Jean & Jade Findlay

Jade Findlay and Bloomers Twinkletoes © Jenelle Christopher

In Australia, riding a horse for an ‘owner’ is a relatively new concept. If you go back to the 1990s a rider who wasn’t riding their own horse was a rarity and even today over half the horses running round our top events are still rider owned. Maybe that is why Australia has taken a little while to work out how to ‘look after’ their owners, but for Australian equestrian sport to keep up with the rest of the world, having owners who ‘pay the bills’ is fast becoming an essential part of top level competition.

Jade Findlay and her mother, Jean, never really had a great plan to become owners as it was simply a decision made at a very specific time in Jade’s life.

“In the middle of 2008 I was pregnant with my little girl, Piper, and at the same time my best horse, Holstein Park Leilani, was about to move up to three star level. I had spent such a long time getting Lani, as we call her, to that level that it seemed silly to turn her out in the paddock while I couldn’t ride. That’s when I asked my good friend Christopher Burton if he would ride her for me. The plan was that I would take her back after I had got into the swing of motherhood. As it turned out, less than two years later in 2010, Chris and Leilani were representing our country at the World Equestrian Games.”

Jade Findlay learnt how to ride as a young child on a relative’s property. She learnt how to muster cattle, how to stay on riding up and down hills but never had any proper lessons. By the time Jade reached her gap year she had really been ‘bitten’ by the riding bug so she headed to the Yorkshire Riding Academy in the UK, run by brother and sister team Christopher and Jane Bartle, which was part of the British/Australia Gap Year association. At that stage Jade had no idea that both Jane and Christopher had ridden for the British dressage team at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 with Christopher finishing sixth. Christopher was also a top level event rider who had won Badminton in 1998. It was only when she turned up in the Yorkshire yard that she quickly realised she was somewhat out of her depth.

“I had only ever ridden in a stock saddle and when I got on a horse for my first lesson I had no idea of how I was meant to sit in these ‘strange’ dressage and jumping saddles and my legs were all over the place. I can remember being asked if I knew how to get a horse ‘on the bit’ – I didn’t know what they were talking about, let alone how to do it! But I learnt fast. I was with the Bartles when Christopher was at the height of his success and I travelled to all the major events with him and fell in love with the sport. The Bartles are certainly to blame for this addiction I have for eventing. However, when I returned home and started eventing here, I was hugely disappointed to discover there were no mansions at the New South Wales events of Macarthur or Mirrabooka! After all, I had been used to the British eventing scene complete with historic houses and beautiful castles ... but I soon got over that.”

Jade was 19 when she returned from England and started her competitive eventing career and four years later, at 23, she was riding at three star level. As soon as Jade returned to Australia her mother, Jean, went in the search of who would be the best person for her daughter to train with and the Tinney’s name was suggested. Stuart and Karen Tinney went on to be very influential in Jade’s early career and she worked for them at the same time as studying for a degree in journalism. 

“I would get up at 5.30am, drive to the Tinneys, work (and learn) all day then carry on to university at night. It was a busy time but I loved it and I suppose it gave me a real taste of what this life is all about. Needless to say, I have never used my degree. Mum used to worry that a life with horses wouldn’t challenge me enough mentally but I think I can honestly say we have disproved that worry. I use my brain every second I am on a horse. I am constantly thinking of how I can make this better, what should I be doing next and finding out what works and what doesn’t. I do a lot of coaching as well and that certainly keeps your mind engaged.”

After working for the Tinneys, Jade set out on her own, first of all basing herself with Gendy and then Nicky Turner competing from various properties. Then, one day she was browsing through a Belcam Stud sales catalogue and was impressed by a chestnut mare that showed great scope in a free jumping photo – this horse turned out to be Holstein Park Leilani. But it wouldn’t be until a couple of years after that Belcam Sale that Leilani would turn up at Jade’s yard for some schooling.

“She had been bought at the Belcam auction by Kerry French and then been sold to Amanda Lancaster, who had bought her as a dressage horse. She is a big 17.1hh horse by the warmblood stallion, Lander, out of a thoroughbred mare and Amanda found her a bit like a tank to ride, so she came to me for schooling. She was fat, dreadfully on the forehand and pretty horrible to ride, so I suggested that jumping her might help to ‘bring her up’ a bit and from the start she was pretty good. Mind you, that didn’t really come as a great surprise because I had seen the free jumping photo and knew she had something pretty special there.

