Australian show jumping great Vicki Roycroft. Image by Stephen Mowbray.
Vicki Roycroft is winding down and selling up. And has married a man named Neil. All of this she is determined to do before she dies – again. The first time was at the Sydney Royal Show last year.
One of this nation’s most celebrated equestrians, Vicki Roycroft has a CV that is the envy of showjumpers around the world.
Her achievements include riding at three World Equestrian Games and at three Olympics. In the 1984 Games she rode in the three-day-event and in 1988 and 1996 in show jumping. (She’s the only woman to have competed in two equestrian disciplines at the Olympics). Vicki also coached in Barcelona in 1992.
The 1988 Australian Olympic show jumping team, left to right – George Sanna, Jeff McVean, Stan Fear, Rod Brown, Vicky Roycroft & Greg McDermott.
She has bought and sold hundreds of horses here and internationally, is a show jumping and eventing coach, given thousands of lessons and in 2000 was awarded the Australian Sports Medal. Her competition successes, like all of her horses, are too many to mention but aficionados will remember Coalminer, Mickey Mouse, Looking Ahead, Premier de Hayette, Luna Luna, Kartoon de Brave and, of course, Apache.
Victoria Rose began her life 71 years ago in Melbourne. She moved to Sydney with her parents and two siblings, living in the exclusive harbourside suburb of Point Piper. Mother, Pam, was horsey and active in the Equestrian Federation of Australia – the predecessor of EA – and the children were encouraged to ride. After attending an exclusive girls’ school in nearby Edgecliff, Vicki began an arts degree at university but didn’t continue. “I do wish I’d learnt to type and do bookkeeping at some stage,” she lamented. “I’m absolutely hopeless.”
In her very early years, she wasn’t particularly interested in horses although brother Malcolm and sister Joanne were very active in the showring. They had Holmwood that became a champion hack, and then through trainer Tommy Smith they took on Harvest Time, an expensive but failed racehorse that Smith said couldn’t run out of its own way.
“Her competition successes,
like all of her horses, are
too many to mention…”
The Thoroughbred became a star. “He was evented by my brother, jumped by my sister who was champion lady rider on him at Sydney, and I rode him in junior classes,” Vicki recalls.
Vicki’s equestrian career was beginning. And while they rode, her father, Bruce, would fly. He would visit the NSW Central Coast in his helicopter to oversee Pokey Hill Stud, the family property at Mt White. (Later the land was bought by John Singleton who established Strawberry Hill Stud, which was recently sold to Coolmore).
Bruce Frederick Rose, DFC, had been fitted with an artificial limb after an accident during the Second World War. He had parachuted out at 2000 feet when on an overseas operational flight and caught his leg in a propeller. “This cauterised the limb so it didn’t bleed out,” explains Vicki. “When Dad landed, he was held up by a gun-wielding Yorkshireman who thought at first he was a German!” He was flying again six months after the amputation.
Wing-Commander Rose died in 1999.
Vicki became a keen competitor who was always at shows and at these events she would run into Wayne Roycroft. His father, the legendary Bill, had gone down in history for riding with a broken shoulder in the 1960 Rome Olympics enabling the Australian eventing team to win gold. He was also in the teams which won bronze at both the Mexico City and Montreal Games.
‘POLLY’ & ‘PATCH’
“Wayne was so good looking and had really blue eyes,” declares Vicki who married him in 1976. She was 24. (They divorced in 2000).
“Polly” and “Patch” became a prominent equestrian partnership producing over 25 horses that went to Olympic Games for Australia.
“Wayne had a bald patch, hence the nickname, and I was ‘Polly’ after the parrot in the Monty Python sketch. John Cleese says, ‘this bird is dead’ but the pet shopkeeper insists ‘it is only resting’. Back then, you see, I was a very deep, sound sleeper!”
Vicki and Wayne Roycroft with son Mark.
After being married for 10 years or so, the couple had a son. “I was about to ride at Badminton and never planned on having any children,” admits Vicki, “and didn’t know the first thing about babies. Mother-in-law, Mavis, was a great help. I guess I wasn’t the best mother in the world but Mark was a wonderful child and I was blessed to have him.” The boy’s life was cut short in January 2003 when swimming at Birdie Beach in Lake Munmorah National Park on the NSW Central Coast. He was caught in a rip and died. He was 17.
