Equestrian Legend - Margaret McIver

Margaret (Marg) Elizabeth (Young) McIver

7th August 1933 - 21st July 2020

We have Olympics on our mind at the moment, as did Marg McIver back in the early 1980s. As much as we think Olympic representation might be the pinnacle of our sporting life, for Marg it was a part, albeit an important part, in a life devoted to horses and horse sport. So much so that she influenced her husband, Ken, not from a horse background, to become hugely influential in the conduct of horse sport in Australia.

To get some insight into Marg’s equestrian life, Horse Deals spoke to former student and long-time friend, Moya Jess who first encountered Marg as a member of the Ballarat Pony Club.

“Marg Young was the youngest of six children,” explains Moya. “She was born at Gordon, 15 miles from Ballarat. Although not an enthusiastic horse family, Marg and her nearest brother in age, Ronald rode the one pony the three or four miles to the Gordon State School. Marg always said that is when she had her first riding lesson when her brother said; hey listen, if we are going to do this every day, when I go up, you go up and when I sit down, you sit down. A few years later, the family bought two unbroken horses as a project for the two youngest children to break in! One was a little mare called Howrie and there are pictures of Marg at about 15 and a beribboned Howrie at her first gymkhana.

“Marg was mainly self-taught from every book she could get her hands on. She started out in showjumping and had great success with a number of horses including Coralyn and Bonanza. The latter was sent to Art Uytendaal when Marg was pregnant, and he had great success with him as well. She won the prestigious Alice Laidlaw Memorial Trophy for Lady Riders Over Obstacles at Melbourne Royal Show in 1951.

“Marg married Ken McIver whose family owned a foundry in Ballarat in 1958 and reading between the lines, Ken really had no option there than become involved in the horse world, a task he excelled in, being EFA President in the early 1990s, an international showjumping courses designer, an eventing TD, and so much more. Marg became interested in eventing, and in 1967 Ken bought her Pyewacket to event. She had a lot of success in both dressage and eventing with him, and in the early 1970s Marg and Pyewacket were second in both the Gawler and Melbourne Three Day Event Olympic Trials and were shortlisted for the Munich Olympics in 1972, or at least Pyewacket was. At that time the powers that be wanted the horse, but not Marg, as they would not countenance a woman on the Eventing Team. They did not get Pyewacket.

“Marg gave up eventing, as she thought it was getting too hard on the horses and turned her competition interests towards dressage, although she loved to see any activity done well. She loved a great showjumping round; she loved a great Garryowen workout, and of course a great dressage test at any level. I met Marg when she was Chief Instructor at Ballarat Pony Club and later on I travelled with her up and down the East Coast of Australia taking CK to Dressage competitions and ultimately to the LA Games. The station bred Thoroughbred was bred by her neighbour, the late Colin Kelly, another equestrian legend, and Marg bought him as a youngster. In 1983 after winning a Grand Prix at Canberra under overseas judges, she decided to take CK to Europe to try and qualify for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. We flew out of Melbourne via New Zealand and Canada with cattle, sheep and horses, including jumpers bound for Europe and eventually on to LA. We were picked up at Stanstead (UK) airport and taken to Newmarket where we spent a week before heading to Germany to train.

“Marg and CK went to Fritz Templemann’s stables and her experience there was inspirational. A very young Nicole Uphoff was there, as well as a young Corlandus. All the dressage people in the world were in Germany at that time trying to qualify for LA. The Games were fabulous, but I think that time in Germany was an incredible experience. They did not do any good at the Games. Most of those horses had done hundreds of Grand Prix tests and CK had done just a few. The Germans dominated and Reiner Klimke, a lovely man, and Ahlerich won the Gold Medal. As is often the case, it was too expensive to bring CK back to Australia and he was sold to US jumping rider, Bernie Traurig.

“Marg was 51 at LA and when she came home she worked hard to produce horses. She had Frei Raj that she produced to Grand Prix and was always on the lookout for a talented youngster. All the while she was training young riders. She bought a horse by King (imp) from Ralph Grosby and called him Mr Templemann and he went to Grand Prix too. By this time Marg was 65.

“In 2007 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Ballarat University for her contribution to sport as an Olympian and coach and coach educator. She was always thinking of ways to advance training and in 1999, well before the internet boom we know today, she initiated tests to be videoed and sent to Europe to be judged by international judges. She was both an educator and an inspiration, as is explained by five-time Olympian (Tokyo would have been number six), Mary Hanna.

I always remember Marg McIver as a person with a quiet determination. She was quite steely in her resolve, so once she set her sights on competing at the LA Olympics, she went about overcoming every obstacle put in her path. In those days there were many things to overcome, but she achieved her dream through total dedication and focus.

To be the first dressage rider to represent her country at Olympic Games was a great achievement and set the way for those who followed. For me she showed just how determined you had to be to achieve this goal, so to gain my place at the Atlanta Olympics (1996), I very much followed her footsteps, with months of training in Europe and overcoming being the “Auslander.”

She told us many funny stories of her time in Europe and I often thought of her when facing my own challenges.

“Marg had such an eye for detail and was so fastidious about establishing the correct basics,” continues Moya Jess. “She was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000, was a level III coach, an A Level Judge and Victorian representative on the National Dressage Council.

“Marg was a life member of EA, the Victorian Dressage Club, NSW Dressage Council, Western Victorian Dressage Club and a Life Member of the Victorian Young Rider Dressage Squad. She was also Coach of the Young Rider Squad and its Parton. Marg influenced so many riders.”

One of the many is high profile and international Grand Prix rider and trainer, Maree Tomkinson.

When I first thought I might like to try to become a dressage rider I contacted Margaret McIver, our first Olympian. I travelled up to Ballarat every week and had the great privilege of training with Margie and sitting in her kitchen with Moya Jess, Norman Hubble, Robert Hammond and whoever happened to be there on any given day. Wide-eyed and hungry for knowledge of all things dressage, Olympic, international and good training, I would sit there drinking coffee and listening to her stories for hours, absorbing everything I could. Such wonderful times, and I was so lucky to start my dressage career with such a great trainer and mentor. Margaret was always such a kind and inspiring influence on many lives and through our whole sport. A very strong character that along with Ken developed the sport in Victoria and Australia to a different level, they were ahead of their time. I will always feel humbled and honoured to have trained with such a gracious, intelligent and talented lady and grateful to have been able to call Margie my friend through the years.

“She was so good at inspiring the younger riders to keep at it,” continues Moya. “Riders like, Claire Porz, Kellett McDonald, Jade Woodhead and Cherie McKonichke. That is really her legacy and that will continue on.

“Marg was a person immersed in the sport not just for her own competitive life, but also as a coach and administrator involved in every aspect of Australian and international equestrian life and was coaching up until late December 2019.” “She was totally dedicated to equestrian development,” says long time friend, Merrilyn Hamilton-Smith. “On the personal side, Marg loved dinners and celebrated heartily and I remember many, many happy occasions.”

“I saw her a few hours before she died,” says Moya. “We had some good times didn’t we? she said, and finally, always be honest to your horses. She passed away quickly, peacefully and surrounded by love; she was 86.

“If only we will all be so lucky.”

Article: Anna Sharpley.

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