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Grit Behind the Success: Andrew Cooper on Horses, Business & Family · Between the Flags

• Fiona Hughes: Let's get out of the start box. Today's guest is one of Australia's leading high performance event writers, Andrew Cooper, also known as Coops and AC. Growing up in Wagga Wagga, also known as Wagga, Coops wasn't born into a horsey family. In fact, his mum famously declared, No child of mine is going to Pony Club. Fortunately for Australian eventing, Andrew had other ideas. Completely hooked on horses from a young age, he soaked up every bit of knowledge he could. He even convinced his school principal to let him swap school sport for riding horses. And when there wasn't a water jump to practice over, he headed out into the family paddock and dug one by hand. That determination has stood the test of time. Andrew has produced An incredible 13 horses to four-star and five-star level represented Australia at the Oceanic Championship three times. And in 2022, he was named Australian Team Reserve with not one, not two, but three different horses. A testament to the depth and consistency of his program. Away from competition, Andrew and his wife Mads. Also a fellow elite eventing rider, run the busy Winjara Park and Washpool Lodge pre-training and spelling operation in Queensland. All whilst raising their three children under six. So somewhere in between elite eventing, running major horse businesses and family life, he apparently found enough time to join us on Between the Flags. Coops! Welcome. I'll hand over now to Prue, where she takes the reins for the interview part of our show. Hey, thanks for having me. Thanks, Vee. Hi Andrew, how you going? Good thanks. How are you? Yep, not too bad, thank you. Okay, now you're going to have to cast your mind back a little bit. Let's start right back at the beginning. Tell us about where you grew up and your early days with horses and who introduced you to horses. Yeah, so it was back in Wagga Wagga, so nice you say it twice, as they say. yeah, obviously I was born into a family that yeah, mum and dad weren't horsey. They owned a athlete's foot business, so anything to do with footy and cricket would have been much more down there alley. But yeah, I had we had seven acres on the outskirts of Wagga. It actually is now not the outskirts of Wagga, it's all built in as not a not a horse paddock on the property anymore. but yeah, we had we had seven acres there. We had two friends that kept their horses on our property. One was a little Pinto horse and her name was CJ. I started riding her around the paddock. And my pop was actually heavily involved in harness racing. He had some really good horses actually, that went around the trots and the paces. and he had, yeah, two thousand acres on, you know, probably fifty minutes from Wagga. So yeah, he was very supportive and pushed me along to yeah, to get into it. And he also at some stage I think CJ would come and go from our property and then Pop would find and we had Sam was the pony out at the farm, so he'd a actually bring him in and I'd ride Sam for a bit, but he was a bit of a shithead, that horse. he actually wrote we had to ride him in a hackamore because he cut open his mouth when he was a young horse getting into a l trying to open the latch on a a gate to get into the loosened paddock. anyway, so yeah, he was a fun little horse to ride around. He actually only recently died, to be fair, probably two or two or three years ago. which was pretty crazy. so yeah, I had Pop that was yeah, he was very supportive. And then yeah, my parents weren't not supportive, but they were definitely me enabled me to ride. But mum didn't want me to join pon Pony Club or do anything like that, like Fee said. so it took me, I think, four years to convince Mum. I had every year I'd put the the forms on the table because the girls that kept their horses on our property, they'd give me the forms to you know, become a member at Lake Albert Pony Club. I kept putting the forms on thing and they'd kept going in the bin. so yeah, it took me four years of convincing and then yeah, finally I was allowed to join Pony Club at nine. Okay, yes, I have heard some wild stories of you in your youth, jumping club presidents at Working Bees and galloping vows through the bush with your friends. What do you think it was about eventing that drew you to it? yeah, I think obviously I grew up in Wagga. and I think Pony Club was I don't know, I think it's really changed from where it was to where it is now. I mean, you know, we could do really what it we did troop drill and we did so much like bow like, you know, sporting things and it was just a day of fun. It was, you know, no real I don't know, my my parents weren't there. They just used to drop a biscuit of hay off in a bucket in the yard and I'd ride I'd ride to Pony Club, I'd be there all day and then we'd all ride home together. so we had a great little community, but it was probably yeah, Tom McDermott was actually I grew up in Wagga with him, riding and he obviously is from the show jumping family and I think, yeah, I used to do a lot of show jumping and he'd always beat me and then I think when we went eventing I I used to beat him. So I thought, maybe maybe I should go eventing so I don't have to compete against Tom. So Think that was that was a big part of