It is the saddest thing that has ever happened to Vicki. Twenty-one years later she still remembers him each day and has his name tattooed on her shoulder. (She also has the Olympic rings inked on her forearm, exclusive to athletes who have competed in the Games.)
And what is the happiest thing? “Probably when I won the Rome Grand Prix on Apache in 1987.” She was the first Australian and the first woman to do so.
The chestnut horse had been a rather tricky 15.2hh ratbag when Vicki bought him for $500 plus a $50 trucking fee. “Wayne was horrified when he first saw him.” He later changed his mind. A whole book could be written about this freakish little horse who was hot, fast and rarely touched a jump.
Vicki and Apache in France, 1987.
After all the pair’s international success, Alan Bond wanted Apache for his daughter, Susanne – and Vicki sold him for $1 million. The new combination enjoyed some minor achievements, and then the horse was sold again.
Some years later Vicki bought him back to Australia. “I paid $15k which was the cost of the air transport.” Apache is buried on the property with her many other former champions.
HORSES, DOGS, HENS
As well as 15 horses, other animals on Vicki’s 40 acres are a mob of dogs and four laying hens. Blondie was in the sitting room when Equestrian Life arrived to conduct this interview. The dogs, primarily dachshunds, led the way to the stables where Vicki was working. “In the past I’ve had whippets, which tend to roam, and in the early days I had Jack Russells. Mavis Roycroft had seen the breed when Bill was competing at Badminton and the Duchess of Beaufort gave her two pups. They were the first to be brought into Australia.”
Vicki at home; the property is for sale via Sotheby’s International Reality, Sydney.
Vicki’s 40 acres is currently for sale.
During her competitive years, which she says are now over, Vicki trained a lot with her husband – “he’s a very good teacher” – and with American George Morris who would come annually to hold clinics on Mt White.
Vicki has seen the sport of show jumping evolving over the years.
“During the era I was riding Apache things were changing from heavy poles, deep cups to light poles, shallow cups which suited a careful horse. This was good for the sport – you had to ride better to do it better.”
And for her what is the perfect horse? “A liver chestnut Thoroughbred,” is her immediate reply. “Thoroughbreds still have the best attitude; they’re brave and good to ride; although Warmbloods are easier. Speed is a factor today, they can’t make the jumps any bigger, so the lighter athletic type is what is wanted now.”
Vicki riding Congo Z in 2014.
Vicki herself is a light athletic type, and as tough as nails, but a couple of serious health issues did slow her down – but only for a while. In 2007 her right eye had to be removed. “There was a large melanoma at the back – it was a bit of a shock to say the least!”
To prepare for the operation she rode her horses wearing a pad over the infected area so as to become used to judging distances with only one eye.
And then EI hit the country. “None of us could really do anything for 12 months so I was able to recuperate. By the time I was out competing again, I’d adjusted.”
BURST ARTERY AT THE SHOW
Eighteen years later, when waiting on her horse to enter an event, she dropped dead at the 2023 Sydney Royal Easter Show. Two doctors who were having lunch witnessed the fall and immediately rushed over to her. Doctors Mark Schembri, obstetrician and part-time veterinarian, and Stephen Ruff, orthopaedic surgeon, administered CPR.
“They worked on me
for 11 minutes…”
Vicki married long-time partner Neil Trickett in December 2024.
“They worked on me for 11 minutes,” said a very grateful Vicki, who was later told her main artery had burst due to an unknown genetic defect which had no warning or symptoms. “It was fortuitous I wasn’t on the property or driving as it would have been good night, Irene.” She was operated on the same evening and a few weeks later she was back on a horse.
Many people during this time were concerned for her welfare, especially Neil Trickett who has been with Vicki for 20 years. A retired maths teacher who happily shares cooking and vacuuming duties has nothing do with the equestrian side of things. He is content meeting with friends and family, playing golf and fishing.
“He’s adorable,” murmurs Vicki. “When people say he must be very tolerant to live with me he just doesn’t understand why they would say such things!
“We are finally married,” she beams, showing a pic of a very stylish cream wedding outfit excellently suited to her slim figure. “It’s a Carla Zampatti and cost a fortune. Goodness knows when I’ll ever wear it again; maybe I’ll be buried in it one day,” she quips.
The wedding took place on Hayman Island.
The wedding took place in December and was a small family ceremony on Hayman Island, where Vicki was even happier than on that day in Rome.
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