Hall of riding fame

By Lia Bichel
Sarah Hall is riding out her childhood dream.
At 6 years, she had her own first horse.
Until then, she had only dreamt of competing and owning her own horse, having watched her mother and grandparents take theirs to competitions.
One year later, she joined the Pakenham Pony Club, and when she was 8, she entered her first competition at Narre Warren Combined Training Day.
“I was entered in the baby class, Grade 5, with my horse Folley,” she laughed. “I remember being very nervous.”
Since then, Ms Hall has competed in too many competitions to count, and for the past five years, has been competing in Equestrian Federation of Australia (EFA) events. She trains with an instructor once a week, rides her horses every day, and spends countless hours grooming and preparing for competition, where she and her horse do Dressage, Show Jumping and Cross Country.
“It’s a very busy schedule and a lot of hard work, but it pays off,” she said. “You have to do the hard yards if you want to do well.”
From 1998, she took her horse Will through the smallest grade to three state championships and three state flat team competitions in Geelong.
She sold Will in 2005 to purchase a Welsh Cob cross thoroughbred Billy, who has helped the 24-year-old reach one of her childhood dreams, competing and winning at the andin two-day event.
“It was pretty cool. It’s one of those events I use to go and watch as a kid and hope to one day conquer the ‘Big Wandin’ course, it felt great to cross it off the list” she said. Ms Hall said she would continue to ride Billy, but also hoped to one day compete with Billy’s younger brother, 4-year-old Jet.
“I have taken Billy from Grade 4 through to Pre-novice, four classes in three years,” she said, “So I hope Jet follows in his brother’s footsteps!”
Ms Hall said she may eventually scale back to compete with one horse instead of two, but has no set plans.
She does know, however, that she wants to fulfil her second childhood dream of competing in Melbourne’s three-day event in June, and will make news goals once she has accomplished that.
“I have a five-to-ten-year plan, but I am just going to ride it out and see how it goes,” she said. “I want to keep riding for awhile, it’s something I am passionate about.”
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