it. I obviously love cross country and still, you know, that's that is the biggest draw card to eventing. I think for the us high level guys, I think we just love it so much that, you know, you gotta what's the point in riding a horse if you can't go cross country? Yeah, fair enough. Spoken like a true eventer. when was it that you decided eventing was actually going to be your future? And did you ever have a fallback plan? Yeah, no, I never had a full black fallback plan. I never really planned that a venting would be sort of my my business as such. It just sort of came to me. I mean, I was, yeah, you know, when I was in high school, I was I think I was 12 and I was doing 105 and then sort of just progressed through the grades. I think, yeah, I did my first five-star when I was 19, I think I was. but it definitely wasn't something that I thought I could probably make a living out of. It just sort of happened. I yeah, I wasn't good at school and I handed my books in at the end of end of year eleven, the start of year twelve, and mum and dad said, Well, you gotta go do something. You can't just drop out of school. So I went and did a TAFE course in Wangarata, which was about three hours from home. Th two hours? Three hours from home. anyway, so I was seventeen, moved out of home, took two horses with me, and Yeah, I'd I did that for a year and then obviously I'm not very good at completing things at academic academics, so I a ended up not completing that. but it sort of it put me also in a path of the racing industry, which, you know, you can w you know, we all sort of know there's obviously money in the racing industry. So I sort of I definitely didn't go down the racing side. I kept sticking to the eventing side and people, you know, I had a little gooseneck and then mum and dad bought me a a five horse truck and I sort of just started having, you know, people wanting their horses to come to me and I just started getting client after client. You know, they were mostly, you know, difficult horses or horses that stopped or that sort of thing. And I'd I just sort of yeah, I'd I just started getting more clients and yeah, could make a make a living out of it, could pay pay to live. So yeah, that was sort of when I was like, yeah, I can I can probably make a living out of it. Early days, I did just ride track work for Mick Kent in in at Cranberne in Melbourne, just to make a little bit of extra money during the week. And then I sort of got busy enough with clients that I didn't need to do that anymore for a while. but yeah, I'm sort of I guess I'm back riding track work just for myself, at our property now. So Anyway, it all it goes around in circles. But yeah, it's it definitely wasn't a plan, it just happened and I mean everyone says, you're so lucky you do what you love and I go, Yeah, yep, I'm so lucky. So lucky. Lucky you. Well, you produced your first F E I horse, Guest of Honor, and competed at Adelaide Five Star in twenty twelve. And you just mentioned that must have been when you were nineteen. So tell us about that horse and how you produced him to Five Star. And Perhaps was he the horse that made you believe you could be a five star rider? Yeah, definitely. He was his name was Reuben. We bought him when he was five and I think Dad was in the the line at the canteen line at the pony club and Heidi, the owner of him, was just I think the lady in front of him and she just said, do you know anyone that's, you know, I need to sell this horse? and the lady in the canteen was like, the man behind you, he might, you know, he might be interested. Anyway, so it was he was only just around the corner from the Pony Club and just around the corner from us. and he was he was bi gymnastic star out of a thoroughbred mare. and yeah, we went around and he was lovely, he was very well educated on the flat, like he could do sort of all the three star moves, I guess, as a five year old. Like she'd done a really good job with him. He was really nice and quiet and he was big, he was like seventeen hands and we were and hu like probably overweight, but probably just a dressage horse too. And anyway, so yeah, we we ended up buying him, but we, you know, he hadn't jumped, he hadn't done anything. We took wings and poles around and jumped in for the first time there. And he actually, you know, he made a good shape and he tried his, you know, he, you know, he did it. So we thought, well, that that's a that's a start. So yeah, and then from there it was he didn't love cross country. He definitely didn't love cross country. And Fee touched on it before that I dug a hole in the front paddock and that was for him because he'd definitely he hated water, he'd hated drops, he you know, I w I'd I got eliminated. I remember the first event I went to on him was at Harden Horse Trails in the eighty centimetres and I got to fence four. It wasn't even it was a d a a ramp that was going down a hill, but it wasn't even like a drop or anything. And he'd already had three or four stops from them, but that was in the good old days where they said, just wait. Wait till the last horse goes and you can keep going and you can get to the end. So I ended up getting to the end with, you know, well, I was obviously eliminated, but I was probably had thirty stops. anyway, and then the funny st well, not the funny story there was but the following year he was actually