“ I was born Lismore Base Hospital in 2003. My first house was in Dalley St and at 2 we moved to Goonellabah. I vaguely remember we had a dog called Molly. Mum would buy me stickers and the only place I stuck them was on Molly and me. We ended up moving onto a bit of land at Coffee Camp which was surrounded by bush. I’d always loved horses but never had one.
I went to St Carthages Primary School and then onto Trinity. I wasn’t a big fan of school. I dropped out in Yr 10 to study Fashion Design. I did Textiles at school and it was a subject I really loved. My teacher, Mrs Woods was so nice, I loved that teacher, she was my favourite. She always made it enjoyable. I left because they stopped Textiles at school due to insufficient numbers.
I went to Tafe and did the Cert 3 Fashion Design course. I wasn’t really into it because Covid happened so we were sewing on screen which was really hard. Fashion Design and sewing doesn’t transfer to an on-line course so it became super stressful. It’s hard to learn to sew with industrial machines on Zoom. I finished it and was offered a job but the love of horses won.
Mum signed me up to a horse school in Ballina when I was 8. It’s where you get to learn how to look after other peoples horses, how to groom them, saddle and ride them and all the basics. We eventually found Horse Talk which is out in Jiggi. I started there at 9 years old and only stopped going last year. I learnt so much from Joyce and Steve at Horse Talk and agisted my first horse Ponder there. She was an X-Trotter and I fell in love with her. She was my heart horse. No-one really understood her but I connected with her and had to retrain her. She always had a big stride and she was very sassy but so sweet. While I was learning with Joyce and Steve they offered an Endurance team.
Joyce actually won the Tom Quilty Cup which is one of the biggest endurance contests. I was so privileged to gain knowledge from her. My horse Ponder passed away 2 years ago at 11 years old. She got Crofton Weed poisoning and we had to put her down. I’d only had her for a year. We bought her when the fires were happening. I was still going to horse talk because I wasn’t allowed a horse at Coffee Camp. You can still be a good rider but not have your own horse. Something came up for Pony Club NSW which is basically for people who don’t have their own horse. You can now get certificates for competing on other peoples horses which was cool. My best friend and I were the first in Australia to be awarded the first 3 certificates in the program.
The weird thing is I was so sad about losing her and was hoping for a sign from her. The next day I found her half sibling which is really hard to find in horses. I was scrolling through FB and someone was asking for siblings of their horse. It was the exact same breeding as my horse. My mum had bought Ponder for me for my birthday and we found the horse we have now on my birthday. His name is Loui. I got Loui from Andy in Ballina who has race horses.… I heard he was selling him and I really wanted him. My ideal horse was a solid Bay with a sock or a little blaze. I really wanted him but we couldn’t have him at Coffee Camp.
Loui was still racing but we went to Ballina one day and Andy called Mum to say he was selling Loui. Mum had begged him without telling me that we wanted him. He would be going to a forever home and be loved so much. He was 5 when I got him and just 3 weeks off the racing track. Andy loved this horse. He had raised Loui from a foal. I remember seeing him and knew he was going to be my horse. He called on my birthday. We got him home and while we were getting used to each other he bit me on my back. I have a scar from him. He’s not a nasty horse but I didn’t realise he got funny around food. He needed to learn who was boss and I say now that my horse branded me. I’m his now and he’s so gentle.
Mum ended up deciding to move us to a property where I could have a horse so we moved to Spring Grove which is near my Grandparents. We have 5 acres I can ride on. My Pa slashes everyone’s paddocks around so I can now ride about 50 acres in my area.
I originally got Loui as a jumping prospect. I took him to Extreme Cowgirls at the Lismore Showgrounds. He was the best behaved horse there and it was only his first time. He went through every obstacle, over bridges and he was perfect. He really enjoyed it. There was a 6 month period when I couldn’t ride him as he jumped a fence and cut his leg open. He missed it as much as me as he loved being ridden.”