Working & Winning with Prof. Brad Frankum OAM

This article is from the November 2019 Horse Deals magazine.

Brad, what does a normal working week look like for you in your job as a Consultant Clinical Immunologist and Allergy Specialist? I work two days in the Public Hospital system and three days in private practice per week.

Mondays I work as the Executive Clinical Director at Campbelltown Hospital, a rapidly growing teaching hospital on the southwest outskirts of Sydney. This is essentially a Chief of Medical Staff role, where I oversee issues like doctor performance, strategic planning, research and teaching.

On Wednesdays I work in a busy outpatient Immunology and Allergy clinic with a group of colleague Immunologists, trainee specialists and specialist nurses. We see the full range of Immune disease including complex allergies, autoimmune diseases, and immunodeficiency disorders. Once per month I also run a clinic at our local Aboriginal Medical Service.

I am on call for one week out of five for the hospital where I have to be available for emergencies, consults from other medical teams, and advice to the Emergency Department and local GPs.

The other three days of the week I work in private specialist practice doing similar work. I see both adults and children. These days are usually pretty full-on, from 9am until 6.15pm. Often I see around 30 patients. I set up this practice five years ago and now there are seven specialists from a range of specialties working with me (in Narellan, NSW).

What commitments do you have at the stables before and after work? I ride two or three horses in the morning from 6am, five or six days per week. My horses are stabled on my own 12-hectare property at Orangeville, NSW.

Tuesday through Saturday I employ a groom, Kirrily Stafford for four hours, who feeds up, does the stables, tacks up and puts the horses away because I have to be finished by 7.30am to get to work. Kirrily is a good rider and can exercise the horses for me if I have an early start. Kirrily comes to most of the shows with me also. In the evenings, another local horserider, Monique, who is just finishing Year 12, puts the horses to bed and feeds up for me.

On Sundays and Mondays, I do the morning work and ride by myself on Sunday if there is no show.

How many horses do you have in work and what is their workload? At present I have Oaks Calypso who is an eight-year-old I purchased from Oaks Sport Horses just over two months ago, who has just started jumping Mini Prix at the NSW/ACT Championships; Warraleigh Park Umbrayas who is a seven-year-old who I’ve just stepped up to 1.30m, who I purchased just over a year ago from the Sheehan family who live nearby to me at The Oaks; and AB Rottina, who is a Warmblood mare jumping 1.10-1.15m.

I have two mares in foal. One is Diamond B Vittoria who is in foal to Baluga, and Oaks Cotillion, in foal to Oaks Blue Magic.

Showjumping preparation takes a lot of time and effort. How do you make it all happen and keep your horse fit and tuned on limited time? I pride myself on the horses being very fit, well cared for and happy. Most of the work at home is on the flat, with some hills and paddock work. I don’t over-jump at home.

The real challenge for me is getting to enough shows. Work commitments severely limit my ability to travel these days, and being on call for a week at a time at the hospital (one week in five) means I have to be within reach of the hospital and available on the phone 24 hours a day. I can’t tell you how often my on-call seems to end up being when I want to go to a show! At the recent Waratah Show at SIEC, I was taking calls from the hospital, attending to a couple of fellow competitors who had nasty falls, and trying to jump the biggest tracks I’ve jumped in about 15 years! Needless to say, my performances weren’t stellar. I’m toying with the idea of taking long service leave from the hospital next year and doing more competition... I have about three and a half years of leave owing. That tells you how difficult it is for specialists to get leave from their commitments in the public hospital system.

Do you do any fitness work other than riding? I do a lot of fitness training. I do CrossFit five days a week after work. I previously did martial arts and have a black belt in karate. CrossFit is good because it is high intensity and combines weightlifting, cardio and gymnastics, and I can do it after work when it’s dark. At 54, and with only limited time to ride, I need to stay fit and not gain weight. I do a few CrossFit Masters competitions when I can.

