Equestrian Legend - Rod Brown

This article is from the August 2020 Horse Deals magazine.

COVID 19 has pretty much relegated everyone to homebase. Rather than lament the loss of competition, Rod is relishing the opportunity to spend time at home and time with the young horses. The motivation for all riders is the love of horses, but it seems that for Rod it is the love of the horses more so than the love of competition that has sustained him in his long and successful career. There have been many outstanding career highlights; the Seoul Olympics in 1988 the 2006 WEG, as well as domestic and international success. But for Rod, whose lifestyle has forever been on the move with the constant round of coaching and shows, his greatest equestrian thrill was being at the Barcelona Nations Cup Final in 2015 when his daughter Jess riding Casco, a member of the Australian Team, was the talk of the show and the international media.

“I can’t remember not being interested in horses,” says the Melbourne born rider and coach. “When I was very young we lived in Ascot Vale and Dad had a business breaking in Thoroughbreds and trotters, and I took every opportunity I could just to be around the horses. All I wanted was a horse, I had no ambition at that time to jump or compete, I just wanted a horse. I didn’t get one until I was 13, but I was around them all the time.” Living in Lysterfield at the time, Rod had the good fortune to join the Dandenong Ranges Pony Club, one of the most influential and successful clubs then. Rod would ride Geronimo, a skewbald, the 20 odd kilometres to and from the club to attend rallies and gymkhanas. “It was not long after I started at pony club and jumped a few cavaletti that I got the jumping bug. I loved the gymkhanas and wanted to go in everything; hacking, riding and jumping classes. In those days, my jumping saddle was a racing exercise pad and I had a stock saddle for the hacking classes.”

Rod was fortunate in those formative years to receive coaching from equestrian legends, Joan Pearson, Mary Williamson and Jess Tomlinson. “They were absolutely fantastic and a great influence on me. Dandenong Ranges was a great environment for someone young to learn and realise what riding was all about. The professionalism was so good and I am sure you would not get that at any other pony club in the world. The pony club was a magnet for good young riders. Rod made the B Jumping Team with Blue Boy with tough competition from Eric Musgrove, the Mallinsons and the Kell girls, to name just a few of the top pony club riders at the time.

He had to pay his way at the time and in order to take his Sir Pampas by Black Pampas to the Melbourne Three Day Event, Rod got a job milking cows before school. He would get up at 4.30am, ride 25 kilometres to the dairy, milk cows, leave the horse at the dairy and catch the school bus. It was all repeated in reverse in the evening. “I got sick of getting off and on all the way to open and close the gates on the way there and back, so I put branches on the top strands of barbed wire and jumped the fences; it was much quicker.” All in all, great preparation for the three day event. And the cross country went very well except for the two fences missed.

The pony club provided Rod with good catch rides, namely the Kell family’s, Waverley that he rode to win the Gippsland Championships and the then famous Red Hill Show Puissance. By this time, horses were Rod’s life. “I thought of doing other things, but I don’t think I could have given it my full attention, because I was always thinking about horses. Rod continued to be lucky which major influences in his riding life. In the 60s and 70s, Dutchman, Art Uytendaal was based just out of Melbourne. He was one of the most dominant riders and trainers in Australia at the time and a big influence on Rod. “Art played a huge part in my riding development. My generation that grew up in Melbourne was fortunate to see Art at his best. His horses were presented and trained differently from all the others and they jumped in a better style and he rode in a more classical way. Art was the rider I tried to style myself on.” Rod then worked with the late Captain Harry Sanna and young George Sanna on the outskirts of Hobart. Captain Harry, a former Hungarian Army officer also made an impression on the young horseman. “When you saw him ride, and he did not ride so much in those days, you could see the depth of knowledge he had and that there was so much more to riding classically.”

The connection Rod made with George Sanna resulted some years later in forming EBAA, (Equestrian Bloodstock Agency of Australia) with John McMillan. But before EBAA got successfully off the ground, Rod learnt a tough lesson that most professional horsemen understand. Rod sold his beloved, Hiji San, a talented then B Grade jumper that he had nursed through an almost career-ending hock injury. Fully recovered, Hiji was on the verge of making a serious impact on Australian showjumping. “It really hit home to me then more than ever before, that I could not afford the luxury of keeping good horses if I wanted to keep riding at the top level. EBAA proved a great success and “a wonderful environment for my riding to flourish with the help of George and John.”

