NEWS > Driving
Posted by National Admin on 19/10/2017.
photo credit Stephen Mowbray

World Champion Boyd Exell Inspiring Australian Involvement in Carriage Driving

At the age of 20, Maxine Lange fell from a horse and fractured the C1 vertebrae in her neck. The injury caused her to lose her balance and she was told by doctors that she could never ride again.

Deeply passionate about horses, Maxine was determined to keep up her involvement with her favourite animals.

So, she took out a stable hand license in a harness racing stable and forged a career for herself in the sport. In 1997 became a trainer/driver in Queensland and enjoyed success with her first horse Miss Eli Dee.

Ten years later she became interested in carriage driving, a sport that, like harness racing, enables her to be hands-on with horses without having to ride them.

“At that time I was looking but not actually hooked,” said Maxine.

“Then I met Bob Edwards and saw him working teams and he told me to watch Boyd Exell on YouTube to see what it was all about. After watching I was hooked.”

She recently had the chance to meet her idol at a special clinic he conducted at Tamworth.

 “He’s phenomenal. He knows horsemanship and he knows people and how to explain it.”

“’You can have champions but they can’t put skills on to the people.”

She also found the multiple world champion and global Equestrian legend’s laid back, easy style, impressive.

“Boyd is so down to earth and not full of himself.”

Inspired by Boyd Exell, Maxine is starting to scale the heights of her chosen discipline in Australia.

She recently competed at the National Carriage Driving Championships and had a win in the pony pairs.

Maxine’s ultimate ambition is to promote the use of the Haflinger horse in carriage driving and improve her driving skills.

“I want to go as far as my ability can go. I just wish I had started doing this sport 20 years ago,” she said.

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