What are some of your proudest moments in your riding career and in your job? My best achievements in jumping came on a difficult but brilliant little chestnut thoroughbred called Pelican’s Rest Cougar who won two World Cup Qualifiers and places in many others, the NZ Horse of the Year and Norwood Gold Cup, and was shortlisted for WEG in 2002. He qualified for the WC final that year also, but injury prevented him from going. I also had another lovely thoroughbred called Pelican’s Rest Macarthur Park who placed in multiple WC qualifiers. As a kid, I had a great pony called Kelly who I had lots of success with too.

As far as my medical work is concerned, I think my proudest achievement was to have a big role in setting up the Medical School at Western Sydney University, and doing a lot of work on designing, writing and instituting the curriculum. The medical school continues to produce fine young doctors who are going out looking after the health of our community. I have also been involved in the massive growth and development of the health system in south-western Sydney, and in particular Campbelltown Hospital, which has been necessary, challenging and rewarding. I received an OAM for this work.

I was President of the AMA NSW Branch for 2 years, and deeply involved in medical politics. I campaigned strongly for marriage equality and its importance as a health issue, the need for an end to the government’s freeze on Medicare rebates, equality in health funding, and ending mandatory detention of refugees by Australia in Nauru and PNG. I also pushed for a national strategy to tackle obesity and the need for a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. Needless to say, I didn’t always make myself popular to certain sections of the population, or indeed the less progressive elements in the medical profession.

Do you have a strapper to help you on the morning of a competition and what jobs do they assist with? I have a fantastic support crew who facilitate my riding. My wife Anett, who is also a doctor, owns the horses with me and has really made a lot of sacrifices to enable me to keep showjumping for all these years. And she’s my number one fan who never doubts my ability, even when I sometimes do. We’ve been happily married for 25 years. I think we keep the balance right. I have two awesome older teenaged kids who I was initially disappointed didn’t pursue riding, but now I’m proud to see them doing their own thing, and that allows me to not have to give up the ride on the horses to anyone else!

What’s the biggest challenge for you? For me, the biggest drags in the sport are the travel, which is a challenge when you are always busy, and competing to get entries in before all the spots are taken. Especially when you are trying to pick where young horses are up to and what they’re ready for. And organising farriers, and feed, and vetting, and farm maintenance. Sometimes I think the riding is the easy part.

I’ve had some great coaching over the years from George Sanna, Jamie Coman, and my mother Jenny and sister Jane (both exceptional horsewomen). That is another challenge for me now with my busy professional life - finding time to get some coaching and advice. I need to work on that!

What sacrifices do you have to make to do it all, and do it all successfully? As far as sacrifice is concerned personally, I don’t really look at the world that way. I consider the horses a choice rather than a sacrifice. A few years ago I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to pursue my academic university career further. I’ve been a Professor now for 15 years, and could have climbed further up the University hierarchy. I would have had to travel overseas more for conferences, put more time into research, and generally play the academic game more. I decided I wanted to keep being a clinician, look after my patients well, and find more time for riding, and I don’t regret that decision at all.

The future? I think the depth of riding talent in our sport is really the biggest change in the last 20 years. Followed by the quality of horses. There are some exceptional young riders going around. I hope they have longevity in the sport. I also hope we can keep some of the best horses in Australian hands. For me, I just want to compete over big tracks again, and have fun doing it. I want to give the horses I have the best training and the best ride I can, so they achieve their potential, and are happy doing it. I also love the complexity of the sport, and the need to problem-solve every day you’re working with horses. I do think showjumping appeals to people who are analytical by nature. Many of my best friends are from the showjumping world, so that’s part of the motivation too. Riding horses over poles doesn’t save lives or make the world a better place, but it sure is a great challenge and keeps me getting out of bed (very early) every morning!

What words of advice can you give to other amateur riders who want success in all aspects of their lives? Hard work is the most important factor in achieving success. More important than talent or money.

Don’t waste time comparing yourself to others, and try not to worry what others think of you. That especially goes for the horse world, where everyone will have an opinion about your riding, and your horses. Just be always trying to improve.

Be compassionate and kind. It gets you a long way in life. Seems like the world could do with a bit more of both at the moment.

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