Mom back in the saddle

Caro Verbraeken will be competing with Ant, her Clydesdale-cross-thoroughbred 16hand-horse, in showjumping this week at the Australian Masters Games.

Riding was something the Tasmanian mother took up again after years out of the saddle. "I just love the companionship - the bonding and one-on-one with each other, and the challenges."

"You’ll often hear me going around the course talking to my horse and going, ‘woohoo, yay’, after I’ve finished."

"Someone like me wouldn’t get the chance to go to the mainland and compete in the Masters Games. I feel like I’m representing Tassie. It’s probably going to be like my Olympic Games, really."

"And probably the best thing about the masters is you get to compete against your peers in the same age group, as opposed to those zippy little 13-year-old pony clubbers."

We wish her all the fun and success possible this week in Tasmania !!

And a big thumbs-up for EA coach Jo McFarlane who will also be competing in the Masters Games."She teaches pony club kids and there were a group of us older mothers who needed somewhere to go to have lessons - we were all starting to get back into horses again, so she runs what we call a ‘hags and nags’ horse riding group".

What a great initiative! What a beautiful #LoveoftheHorse story! Thank you The Examiner Newspaper, Launceston