Madeline Sinderberry has six Australian jumping titles to her name, a team of talented young horses, and the beginnings of her very own business. At just 21, she has a level of focus beyond her years, and is a shining light for the future of Australian showjumping.
Madi Sinderberry and Camie Z, winners of the Australian Young Rider Championship. © Derek O’Leary.
“Sometimes I felt like
a flea on her back.”
When Madi Sinderberry made the trip down from NSW to Boneo for the 2021 Australian Jumping Championships in February, she didn’t have huge expectations. Her two horses were young and relatively inexperienced in the competition arena, and she’d had a disruptive year moving to a new property that until recently didn’t feature any equestrian facilities. However, by the end of the event she’d won both the Future Stars Final with Balentino and the Young Rider Championship with Camie Z, bringing her total to six Australian titles in five years.
“I didn’t really put any pressure on Balentino, because the Future Stars title is decided via the final class,” explains Madi. “He’s the sort of horse that I thought would have a very good chance if the scores were cumulative over the three days, because he is very consistent; he jumps a lot of clear rounds and he’s always competitive against the clock.” With each class standalone, Madi simply took the rounds as they came and as it turned out Balentino was on song for the final.
“He just felt so consistent and happy, and wasn’t fazed by the big ring at all. He just loved it, and because he does have a lot of blood he still jumps as well on the last day as he does on the first. Even though he’s probably a little greener and a bit younger, he does love jumping bigger fences, so he actually jumped better the last day than he did when it was a bit smaller.”
Due to her age, it was Madi’s last Young Rider appearance, and despite winning the title in 2016, 2017 and 2019, she didn’t expect to claim the crown a fourth time with mare Camie Z: “We’re still getting to know each other; she arrived early last year, but I had to move her around a bit as I moved to a new property without facilities; I had trouble getting her into a routine and getting her settled.
“She’s taken a little bit longer than I probably expected to really respond to me. Even the first day (at Boneo) she jumped a fast, clear round, but I’d still turn up to a fence and be like, ‘Okay Camie, there’s a jump!’ and I felt like she just wouldn’t respond; sometimes I felt like a flea on her back. But each day she just got better and better, and by the last day she was actually in tune with me. Every button I pushed, she responded straight away, which was actually the first time I’ve really felt that from her. For the last six months we’ve been working to try and really get to know each other, and it felt like it all just finally came together in the final. It was a good feeling.”
Madi and Camie Z fly high in the Young Rider Championship. © Michelle Terlato Photography.
“It’s important to protect
their joints from a young age.”
Madi says that like Balentino, Camie also has a lot of blood, despite coming across as a lot calmer. “JPR (James Paterson-Robinson) just kept saying, ‘Don’t worry, she’ll be there on the last day’, and she was.” Madi explains that JPR has been helping her for the past six months, in particular with Camie: “He’s really helped me to get her using her body in a better way and using the technique really well over fences.
“Going into the (Young Rider) final in seventh place, I wasn’t expecting there to be potential to win, so there was really no pressure going into it and I was just aiming for good clear rounds. Suddenly, I was in a jump-off!”
Madi had previously only ridden a couple of jump-offs with Camie. “I was glad I had to go out first. I just went out and pushed her as hard as I thought I could without taking any risk. I walked out afterwards and said, ‘I think he (fellow jump-off competitor Conor Reed) will go faster, but I’m happy with that round and I wouldn’t change it’. I just did a good clear round as fast as I could, which then put the pressure on him to go faster, and it worked out. Camie also likes a bigger jump too. I haven’t been rushing her or pushing her because she is very, very careful, but she likes something a bit more to look at, which is very exciting.”
Madi and Balentino on their way to winning the Future Stars Final at the 2021 Australian Jumping Championships. © Australian Jumping / Jo Jennings.
“And they love it,
it’s their daily treat!”
