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Archie came to me as a horse who had never worn anything on his neck. He had been ridden in a plain loose-ring snaffle, no breastplate, no martingale, no…

The morning started with a 4am alarm and a horse float already hitched to the ute the night before. Archie was wide-eyed in the back by the time I climbed the…

The day started like any other at a one-day event in regional New South Wales, warm sun pouring over the warm-up arena, the smell of liniment in the air, and…

Being the first rider on course at a big event has a particular kind of pressure. There is no useful round to watch, no chance to see how the ground is riding,…

Archie had a habit of shaking his head mid-approach to an oxer. I tried everything: a different bit, a tighter noseband, more schooling. The thing that finally…

There is a particular kind of panic that creeps in the week before an event when you realise the dressage test you printed off still looks like alphabet soup.…

A new competition venue can turn Archie into a completely different horse. At home, he may walk past the arena gate, ignore a flapping tarp and settle into…

There are moments in eventing that split your timeline into before and after. The sound of a leather girth tearing as I launched over a wide oxer at the Sydney…

I have ridden past the same crooked feeling in my body for years. My right shoulder creeps forward on every left circle, and my left seat bone feels glued to…

A long journey to a competition can look deceptively simple on paper. Load Archie, drive to the venue, settle him into his stable, unpack the gear and start…