Courtney HarrisCourtney started working here at Ryan's on October 3rd 2011 after completing a Certificate III in Horse Industry Practice at Scone TAFE. Courtney comes from a completely non-horsey background and was first exposed to riding after begging her mum, Karen, to let her go on a trail ride for her 6th birthday. Whilst Karen would probably rather Courtney be studying journalism at university, she is incredibly supportive of all Courtney’s ventures and will do anything to help her achieve her dreams. Karen works for Rio Tinto in the Shared Services department and manages a team that looks after indirect taxes. Courtney’s brother, Sean, also is somewhat horsey in that he has competed in camp drafting and is a keen polocrosse player.
Courtney has a thoroughbred eventer called Sirrah Park Tabooba who came with her to the Ryan’s. Tabooba, or as he is fondly called Boobs (that is a very tricky stable name especially when talking about horses with guests without giving due thought), originally started life as a race horse on the track until meeting Courtney in 2009. Courtney and Tabooba were completely oblivious to being “on the bit” and were also completely bemused by the thought that they needed to find an accurate distance to a jump. Courtney has on occasion laughed about those early days saying she struggled with the concept of looking for a distance and did wonder what it would look like when she found one and whether you might be able to find a distance under a rock or hiding behind a tree! Those early days were spent in confusion looking for a distance. Not such a silly concept really especially when you recognise that in this day and age we all understand confidence and what it can do for your performances. Having said that, none of us have ever seen confidence, or its colour, or its height. Riding at a serious level is full of these intangible concepts and getting our heads around these ideas is difficult indeed. Funnily enough Courtney is now an above average accurate rider to a fence and is lucky enough to have a natural talent for distances. This is a wonderful talent to have especially with a view to riding at an Olympic level.
Courtney also has the ride on a rather unique chestnut gelding called LL Bartholomew (Bart). Bart is owned by long time family friends, Susan James and Reg Hutchinson. Both Susan and Reg are Queenslanders. Always a rider’s best sponsors are firstly their parents and then their family and friends and local communities. Almost always the power and the way to the top is the support that riders receive from these people. Bart is quite difficult however talented in the extreme and dreams of going to the Olympics and riding for Australia certainly surround this unique chestnut gelding. 2013 has been a big year for Bart and Courtney and progress has been rapid. 2014 is going to be an even bigger year with both Bart and Tabooba planning on moving into 2* fairly quickly. Providing both horses cope with this level and providing no bad luck is experienced it is possible that both of these horses will be 3* by the end of 2014. 3* is the level from which the Australian Elite Lists are drawn up from. 2015 will be a consolidation year where Courtney will fine tune with a view to winning Olympic trials. 2016 is the Rio De Janeiro Olympics. My goodness wouldn’t that be a great story! “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” (Benjamin Franklin).
Courtney’s strength is as mentioned earlier meeting fences sweetly, whether it be show jumping or cross country. She is naturally very steady under pressure and thrives on making quick calls and accurate judgement. As mentioned earlier this is very much a recent development which only blossomed after many hours of training and may I say many tears. We will try and include a very short (3 seconds) video of Courtney jumping a cross country fence in her pony club days. She does leave the saddle by a long, long way but somehow manages to land back in the saddle and gallop away. High flying adrenaline is Courtney’s outstanding zone. The dressage however, is not yet Courtney’s most favourite discipline. Of course that will come but we are still in the many hours of training section of this pathway accompanied with lots of tears. The big thing here is to get on the front foot and realise that the frustration and seeming incompetence is what everybody experiences. Courtney is very lucky in that Abigail Croyston has a Grand Prix Dressage horse called My Mantra (Duggie) which Courtney is riding on a daily basis. Already Courtney has competed Duggie at medium level and usually comes out of the arena crying. I think this is a girl thing! Of course the opportunity is brilliant providing Courtney is resilient enough to keep going. Most people don’t. Abby is very supportive and keen for Courtney to move up through the grades and one day have a Grand Prix start. This sounds brilliant, and indeed is brilliant, it is just you have to keep reminding yourself of this when things go poorly and you have no idea what to do. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Schooling the advanced dressage work as well is also Tabooba so this really is a program on the front foot to ride for Australia. Watch this space for updates.