STRONG FOUNDATIONS
With a stable of young horses, Madi places great emphasis on careful management to help ensure they have long careers ahead of them. A 4CYTETM ambassador, she’s being using the joint supplement for more than five years and wouldn’t live without it. “The first horse I tried it on was Oaks Kosmo, and at the time he was 10 and jumping Mini Prix level. I started giving it to him because it sounded like a really good product and thought it’d be good to give to a horse that’s jumping quite big and is only going to get older.
“I honestly wasn’t really thinking about it much, and then I gave him a jump at home two weeks after and thought, ‘Wow, he’s jumping well’. He was letting go really well behind, more than he usually would; his technique over the fence was heaps better. I wasn’t even thinking about 4CYTETM, and then I suddenly realised the only thing that had changed was he’d been on 4CYTETM for two weeks. Not that he had anything clinically wrong with him beforehand; he just in general felt so good, he felt so happy and was moving more freely.” Oaks Kosmo went on to progress from Mini Prix to the big time, jumping World Cup courses with Madi.
“I now have my whole team on 4CYTETM. My horses are younger, but I think it’s a really important part of management when I’ve got these younger horses that I plan to campaign longer term and take them through to the bigger jumps. It’s important to protect their joints from a young age, so we’re maintaining, rather than trying to fix a problem later on down the track. And they love it, it’s their daily treat!”
In the saddle, Madi builds strong foundations with her horses on the flat. She credits dressage coach Megan Yoerg, who taught her during the four years she boarded at school in Bathurst with horse Zinzan, as the one who instilled this knowledge. “Everything I do on the flat, I’ve learned from her. I’ve always been a soft, calm rider, but she just refined all that with proper techniques for all different horses and all different problems. So basically, day to day, on all my horses, all the work I do is based on her training,” declares Madi, who still has the occasional lesson with Megan.
“Dressage helps with their suppleness and softness, and also responding to your aids in a really calm way. It means they can use their body correctly without any force applied; it becomes the horse’s idea and they’re working with you, rather than you forcing them to do anything that’s uncomfortable. It gets them really soft and supple over the neck and back, and I’ve found a lot of them have really benefited from that in their actual jumping technique. They tend to open up more in their hind end when they’ve been really stretched and softened over their back. All your tight jump-off turns and everything comes from being really strong and balanced – it all comes from dressage.”
FUTURE STARS
Madi is excited about what lies ahead for her two Australian Championship winners, with both performing incredibly well so early on in her partnership with them. Balentino, by Balloon (Balou Du Rouet) out of a thoroughbred mare, was bred by Carly Mackay and initially went to Olivia Hamood (who was the 2021 Australian Senior Championship winner at Boneo) before ending up with James Arkins. Some would say fate brought Madi and Balentino together.
Early 2020, Madi had just finished working at Yandoo Park and was heading to Europe for a three-month stint with Edwina Tops-Alexander. When Madi boarded the plane, Covid-19 was in the air – but no one realised the consequences to follow. “Within six days, I had to come home as they were going into lockdown and all the planes were stopping. I went to James Arkins’, because Elliott (Reeves) was injured and they had heaps of horses in need of work.” Madi started riding Balentino, and the rest is history.
“He’s just got such a lovable personality because he is so cheeky and bright eyed, and he just loves people and attention. After eight months I was moving on from James’s, and I said to Mum, ‘I can’t leave without Balentino’. We actually found people to part-own him with us; we bought him just rising six and he’s now seven.
“Balentino is especially young because of Covid-19. I don’t think he did a lot as a four-year-old and definitely not much at all as a five-year-old. However, he’s just so confident; he believes he is the best thing in the world and thinks he could jump a house. Every day he loves to work, whether you lunge him, ride him around the paddock, jump in the arena, dressage, anything… he just loves it.”
Madi points out that Balentino’s not a big horse, but he does have a big stride. “I find the shorter distances harder on him than some of my bigger horses, because he wants to tow me around a bit. He is so confident and he thinks he knows how to do it all, so it’s about actually making him wait. The bigger fences are not going to be a problem for him, so I am excited to start stepping him up to 1.40m later this year.”