I got her up to pre-novice quite quickly and she was pretty successful, but Amanda had her girls to look after and found it hard to be ‘an owner’. At first mum and I bought a half share in her and when Amanda decided to ‘call it a day’ altogether we bought her outright. Although Lani wasn’t an easy horse, I really enjoyed riding her. She is the sort of horse who takes a while to learn something but once she’s got it she has really got it. When we got to two star level I knew I needed help with her showjumping. I found her a lot of horse to ride and it was difficult to keep her together during a show-jump round, so I went to Chris Burton for some showjumping lessons. Chris worked wonders and we went from having five rails down to two rails down to managing clear rounds at my last two events on her.”

Through their love of eventing, Jade and Chris have been friends for many years and Jade very proudly points out that there was a time when she was ‘better’ than her long time friend.

“I think it was in the early 2000s at Melbourne Three Day Event; Chris was riding in his first one star three day event and I was in the three star. Yes, I was definitely better than him then – but I’m not sure that has happened since!”

Jade continued to ride Leilani in the early stages of her pregnancy but at five months, when her jodphurs were getting a little tight, she decided it was time to ask Chris to help out. At that stage Chris’ top horse, Newsprint, had sustained an injury and was out of action. Leilani was about to move up to the top level and it was a good move for everyone. Their first outing was Lynton CIC*** which went according to plan and a few weeks later at the end of 2008 the pair went to Camperdown CCI*** to finish third. Jade admits that she was very much a ‘protective’ mother to Leilani at that stage and was keen to tell Chris exactly how to ride ‘her’ horse.

“Because she had been slow to train, I felt I knew her so well and I was basically telling Chris how to jump each jump. I don’t know if he took any notice of me or not – but he acted as if he did and probably for me that was all I needed to see. After I had Piper in March 2009, I wasn’t convinced that I wanted to gallop at large, three star-sized, fixed obstacles – it must have been something to do with becoming a mum – so Chris kept riding Lani and competed her at the Melbourne CCI*** in June that year. I was certainly back riding and competing by that stage but Chris and I have had a reversal in our positions of a few years ago – I rode at Melbourne in the one star while he was in the three star.”

At that Melbourne Three Day Event Chris led the field until showjumping day when Leilani had two rails down. However, the selectors were starting to take notice of this combination and, with the World Equestrian Games coming up in 2010, they started asking questions about the plans for the mare.

“It was a really emotional time”, admits Jean Findlay. “I felt quite guilty about having another rider on Jade’s horse. I was enjoying watching Lani compete, but at the same time I was paying someone else to ride her. I kept thinking ‘it could be my daughter riding this mare, this is her dream too to have a horse at this level’, so it was a pretty traumatic time for everyone.”

However, Jade is a realistic person and although she was finding it hard to watch a horse she had put so much time into she also knew that she would never have been able to achieve the results that Chris had achieved in the same time frame.

“So many people had told me to give up on Lani in her early days because she was just a big fat orange thing that was taking up so much of my time, but I always had faith in her. To see all that hard work now paying off, but with a different rider was pretty hard. But as time went on and Chris kept clocking up more and more good results, it seemed a bit silly to take her back. Having said that, even at the end of 2009, Mum and I still had thought I might take her back.”

In November 2009, Leilani went to the Australian International Three Day Event to compete in the CCI****, held in Adelaide, in an attempt to impress the Australian selectors. Everything was on track for a great placing, if not a win, when a fall right at the end of the course put them out of the competition. Chris was devastated as he knew it was a serious blow for any WEG plans, but the Findlays took it in their stride. After all, they had never really had any expectations of their horse making it onto an Australian team, they were just happy that everyone was still in one piece.

“At the beginning of 2010, Chris and Lani were on terrific form and Mum and I agreed they looked like a complete partnership. Chris kept telling me how much he really loved the horse and I genuinely believed him. So the decision was finally made that she would stay with Chris and I emotionally handed her over at that time. Then it was all on for trying to make the WEG team.”

“Chris has been very respectful of us”, says Jean. “He has listened to Jade and taken the suggestions she has made on board and allowed us to be very much part of the team, which has been wonderful. He didn’t just take the horse, say thanks very much, and do things his way, but of course if he had been like that he wouldn’t have had the horse in the first place.”

