rider and ended up buying another horse for us as well”
Stuart and Carlchen on cross country at Wallaby Hill
Karen visited the stable where Q and Sina had been found but the show jumping horses they viewed weren’t suitable for her young student. Then however Karen was shown another horse that the stable owners thought would suit Tinney Eventing
“I told them that I really wasn’t looking for another horse for us but they bought Carlchen out, rode him and jumped him then I rode him and that was it. I had to buy him - I think I decided to buy him after I’d seen him jump two jumps. He had been competed twice and won both times in 1.10m and 1.20m classes with over 90 horses in the class and he is just such a lovely type of horse”
While her student found a very lovely 10 year old show jumping horse capable of jumping 1.50m tracks, Karen found five year old Carl, a horse that she will own and that Stuart will compete
Of the other two horses, Queen Mary has already been snapped up by new part owners, Kathy Ward and Peter O’Connell who have been long-time supporters of Tinney Eventing. Kathy and Peter have been in partnership with Stuart and Karen previously with Vettori and Ava, two horses that represented Australia at World Equestrian Games with Stuart in 2010 and 2002.
Stuart and Queen Mary at Wallaby Hill
“Kathy and Peter have very kindly always said that they would like to own a horse with the potential to go to Rio and when we bought Q and Sina home, we gave them the choice of which one they would prefer. Both horses will be campaigned towards Rio and it was a hard decision but Kathy and Peter eventually decided that Queen Mary was the one they would like to have a share in”
The three horses had their first competition at Wallaby Hill recently to get off to a great start with Queen Mary placing third in the EVA105B, Lansina fifth in the EVA105A and Carlchen seventh in the same class. No doubt we’ll be hearing a lot more of them in the future