in the one well, it was one star then, so the two star now. And he actually it was his first one and he won it. So he came around quickly in you know, quick enough, but he yeah, he took a bit and yeah, dug a hole in the front paddock and yeah, I had four my my measurement actually wasn't correct with the hose. So then I had to fill up the forty four gallon drums, roll them across the paddock, tip it in, roll it back, fill another one up until I got it full, and then I'd use the forty four gallon drums on their side to jump into the water and yeah, it was obviously a bit of fun and I used to you know, we used to build a a few cross country jumps around and then we we had a a lovely big lake inbogger that we rode around all the time and there was park benches and corners of like stage sort of where they had productions, I guess, and we'd jump the corners of that and jump the park benches just as much as I taught him or he probably taught me way more to be fair, 'cause he, yeah, he was he was an amazing horse for me to have as my first five star horse. And then yeah, obviously to go all the way to five star was something in itself from something that just started from dad talking to a lady in a Canteen line at Lake Harbor Pony Club, so pretty cool story. And he's actually buried up here on this at Winjarra Park. So I ride past him every day. So it's cool that he's cool that he's here. and yeah, that's a bit of the story about Best of Honor. Great story. And then came Blackcrest and Ever Gem Perfection, or Ollie, as we all knew him as, that you produced a five star. And since those initial horses, you've had eight horses competing four star, four horses competing at five star level. this is an amazing record, so many congratulations for that. what drives you to produce and compete at the highest level? Yeah, I wish I could say it's the the everyday grind, but it's definitely not the everyday grind. I mean, we we have a business that, you know, rela it's horse related, it's thoroughbreds, and we make a good income out of that. And then we obviously blow practically all our money on the performance horses, because it's obviously such an such an expensive sport to or hobby to run. I would love to say that I love riding every day and I love training them and I love that, but that you know, some days I go, why do I do this? And then I get to an event or e you know, ev even just a little event. I still love taking the young horses out and, you know, kicking them around their first eighty and ninety-five and producing them up through the levels. I love competing. I think that's the that's my biggest driving factor. I get to that big event, and I did say even the little events, but it is just that competing and that will to win. I am very competitive sort of with everything I do. Like I I race people in the truck just to try and beat them home. Like I just Love winning. And if I'm not winning, I'm like, you know, chewing my nails off, going, my on a, you know, driving faster up the hill. Come on, truck. And like everything's a race. And I think Madza all the time just goes, settle down. Like we actually went, we went caravanning the other day. And I'm we bought a caravan because the kids want to go caravanning. And I'm just hooning out to get to this place. We went like 800Ks out west. anyway, it took me to like we were coming home to go. Just take your time, Andrew. You don't need to be in a rush. You don't need to be there first. You can just drive along at a hundred and it'd be fine. That's great. Anyway, everything is kind of a competition to me. So great. You'd be so so much fun to live with. So my I have even more respect for Maddie now. your first Australian team representation came in twenty seventeen on Ever Gem Perfection, and you've since represented Australia. on many occasions, but on no less than three different horses. So Chevali Thunder is one of these horses. Tell us about how Thunder came into your life and what makes him so special. Yeah, he is a very special horse and obviously very fortunate to have him in my stables. we actually went to T was Tourid and Hor when Mads and I were still living in Melbourne. We took three horses. Mads wasn't riding. Anyway, we jumped in the car and I s I said to Mads, did you see any nice horses? She said, No. And then she goes, actually, there was one. And I said, I reckon I know which one it is. And she said, Yeah, it was a grey horse. with the girl I said, yeah, Amy got's wheel and she goes, I don't know the girl, but yeah, that sounds like anyway, Amy had a bit of a following on social media. So I, you know, quickly pulled him up and she says, Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the horse. Anyway, I I'm pretty sure we messaged him not long after that and just said, Hey, like, you know, would you guys sell funder? Obviously thinking that they wouldn't. They said we would, but it was, you know, for a lot more money than what we could afford at that stage. Anyway, so then we we actually watched him through the grades and was I yeah, I always just loved the horse. and then actually the girl that bought Evergem Perfection, Ollie off me, she had taken Ollie overseas and then she came back and I think she was just looking for a second horse and she ended up buying Thunder as a two-star horse. So Amy had got him to Yellow Numbers. Eliza bought him And then probably