When Leilani made it onto the Australian WEG team, Jean, Jade and Piper booked their tickets to Kentucky. They were looking forward to the whole experience and to watch their horse representing their country was something beyond their wildest dreams. Sadly, the WEG experience proved to be a little disappointing and it had nothing to do with the performance of Chris and Leilani, who despite picking up some cross country penalties went on to finish the event in 48th place.

“Mum and I had never been in that ‘Australian team’ situation before. We were used to being part of a very hands-on team, but in Kentucky we felt that the riders were segregated from their support team which I don’t think was the best thing. Obviously the Australian team management have their way of doing things and I guess it works because they have had a lot of success in the past but it seemed an unnatural environment to us. Chris had got to where he was in his career with lots of support from the people around him and suddenly here he was in a very stressful situation with none of his ‘team’ to support him. Maybe more communication was needed between the management and the owners.”

“I had no idea of what was going on”, admits Jean. “I understand that we were first-time owners in this situation but it would have been nice if someone had sat us down and talked to us through the whole trip. After the event, when lots of people had already headed home I went to see Lani in her stable, no one seemed to know who was going to be looking after her during quarantine and on her trip home. Thankfully, Karen Tinney was a huge help and suggested that their groom, Amy, could look after Lani. Karen has obviously been in this situation on numerous occasions, knows the routine of team competitions and was incredibly kind to us. We know it was a great privilege to have a horse on an Australian team but equally we had put a lot of time, money and emotion into the years leading up to this.”

Earlier in 2011, Chris and Leilani went to Kihikihi in New Zeland to compete in the World Cup qualifier. The trip was a much happier one for Jade and Jean and they really enjoyed their owner experience. Jade became the ‘groom’ for the event so was very hands on with her horse. Everyone was happy to see a great result when Chris and Leilani finished second.

For the Findlays, being an owner is a mix of business and pleasure. But I get the feeling that the heart quite often overrules the head. However, when Chris came to Jade and Jean with the suggestion that he would like to take Leilani overseas and base himself in England in a bid to claim his spot on the London Olympic team, the three of them sat down to work out the financial side of such a suggestion.

“I told Chris that this trip was obviously going to cost a lot of money and I needed to know what I was going to get out of it,” said Jean. “While Lani has been competing in Australia we have been able to watch her at all the events. If she went overseas that would, to a vast extent, stop. We thought we could probably go over and watch her at a few events but it certainly wouldn’t be the same. We would also miss the social aspect of being part of ‘Team Burton’ because we have a great time with all of Chris’ other owners. Of course the pride of knowing my daughter had given this horse the best possible start in her eventing career is immense. Knowing that we decided to allow Lani to reach her full potential would give us such a thrill that we would put our reservations to one side and go along with the plan.

As anyone in the horse industry will tell you, it is a hard way to make a living. You have to make the most of opportunities that come your way and with Leilani at the top of her game I wondered if selling the talented mare had ever been an option. Jean with her business head had thought it might be the sensible thing to do at various points along the way but Jade had always struggled with the idea.

“I am the more emotional one”, she admits. “I think there was only one point when I considered selling her and I thought about what ‘that sort of money’ could do for my business – but it passed pretty quickly. She is our horse and I don’ t think I could cope with the thought of anyone else owning her. Now she is getting older, the money we could ask for her is getting less, so we are now looking forward to her coming home after London and starting to have babies!”

It is clear that being owners is, for the Findlays, a very emotional experience and one which they clearly enjoy.

“Being an owner can give you an enormous amount of emotional satisfaction,” explains Jade. “Owners in this country don’t just give their horses to the rider who is going to win them the most, although of course we do all like to win. They give their horses to the riders who will give them the whole package. From the company and friendship of that rider, the support network at events, to the input they can have in their own horse. There is nothing nicer at an event to be sitting on the tailgate of a truck with your rider discussing how the day went. We all know owners aren’t going to get rich on any prize money they might happen to win, so there has to be more to it than that. Mum and I are just lucky to have found what ‘that’ is.” 

This article first appeared in a previous edition of Equestrian Life magazine. For more information or to subscribe, visit our home page here.