Madi says Camie was a more deliberate purchase that came about after a long search. “I had my good World Cup horse, Oaks Kosmo, out with an injury in early 2019. I’d had only very young horses, so we were keeping an eye out for something that was a little bit older and ready to move up the grades, something jumping around 1.30m already. We kept an eye out for a couple of years and just never really found what we wanted in Australia. We started thinking about the option of buying overseas and I messaged (young Australian rider) Jake Hunter because he was working for Waldman Horses (in the Netherlands) at the time and they had an auction.
“I told Jake what I was looking for and asked if any of the horses would be worth bidding on. He said, ‘Look, here’s a couple that I’ve ridden and that I recommend’. We couldn’t go and fly over because there were no flights happening, so we just trusted Jake, picked one out and got it sent over. It was probably the biggest risk we’ve taken but luckily it’s worked out really well.” Madi says that eight-year-old Camie, by Concord Z out of a Zandor Z mare, was a little behind due to having a foal at age four, and then not having a lot of competition experience due to Covid-19 – but clearly now she’s catching up!
In addition to her two Championship stars, Madi also has two other young horses in her team, eight-year-old Keilor Bamboo – who she’s had since a weanling – and five-year-old Diamond B Crystal Clear.
HARD WORK & STRONG SUPPORT
For Madi, success has come about through hard work on her part and strong support from those around her. Following her time with James Arkins, Madi worked for almost a year with Izabella Stone near Canberra and fell in love with southern NSW. In July last year, she purchased her own place sans facilities, and has set about developing with the plan to begin building her own business. “I’ve got two client horses here now, and I’ll probably start doing some more local jump clubs and lessons with the horses that are a bit greener or jumping a bit smaller.”
With her business in its infancy, Madi has been riding trackwork six mornings per week to bring in some income. Her days begin at 3.45am; she’s home from the track around 9am, rides her own horses until about lunchtime and then, other appointments permitting, she takes a nap to recharge before the evening tasks of bringing in and feeding horses.
Full of drive and focus, Madi is determined to forge a career with horses – but she says she never could have done it without her parents. Her mother, Sarah, grew up on an Angus cattle and wheat property; she rode horses, albeit not competitively. “Mum would take my sister and I to Pony Club and was always putting me on the next horse every time I outgrew one, which was often.” Her family didn’t buy already-made horses, but managed to find good horses that Madi would delight in improving and then selling on. Although not horsey, her father Paul raced dirt bikes for Honda for 10 years and has always been interested in sport; showjumping proving no exception. “My Dad’s a very sporty person. He understands the competitive edge of it, and he’s very, very supportive to do whatever it takes to help me succeed. He really gets the sport and is into it, and helps mentally as well. When I’m nervous, he always says the right thing.”
Madi is thankful for all the support she’s had in her career thus far, from instructors such as Megan Yoerg, Dave Cameron and James Paterson-Robinson, to sponsors including 4CYTETM and Trailrace. “Trailrace approached me at my first ever Australian Championships in 2014, when I was 13 in the Juniors. They’ve been massive supporters, as have 4CYTETM.”
ONE JUMP AT A TIME
With Camie, Balentino and Bamboo all at the same level, Madi is looking forward to swapping them between Future Stars and hopefully Mini Prix classes when they are ready to take that next step to 1.40m. “Putting the new five-year-old (Diamond B Crystal Clear) on the truck will be nice. I really enjoy the process with the young ones and it’ll be great to have a baby at competitions again.”
While Madi is keen to take it one jump at a time, she does hope that in the future she’ll be able to finally head to Europe and stay longer than six days. “A goal I really would like to achieve is getting Camie jumping the bigger tracks in Australia, and then campaigning her overseas – perhaps on Spain’s Sunshine Tour – to get that experience.”
While Madi would love to ride for Australia at an Olympic Games one day, she’s also a realist and doesn’t want to pin her entire career on achieving that one goal. “I never really think about the Olympics. You have to be very much in the right place at the right time with the right horse. And that’s a lot to hope for,” she muses. With six Australian titles in five years on different horses, it seems Madi’s focus on working hard, laying strong foundations and then just taking it one jump at a time is a recipe for success; the future for this star is bright! EQ
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