didn't realise how much of a handful he could probably be. Amy did such an amazing job to produce him to the level she did, but he probably was in my eyes, he probably nearly was always a bit of a males horse, needed that bit of, you know, stern talking to 'cause he was such a you know, he could be quite naughty. so yeah, we actually bought him. this was all through COVID and sight unseen from Melbourne, but I obviously you know, sight unseen, but I'd seen a lot of him. I'd never touched him or anything in the flesh, but I'd, you know, we'd we'd watched his journey. anyway, so I still remember he turned up on the truck and I was like, I won't ride him. that's a bit mean. He's traveled all the way from Melbourne and he got off the truck and he was singing out and he was you know, he was looked like he was like twenty one hands 'cause he was full of himself. Anyway, I was like, stuff it, let's get on him. He's ready to have a ride. anyway, so I got on him and you know, I fell in love straight away. he's yeah, he can he can do everything. He's very athletic horse and I mean he showed me that in the beginning 'cause man, he could I don't even know if you'd call it a buck, 'cause he wouldn't put his head down, but he'd just skyrocket all four legs off the ground into the air and far out he had some power and yeah, I still remember Amy's mum messaging me saying, have you had your first jump? Have you had your first jump? I No, no, I haven't jumped him yet, like I've only just got him and she said, Wait till you jump him, like he's You know, there's so much power off the floor and that is like he just yeah, he's he's an amazing horse. Yeah, he certainly is. Now, I do know you well enough to know what an incredibly hard worker you are and the results we have spoken about are a testament to the work you've put in. We know that there is always a team involved. So tell us about the team that keeps Andrew Cooper eventing, maintaining the success in the sport. Yeah, there's a there's one big driving factor that's behind me, which I'm very fortunate to have, and that's Mads, my wife. she's obviously ridden to the highest level as well and she's been on an Oceania team over to New Zealand. so I guess she gets what it what it takes and she understands that I c you know, you sometimes you gotta be a bit selfish and rah rah rah. Try not to be, but I think it just happens in this, you know, in the nature of this sport. You've you know, the commitment is just so high that It yeah, you don't mean to do, you know, be like that, but it just it just happens. So yeah, I'm extremely fortunate to have Mads in my corner and obviously to be my wife and the my amazing mother to my children 'cause that's another feat in itself that she does and you know, I'd I'd try and help, but I'd definitely do maybe a sixteenth of what she does. Anyway, so yeah, I'm extremely fortunate to Mads and you know, any crazy idea that I have, you know, she somehow goes, Yeah, yeah, we can do that. I mean, I still remember when I fell off Thunder at you know, two fen two or three fences from home. I thought I was home and host I'd nearly celebrated too early a couple of years ago and what that was last year last year. And you know, I was pretty depressed. I'd I'd didn't even get to show jump I had two horses in the five star. I didn't even get to show jumping on either of them. I was pretty upset, I guess, on the way home and I thought, well, this is a bit crazy, but I don't know, tag along with Shane and go and do Lemulan five star and she was like, Yeah, may as well. Like Thunder's fit, he's ready. May as well you know, I'd I didn't want to wait another year to do a five star just 'cause obviously we know what horses can do. So yeah, she was fully supportive of that and yeah, we went over there and did Some amazing things and yeah, without her none of this would actually be possible. So very lucky. So tell us a bit about that trip then. So you you said about taking Thunder overseas last year, what you learnt in the process of doing that and and yeah, what you how you felt that trip went. Yeah, obviously I know we compete here. We always get from the selectors, how are you gonna go overseas? You know, there's all this added pressure and you know, I've I've always thought I think I'd be pretty good under it, but you never know, right? So they're always wanting that. So I like, Well, here is an opportunity. I mean, Shane's going, I can bunk you know, I literally and thanks to Nikki and Shane, I literally just was like, What's your itinerary? And just I just booked, you know, Thunder, you know, w we went to the same barn. J Mac met the horses in Amsterdam and those guys just I couldn't thank them enough for what they did for me last year. And so I was so fortunate to have Shane, he's obviously does it all the time, to do that. And yeah, it was it was crazy. You're just on the other side of the world, totally different time zone, but it's kind of just the same in the s you know, it's still just eventing. yeah, the show, you know, and I went to Lemulin and then obviously Arken, which was next level, but at the end of the day it's still just a horse show. All the jumps are the same, the dressage arena's the same. I mean, the stadium was pretty amazing at Arkin, but you Lemorin was such a good one for me to go to 'cause it was it was pretty, you know, I would say, sort