Young Rider - Sam Jeffree

This story is from the August 2019 Horse Deals magazine.

Age: 21

Lives: Macclesfield, Victoria.

Education/occupation: Finished Year 12 at school and have been a full-time rider since then.

How would you best describe yourself? Determined.

Family history with horses? My mum has been a huge part of my riding. She enjoys riding herself and is a great help with the business. Mum’s parents were both involved in horses too. Dad has no history with horses, yet is a huge support and helps us with the property, and my older brother Jack only ever rides a surf-board!

What age did you start riding? Pre-school. My family day carer sent me home with Moffat, a pony her children had learnt to ride on. He was never to be for sale but was a perennial kid’s pony passed from family to family!

Tell us about your first pony. Moffat was terrific in those very early years, but I quickly outgrew him (he didn’t go fast enough for me!). My first real pony that I owned was Arakei, he was a feisty, naughty chestnut, but I loved him and we spent a lot of time together. It took a long time to get ourselves on track, but by our last year we knew each other inside out and he would do anything for me. He took out the Victorian Interschool Showjumping series that year.

What was your first competition? A pony club horse trials on the Mornington Peninsula, the entry was my 8th birthday present (you could not compete in PCAV horse trials until you were 8 and I had been waiting impatiently for that time to arrive).

Did you enjoy your schooling? On the whole yes, but being a boy who loved to ride horses made for some challenging times at school too!

How did you prepare for finishing school and jumping into horses full time? I didn’t really! I had planned to go to university, was accepted and actually started the course for a few weeks, but it didn’t take long for me to lose motivation and decide I needed to follow my heart and my passion. After that I just set about getting a horse business set up. I don’t think you can truly prepare for it and I am continuing to learn the entire time. Along the way I have got my coaching qualifications too, but mainly I am focused on getting a strong team of top-level horses around me.

Congratulations on a super successful season, especially with Woodmount Lolita, taking the win in the CCI2-S at Wandin and CCI2-L Melbourne 3DE. Can you tell us how Lily came into your life and what your partnership is like? Lily came to us from a young dressage rider to be ridden and sold. At first, we did not realise her potential as she lacked a bit in her work, but she really blossomed in those first few months where she just kept getting better and better. It was like she was just born to be an eventer and the more I worked with her the harder she tried for me. At that point I really wanted to keep the ride and the owners gave me first option to find another owner to keep her as part of the team. I was so lucky Fiona Mitchell came on board and trusted my judgment on Lily. She really is something, even more special than what we were seeing at the time, which is clear by her recent win at Melbourne! Our journey has given me more confidence in being able to identify horses that have what it takes to be successful in this sport.

What’s been the most challenging point in your career and how have you overcome it? Horses will always challenge you and they have a mind of their own, which makes our sport so unique and different from any other, as to do well we have to have two athletes at peak performance at the same time. But apart from the questions horses will give you on a daily basis, the most challenging point so far has been riding Calypso at Adelaide, and along the same line at Melbourne, where he has been leading going into the showjumping and knowing I’m sitting on a horse that isn’t the bravest in the ring. He has never done well in that sort of atmosphere, so to always have lost it on him has really taught me how to try and ride to the best of my ability under pressure, even on a horse that you can’t afford to make any tiny mistakes on. I think this is a really good skill to have obtained early in my career. It has put me in really good positions when I am on good showjumping horses like Lily this year at Melbourne, to really focus and handle the pressure while still riding well.

Not many young riders have horse owners outside of family. How did you manage to secure owners at your young age? Mainly luck! I seriously have no idea what I did to get so lucky, but I appreciate the opportunity that it gives me every single day. Fiona always tells me that you make your own luck, which adds to my motivation to continue working hard. We are always open to new owners though and want to keep building the Jeffree Eventing team to take more horses and people along with us on this journey.

You also have a talented youngster Wimborne Conjuror. How has his event career kicked off and what does the future hold for him? Connor was purchased straight from the Wimborne Park stud, and he has so much talent he impressed me from the very first minute I saw him! But he is also a sensitive horse, so we have deliberately kicked his career off at a pace decided upon by him, I have wanted to keep him really confident at each level and let him tell us when he is ready to step up the levels. He is a horse that I need to take time with to build a great relationship and I think after that everything will fall into place. We really believe he will be a top-level horse so it is important to get it right now. Having said that, he is only six and has had his first 1 star start at the end of last season, so it isn’t like he is doing too badly! He will spend the rest of this year consolidating that level and all going well will move into FEI classes in 2020.

What other horses are a part of your current team? Jaybee Calypso has been my top level horse for a while. He was really the one who helped me learn a lot about riding the higher levels, particularly in dressage and cross country as mentioned before. He has been the horse who took me to State Championships at pony club, National Championships at Interschool and to International 3 day events like Melbourne and Adelaide, so although he is not getting younger, he is still an integral part of the team at the moment. Koyuna Tactician is another exciting horse. He has had some time off, but will hopefully be re-joining the competition team soon. I take on horses for training both long and short term, so there tends to be other horses coming and going too.

Which horse has taught you the most important lesson? They all teach me so much and having so many different rides really helps develop my riding in so many aspects, but Calypso has probably taught me the most. He is a super horse in the dressage and cross country, so he has taught me so much in those phases and his showjumping has definitely taught me humbleness, resilience and not to take anything for granted.

At the time of this interview you are working for the one and only Boyd Martin in the US. How did the opportunity come up to work with the renowned event rider? I knew I wanted to go overseas for a while to expand my knowledge as much as I could in the off-season and my coach Will Enzinger suggested Boyd and knew him so got in touch with him for me, and then it all just fell into place from there. Boyd was very welcoming and has been great but was quick to put me to work!

How have your days differed from being back at home? With a huge number of horses and grooms, the days at Windurra are more regimented in some ways and follow a set routine. At home each day varies for me a lot more, depending on what is on.

What are Will Enzinger’s best words of advice for you? Will has been my coach right from the start, but I am struggling to find his best words of advice because I can’t narrow it down to one defining thing. He has shaped me as a rider and a person too, so the list is endless really. There were times when I was riding and I thought it felt awesome, but then Will makes me work my butt off and it pushes us to the next level. Then again, at other times he teaches me that sometimes we have to be happy with just a small incremental change. I guess overall he has taught me to ride what I have on the day, because each day and horse is different. He has been there through all the ups and downs for me and always has a positive attitude, so I think I have learnt too that no matter what happens you just need to deal with it.

What is the secret to your success? I don’t think there is one particular thing but I have been fortunate to have a great support crew and sponsors. There is actually a sign here at Boyd’s in the tack room that says “Dreams only work if you do”, which I think is a great start!

What are your future plans? To get to the top level and be the best rider I can be.

Can’t live without? Sleep!

3 things we don’t know about Sam Jeffree?
1. At events I usually always have a party packet of mixed lollies in the truck, which I like to refer to as the Jeffree Eventing version of protein bars!
2. My favourite music artist is Kygo.
3. To get into focus mode at big competitions, especially when I am nervous, I take myself off and listen to a motivational song or speech to get in the right zone.

Sign up to our newsletter