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ABOUT SAM

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For the last twenty years he has continued to produce horses to the highest level and has had many successes. Whilst he has been riding at this level he has also become more heavily involved in coaching. For many years he has been a National and New South Wales showjumping coach for the elite Eventing squads This has included being the Assistant Coach on mulitple Trans Tasman teams, a World Championship team, the 2008 Olympic Team and the Head Coach for the Australian Young Rider Team.

In 2000 he was in the training squad for Sydney Olympics and in 2001 represented Australia in the Trans Tasman team.

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In 2008 he was the Assistant Australian Coach for the Eventing team at the Beijing Olympics.

 

In 2008 he also completed a Masters of Education Studies (Sports Coaching) from Sydney University.

 

Sam believes in training the horse to be as successful as possible but this must be done in a way that is fair on the horse and keeps the horse’s welfare and confidence always as the priority. With the coaching of riders he believes it is important to develop a plan to get each rider to the level they hope to achieve whether that is international or simply to get a place at the local preliminary event. With the selling of horses the most important thing is to match the right horse to the right rider, not just simply to get the horse sold.
 

 

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Sam began riding in 1989 when his family bought a five acre holiday farm that came complete with a horse. By chance this happened to be opposite a professional eventing rider and coach so a few months later he took part in his first event.

 

Over the next couple of years he started to do more and more events and by the time he left school in 1992 he had two horses he was competing at one star level on. In 1993 he moved to the farm to ride and train as much as he could and by the end of the year was competing at Two star level.

 

His breakthrough year came in 1995 when he won Gawler CCI 3 star and also had a 2nd and 3rd placing at the same level.


Sam was the World Young Rider champion for 1995 and was long listed for the Atlanta Olympics.


Unfortunately, he did not get to ride there and at the start of 1997 he moved to Europe with two horses to further his training and experience.

 

Whilst in England he represented Australia at the Open European Championships and completed Badminton twice. He also got to experience riding and competing many different horses.

 

He returned to Australia at the end of 1998 and has being living there ever since.

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In 2000 he was in the training squad for Sydney Olympics and in 2001 represented Australia in the Trans Tasman team.

 

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         Riding Career Highlights

·        Aus representative Trans Tasman 1996, 2001

·        Aus representative Open European Championships (Saumur) 1997

·        Completed Badminton Horse Trials 1997, 1998

·        1st Gawler CCI3*

·        1st Australian Championships

·        2nd Lochinvar CCI3*

·        2nd Melbourne CCI3*

·        3rd Melbourne CCI3*

·        9th Saumur  CCI3*

·        3rd Adelaide CCI4*

·        2nd Camperdown CCI3*

·        1st Camden Equestriad CIC3*

·        1st Quirindi CCI2*

 

         Coaching Career Highlights

·        NSW Elite Squad SJ coach

·        Assistant Australian Coach Senior Trans Tasman 2005, 2006

·        Assistant Australian Coach World Equestrian Games 2006

·        Coach Australian Young Rider Trans Tasman Team 2006

·        Assistant Australian Coach Beijing Olympic Games 2008

·        Coach Australian Trans Tasman Young Rider Team 2012 

·        Coach Australian Trans Tasman Young Rider Team 2015

·        Coach Australian Trans Tasman Senior Team 2017

·        Equestrian Australia Coach of the Year 2017

·        Equestrian NSW High Performance Coach of the Year 2017

·        Coach Australian Oceania Senior Team 2019

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