of on par to Sydney, Tamworth, Adelaide. Like it wasn't anything extraordinary. The only y the hardest part was that we were in Germany and it was you know, not English speaking country. So like road signs and this, like we just had to translate everything and I mean that was the that was the hardest part of the trip. I mean the the riding the horses and then obviously for me riding probably twenty horses a day. I was riding one horse a day. I'm like, what a what do we do? anyway, but that was also really good for me just to have that one horse too, because I learned so much about that horse in the five weeks that I was there. you know, at Adelaide got a little bit heightened in his dressage test and you know, I said to Stuart, I he he's he got hot and Stuart goes, Doesn't look like he did. I said, Yeah, but he did. Like I could feel it underneath me and then I sort of just froze and I don't know, I don't think Stuart said. And then I like, Maybe I just need to kick the horse, you know, 'cause he's not actually a hot horse. And so yeah, Lemoul I just went, you know, he got that bit of that uptight tension and I just kicked him and he went, okay. And that was the tension gone. I mean, that was just I had to go the other side of the world to learn that. But I mean Pretty cool that I did. And then yeah, I thought I thought he did a such a good test at Lemulin. and yeah, they weren't scoring they weren't scoring well across the board. So he ended up where he should be, but it just was on I don't know what it was. It's like he's just not a good score. but he sat probably where he should sit within the field. So that side of things didn't matter. And then cross country, obviously, I love going fast, and I'm like, well, I'm on the other side of the world. I might as well give it a crack. and he's not the fastest horse and he never has been, but I know I've just got to be on his case the whole way and from the start and just, you know, get in a good rhythm and gallop and jump. And yeah, I think he had like maybe one point two and I was really early on in the class and then I just went from like low and I just kept climbing up and up and up and I was sitting third after cross country and I was thinking, shit, how good's that? Like You can do it on the other side of the world. We had to still show jump. It was it was only a short format, but because the five star was running, we cross country on the Saturday, so we still had to trot up on the Sunday and show jump on the Sunday. So there was added pressure to that as well. And you know, obviously I wanted to jump a clear round and it was it was funny because I was in a press conference at in the afternoon. It's the four star is like the German national championships. So they had first and second and then me. And they would just obviously talk I sat there the whole time, not knowing yet a a touch of German. Like Shane's like can pick up on bits and pieces 'cause he's been there. But I just was like, don't know what they're talking about. I literally just sat there twiddling my thumbs and then they'd speak to me in English and I'd have a go and I was sitting right next to Julia Krajowski, which was pretty cool. 'cause she won on nickel. And then Yeah, then we we all sat in the same seats again the next night 'cause we all jumped clear, which was Cool and yeah, but then that night in the in the press conference, it was funny because in the presentation I got Shimid aside because it was a German national championship, so they had to do one, two, three for Germany. So I was like, they just shoved me to the back and said, We don't need the Australian in here. anyway, and then they sort of did that again in the press conference. They brought Bockman in and yeah, anyway, it was it was just funny, but it was cool to sort of upset them too and not have a one, two, three for Germany. Yeah, yeah. Well done. Congratulations. We we just all loved watching you at that event and hopefully you knew this, but we all had absolute faith in you. We knew you were gonna go fast. We knew Thunder could jump clear. So the Germans might have been surprised, but we certainly weren't surprised. So absolutely fantastic to watch you yeah shine on the other side of the world. So Yeah, well done. That's just a great story listening to you tell it in your own words too. You and Mads run an enormous pre-training breaking in and spelling business near Calbar in Queensland. How did this business develop and what led you to setting up such an enormous operation? Yeah, I mean it's one of those things. It just sort of grew. Mads and I were on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne and it was sixty acres, but half of it, I mean, you've you went to that property Pruing up. You probably went there in winter and half the year it was underwater, it was wet, it was pretty miserable. But at the time you just think, you know, it's lovely. We go to wineries and, you know, it's a lovely part of the world, but just probably not for riding horses. every day being, you know, soaking wet and whatever. And then obviously Mads is from Queensland and Darren rang Maddie one day and said, I found a property up here. And I to be fair, I was like, Queensland, long way away. But I mean You know, I did the g quick Google thing and I was like, it's still ten hours. It's ten hours to Syak. It's, you know, from here to Sayak. And