And flourish it did with Rod being selected to ride for Australia at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games riding the Thoroughbred mare, Slinky that he has produced from the outset. Friend and business partner, George Sanna was also on the team riding EBAA Schnapps. Rod and Slinky finished 26th out of 114 riders. “To make the final at Seoul was amazing; George did as well (25th); it was a huge thrill. But Slinky had to go and again it was a tough decision for Rod to sell her. She was bought by famous and influential American rider and trainer, George Morris. “George Morris is the best teacher I have ever seen and I’ve seen a few very good teachers,” says Rod. “Very quickly after I got Slinky, I realised as good as she was, she was a very tricky ride,” adds George Morris. “Slinky was one of the most difficult horses I have ever ridden in a Grand Prix and this renewed and enlarged my respect for Rod as a horseman, as she apparently slipped around like nothing for him. I had some success with her, but nothing like Rod at the Seoul Olympics.”

Rod was appointed National Showjumping Coach in 1990, a position he held until 1998. Following a connection made at the 1990 Stockholm WEG, Rod and George did a nine-month tour of Eastern Europe based in Poland. The trip included a win for Australia in the Nations Cup at Kiskunkalas in Hungary with the late Susan Bond and Colleen Brook on the team.

In 1994, Rod won the Australian Showjumping Championships riding the Thoroughbred, EBAA Spirit. In the second half of the 90s Rod, along with John McMillan, established Equus Australia based at Kulnura just north of Sydney where Rod remains today. Over this time and for a number of years Rod was seen less at the domestic shows, as he spent much of his time overseas and when at home was committed to the breeding and training programme at Equus. Around this time too, Greg and Cathy Chapman acquired the now legendary Thoroughbred, Mr Burns, so-called as he was saved from the knackery of the same name. Burns was sent to Rod to work and find someone to ride him. The big horse had a lot of work at home, but did not go to many shows. However, he turned B Grade quite quickly, as he always came home with a bow. “I could not commit to taking one horse to World Cup shows,” says Rod, “so he went to Jamie Coman until he was appointed National Showjumping Coach in 2002.” After that Andrew Inglis was given the ride with Athens Olympic selection in mind. He did not go to Athens, but he won a Grand Prix in Europe before returning to Australia in 2004. After a break, the Chapmans again sent him to Rod. At last, Rod had a horse that did not need to be sold. They won the 2006 Australian Showjumping Championships and earned a spot on the Team for the Aachen WEG in the same year. “I’m just enjoying jumping the big tracks,” said Rod at the time, “Aachen is a bonus.”

“I hung up my boots not long after Aachen. I was at the stage that if I wanted to compete, I wanted to do so at the highest level. I had a lot of good young horses at the time, but not a horse for the top sport, so I concentrated on the young horses at home and started to do a lot of coaching and working with the eventers in particular. I was official Showjumping Coach for them until recently and I do a lot of work with the NSW squad. Also at that time, my daughter Jessica started to become a more serious rider and I was involved in competition really through her. She has had great advantages as a Junior and a Young Rider, but she was not handed anything on a silver platter, she has had to work for her opportunities. She has had the best of both worlds and was always very fastidious and hardworking with the horses from an early age.

“Watching Jess’ progress and her success, especially riding Casco at the Barcelona National Cup Finals, has given me the greatest pleasure. We saw Casco in Europe, he was with Carl Hanley and I don’t think they had the greatest opinion of him. He was a bit rigid and went with his nose stuck out, but he could jump and I liked him and when I rode him, I really liked him and I thought we could do something with him. Back in Australia, it did not take him long to get the idea and he jumped well here and was amazing in Barcelona. Jess rode beautifully and he jumped beautifully. Stevie Macken was our Chef d’ Equipe at the time and he is a dealer; he had two calls about Casco before he and Jess had left the ring. Barcelona was the highlight of my career; it was a wonderful, emotional time.

“I am not breeding so many now. In many ways, it is easier to buy young horses and bring them on. Breeding can be heartbreaking, as you do lose a few. We recently sold the talented Coachella that we bought from Germany as a five-year-old to connections of US-based Australian Matt Williams. This was hard for Jess and she has had to learn the lessons I learnt all those years ago. COVID-19 is giving us a wonderful time to work on the young horses and we have seven at home and Equus Echo is back in action ready for whenever competition resumes. At the moment, I am enjoying my time at home, but no doubt when things get going again, so will I.”

“I have always looked at photos of classical riders like Mexico Individual Gold Medallist, Bill Steinkraus and wanted to ride like them. I don’t like horses that are not nice to ride and if they are not nice, I’ve got to make them better.” Rod’s philosophy and practice of enjoying the process of training in and of itself ultimately leads to success in competition. He has striven all his riding life with improvement being the goal and success flows from that. It is a successful approach and well worth emulating.

Article: Anna Sharpley

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