then it was also ten hours from Melbourne to Sayak. I'm like, you know, we can probably still make it work, to be fair. anyway, so we came up and looked at it. And it was in must have been in twenty nineteen, 'cause that's when we moved. So the start of, and honestly, there was not a blade of grass on the property. They'd been in drought for ten years. And I was like, yeah. I mean, at least it's not wet like Belnaring. But it was like the complete sea change. It was like, yeah, lush green grass nearly all year round to like not a blade of grass. I was thinking, far out, what are we doing? I showed got home and I it is it is a beautiful property and you don't really understand that till you're here. And I showed Mum a few photos and mum goes, why would you want to go live there? Looks horrible. Anyway, so We ended up moving up here and, you know, then when Mum actually came to Probably, she goes, Holy dooley, Andrew, this place is amazing. 'Cause until you get up on the hill and you sort of look around and then there's huge enscarpments all around us. anyway, so yeah, we moved up in 2019, which was the end of, and then 2020 was COVID. So we sort of dodged cov how lucky that was to dodge COVID out of Melbourne. all just by not even knowing, obviously. And then yeah, so We just were doing we were do obviously still doing the performance horses every day. But then we I started probably breaking in a few more racehorses. Obviously Maddie's dad has racehorses, so we're breaking those ones in for him. And then we our boundaries are next door to Washpool Lodge, which has obviously always been a huge, thoroughbred pre-training and breaking in business. And so we were just doing over f over the overflow spelling for them. so it's very, you know, sort of easy money I guess, but y you don't make a lot out of spelling, but it's it's a good little sidekick. you know, it probably was paying for our performance horses. Maddie's dad he'd all he'd always wanted to buy a washbull, I think. Anyway, it came on the market, was way like overpriced. So obviously you don't want to spend a lot of all your money on it and not be able to fix it up. So yeah, he acquired that for really good price in the end. Then we took over that and so yeah then we went from I probably broke in maybe twenty horses in a year and now you know we're up to a hundred and fifty to a hundred and sixty horses that we break in each year. And we probably at any one time we have two hundred to three hundred horses and sometimes that's plus like our young babies that we choose not to count. so yeah, there's there's a lot of there's a lot of horses, there's a lot of moving parts on the property, but we've also got a huge amount of land. Like Winjara's a hundred acres and washpools four hundred acres. So five hundred acres in total and it's a pretty cool place to live really. Every day I'm You know, it's cold here in the morning during winter, nine o'clock, you're back into a T shirt. So what's day look like for Andrew Cooper at the moment? So there's probably going to be a you know, three children under six that might actually interfere with what you want to do on some days. As you said, Mads is pretty good at keeping a lid on that for you. But what let just talk just briefly say what time do you start, what do you do with the racehorses and then, you know, how many performance horses a day as an average? Yeah, so the average day it cha the hours change. Like in the middle of summer we we we wanna be on our first horse when it's sunlight, just 'cause it's obviously light early up here 'cause we don't have daylight savings, which is great for the heat. So I do love not having daylight savings. So we'll be on our first horse at four thirty. So we start at four. First horse will be getting ridden down to the track at four thirty. And there's anywhere from Two riders to we've got four at the moment. Four's a really good number. and we normally do about ten to fifteen, I would say, each. riding. And then and then we also have like a washball, we also have a water walker and a treadmill. So the older horses can sort of they alternate between the the three sort of, you know, they get ridden, treadmilled or water walk, depending on where they're at in their their pre-training. The younger horses, they they have to be ridden every day because they obviously need the education. So yeah, we're riding a lot of babies. So at the moment, yeah, in summer's great because you get you you do get done earlier, but we have to because it just gets too hot too. so yeah, we try and it's the the theory is just be on your first horse when it's light enough to ride down to the track. So at the moment we're riding down about six o'clock. So we get a little bit of extra sleep in in winter. but then obviously the days aren't as hot. So it doesn't really matter if you're still riding. So I try and yeah, I'll and obviously there's y there's probably I don't know, two K's between the washpool cross ties and the Winjara cross ties. So I just drive back and forward. So I'll yeah, I'll always start at washpool. I'll get all the racehorses done. the riding part of it done. I don't do any of the cleanup there. I quickly come back over to Winjarra where we have our other we've got two three other staff here. So Ella's been a part of the team for a long time since she finished school. It's that four, four years, five years? Not good at maths. I dropped out of school. Ella obviously is a huge part of our team and she riding a few of the racehorses and then we come over here and get the event is done and I've I always say I'd try and not do as many, but I still like I rode nine the other day. And I mean that's too I would say that's too and it's definitely too many to do dress ion. Nine of them to do dress hydro. Not good for me. jumping's fine. anyway, so I try and yeah, I've definitely tried to not ride as many, but it just sort of changes. It's sort of between six and ten. event is it then I'll come and ride I reckon around twenty horses a day. I just like to just keep going until they're ridden. So whether it's, you know, twelve or one o'clock and then obviously when we need to go cross country schooling it's then just a an all day process of horsing. Yeah. Yeah. So this year at Adelaide Five Star, you had a great result and it really put you in the mix for world championship selection this year. Unfortunately Thunder picked up an injury after Adelaide. So can you tell our listeners how he's doing? he is such a crowd favourite, this horse. So yeah, people probably keen to know how he's doing and perhaps when he might be out competing again into the future. Yeah, it was it's it was such a shame. We obviously there was such a high and that's that is just the nature of this sport. such a high and such sort of a you know, I nearly I nearly thought I was pretty confident that I was, you know, maybe on the plane. I'm not normally a that arrogant and that confident, but obviously I you know, went over there last year and although I had a run out at Ark and I you know, I feel like I was gonna go and do it better this year. I knew the terrain. I've been there, I've done it, I've sort of had worked out why I'd maybe had that run out late in the course. so I really, I hoped obviously you've got to get selected, but I thought I'd done a good job of nearly selecting myself. I mean, could have been better to beat Oliver, but he's too hard to beat at the moment. Such a shitty thing. I think, you know, he's picked up an injury cross-country, but because we ice him to the inch of his life, you know, even like Nathan didn't even, we didn't even actually pick up on it until we got home and we're like, he's got a bit of swelling. Anyway, we gave him a bit of like the week off, and then we thought, you know, and then we didn't know what we're gonna do. And then Mad's like, I think we've got to get this looked at. I took him into Nathan and he put the probe straight on the tendon and yeah. Big hole, which is never good. So my heart obviously. Sunk and I went, but can I still get there? And he goes, No, mate, I'm really sorry. Anyway, he went and got his wife, Karani, who we're very good friends with, and she came out and just hugged me away. And anyway, it was a very shitty time for, you know, n thinking that, you know, maybe his next start would be back in Germany, which is gonna be awesome. To yeah, he's just currently in a stable and now he's he's transferring to he can go into a yard during the day. but it's looking really good. You know, LA's the next big thing. He's not gonna be that much older. Let's just, you know, wrap him up, give him a good you know, I probably won't even ride him in twenty twenty seven. So twenty twenty eight is the plan for Thunder. Time is key and I'm just gonna give him that because, you know, as I said, he doesn't need to learn anything. He's very fat, he's very happy. Yeah. Now, so let's just cast your mind forward a few years. Are we going to see a tribe of ponies? Coming off the big semi? I really hope not. It's definitely not it's definitely something that Mads and I aren't we're not pushing at all. The two boys, they know how to ride, they don't know how to steer. we haven't given them a bridle yet, but they can sit on there, they can trot along, they can have a little lunge. They're not really interested, so I just figure what's the point. We do have one pony, and you know, Tommy made Tommy got bit into it, he kept dressing up in his riding clothes and coming down and wanting to be just like dad and said, Ride, mate, we gotta put the saddle on, you gotta do this And he goes, dad I don't know I don't want to do I said, Well I don't want to do it either, mate. I said, You're gonna have to do it. It's not just gonna all be ready for you. And anyway he's riding one day and he goes, Dad, I do really like riding, but I love my motorbike. And I said, That's fine, mate. You can keep loving your motorbike 'cause your motorbike's way easier for me. So yeah, not sure. Matilda might be I don't know, who knows? I think Matilda wanna do I don't know Matilda that well, but I think Matilda will do just whatever Matilda does. I don't I'm not sure there'll be any Yeah, she'll do whatever she wants. Yeah, that's right. And she'll have those two older brothers and dad wrapped around her little finger. So yeah, watch this space. She's already done she already does that and she she can't even talk yet and that's yeah. She's already got the world sorted. I've really enjoyed this chat with you, Andrew. now I'm actually going to hand you back over to Fee, 'cause Fee has some special questions for you from some of your very special friends. What a journey, Coops. Well now it's cool down time. Firstly listen and then tell us who is asking you the question and then reply. Hi AC, just wondering why you stopped sending your young horses to a dairy farm to grow out. Was it something to do with the free jump facilities? And while are on that, what's your preferred method of free jumping horses? Before a few gins or after? Well that's actually Fiona Fox right there. Rhonda. thanks Rhonda. Yeah, that was a great day. We'd we'd had a few gins and we'll up at her place. I think Reuben was up there, babysitting at their dairy farm. And Soph had a young horse and we thought, well, let's bring them in and see if they can jump. Anyway, I think his name was George. He was a colored colored horse. We must have done mine as well, but hers literally just jumped out of the out of the fence, didn't jump the jump and just jumped clean out of the fence and off he went. So yeah, that was a great free jumping exercise. We actually I think we'd actually been to see horses at Mark Fraser's and obviously he he free jumps all his young ones. and yeah, we got him got inspired and yeah, his definitely jumped better than ours did. Yes, definitely. I don't think I've ever really had a good experience with free jumping. So yeah, I definitely don't do that. We don't have a fence on the arena and we've got a rounder, but yeah, I d I don't generally do free jumping. I only 'cause it always turns out that the horse either jumps jumps out and hurts himself or Yeah, anyway, that's yeah, very random. Well, fun times. Well, we've got another one for you, look out. Now there was a time where you didn't have the roundup and breaking in horses occurred inside of a yard and then just straight out onto the arena. And on one occasion there was two hands pulled on one rein and you fell off said horse because the rain broke. because of your pure strength. And I'm wondering now that you have the proper facilities for braking in, do you A check your gear, B wear double reins so that in case of emergency one breaks you've still got one or still live life on the edge. That was Chelsea Priestley. That was a fun day. Some big grey and illusion thing. Anyway, yeah, he was a he was an interesting character. I literally went flying off the arena because I pulled the rein hard that I just went one way and the horse went the other. I went flying off the edge of the arena. So thanks, Chelsea. but I've done it again, actually. I've pulled a rein with two hands again, because this horse, it was another grey horse up here. Didn't want to turn, so I pulled the rein. Don't learn. Anyway, luckily it didn't it did snap, but it didn't it didn't I didn't fall off it and I just had to pull the other rein and pull it in a circle to then get off, tie the rein on. I didn't go get new reins, I just tied the rein back to the bridle and got back on it and kept going with my great training program. well, training programs. I'm telling you now that's happened to me once in competition and I've tied the rein in a knot. But anyway, let's move away from having gear that breaks. Let's go to our final cool down question cubes. Here we go. Hey Coop de Loop. I just wanted to take you back a few years. You had a new love in your life and we're definitely still in the honeymoon period. We were all in the four star at Camden. You were in your love bubble and walked the course together. From memory you and Mads were actually one after each other in the drawer. And both got eliminated for missing a jump on the little loop de loop after the water. I just wanted to know if you guys still walked the course together. Hundred percent we still walk the course together 'cause she's great to walk the course with. We just need to learn how to count. but that was Camden's fault, to be fair. Cause the year before the year before we did it this way, and then the next year they just changed the jumps from that way to this way. So I don't know why they'd change the course on us. no, but Mads and I literally we I have learnt from the one thing that I actually have learnt with that is just to go through the course with some that you have not even You don't even you you don't walk the course with them. You may not even be very friendly with them. I just pull people randomly up. I'm like, hey, can I just go through the course with you? Because it's happened again that I they go, no, no, we gotta go here. I'm like, do we? Yeah, right. Okay, so then I'm out there trying to find the jump on cross country while I'm on my horse. We were kinda like, where is everyone? They're like, would you guys wanna just go? And we're like, Yeah, sure, we'll go. We know we're good. We're yep, great. So I went, I think first, got to the finish, waited for Mads, she got to the finish. were walking back, thought, how good? Yep, clear, just a bit of time, whatever, how good's that? Then they came up and said, you jumped the wrong fence. I said, What do you mean? They said, You guys did it this way. I Yeah, that's the way it goes. They're like, No, no, that's not the way I said, Well why did no one pull us up? And they said, 'cause you guys both did it. So we just thought you're doing the right thing. You had to canter past the ditch brush, then go to the water and then go back to the ditch brush that you'd already cantered past. It just didn't even make sense. that was that was good. Yeah, Coops, thanks so much for your time today. We just loved you joining our show.