| About Us... Craig and I met on an American based horse forum on the internet. It was quite funny, as we were the only two aussies on there and were living 2000km apart. We were both in other relationships and even though we struck up a friendship through the forum, thats all it was! Down the track when both our relationships that we were in broke up, we were chatting and things developed from there! When we eventually announced that we were an item to our American forum friends, a number of them said they could see it coming - well, glad they could, we couldnt!! |
| Craig and I both come from a very horsey background. My grandfather got me into horses at a VERY young age and I have never been without at least one pony or a horse throughout my entire life. Craig has been into horses most of his life too and even while he was at sea, had a horse on dry land! |
| Craig was in the Police Force in NSW for a few years, and left to escape the city and pursue a life on the water, which he had always been attracted to. He then went north to QLD and started on boats and gained his Master Mariners Ticket and worked extensively around the top end of Australia. He ended up doing security work at a pearl farm for a while among other things like driving water taxis, commercial diving, salvage work, commercial fishing and delivery runs. He sailed south in his own boat, a salvage that he rebuilt, the Reef City One, and while skippering a tug had an |
| accident which put him off the water permanantly, and very nearly ended the use of his legs. He has a permanant problem with his shoulder and back now as a result but works around it and puts up with the pain. Craig worked as a Private Investigator for some time after recovering from his accident. |
| I went through Art College, majoring in Photography. I started freelancing as a photographer at a fairly young age doing Weddings, Portraiture, Equine Photography (including Shows), as well as doing some Design work and Pencil Portraits, which I have sent all over the world. I worked at the Whyalla News in SA for a while as a photographer, and darkroom operator before starting at a photographic shop as a manager. I built the shop up from being a very low rollage, low income shop to quite a thriving business in a short space |
| of time. After a few years I decided that I would head to Adelaide for a while and managed another photographic shop down there but lived in the Adelaide Hills so I could have my horses comfortably. Eventually I moved back to Whyalla and stayed there for a few years again after some pretty severe health problems which |
| are ongoing and havent been sorted out as yet, and more health problems that have popped up since. It is most frustrating to say the least. I havent been able to get back into the regular workforce since. VERY frustrating! I got involved with Riding For the Disabled and was helping out there as a volunteer for some time, as well as leasing one of their horses who was a bit harder to place with a leasee as he was fairly strong willed (though on the lead was an ideal RDA mount). I have been involved with Pony Club all my life, and have been instructing kids for many years at Pony Club. |
| Craig and I lived on a Thoroughbred Stud, as I previously mentioned, in the Upper Hunter Valley in NSW for a couple of years, and got married in the paddock alongside the house under a big old gum tree, on the horses. If you would like to see pics of our wedding click HERE to see two pages of photos! You can see how horse filled it was! We moved to South Australia when we bought my Grandparents property when they moved into a nursing home. I had grown up here in the area - at Wudinna and Minnipa, and had always loved my Grandparents place and dreamed of owning it one day. I honestly didnt think it would become a reality! Since being here we have bought a little more land, and while we dont have as much space as what we would like, we make what we do have work for us. It has taken a lot of work, but Craig has done wonders with the place getting the entire place refenced and yards built. We are breeding Cleveland Bay, Warmblood and Coloured Sporthorses. We want to provide a sane, sensible, sound horse for people who want something a little bit special. With both Craigs and my history with horses, we make a good team and are able to handle most situations. Being 300km from our vets, we need to be able to handle pretty much everything ourselves. Craig is great at stitching up too if its required! We keep a fridge stocked full of the various drugs that we may need and have a vet kit that would make any travelling vet proud! (We had the vet here and needed a certain drug - he didnt have it with him, but we had it in the fridge!) Basically the only things we get the vet to do are the insurance checks on foals and to sign any paperwork and insert microchips that are required to be done by a vet for registration purposes. We are no where near done yet, but we are getting there. It all takes time! We dont have any human children yet - but have plenty of fur kids.... When people ask if we have children, we say with a laugh "Yes, lots - but all ours we can legally shoot or sell" - Parents of toddlers or teenagers often say "Why didnt we think of that?"....... The lifestyle is just what we need. I get too stressed out in large crowds of people and cant cope, so the very quiet life suits me best, and thankfully Craig is a bit the same - hes not keen on big crowds or traffic! I have Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (Yellow Wiggles Disease is what we call it - its what the Yellow Wiggle had and had to leave the kids entertainment group from), as well as Bi Polar Disorder and Anxiety and Stress issues. The horses are great 'therapy' even though I cant physically do anything with them these days - Its been ages since I have even been ON a horse for 5 minutes let alone actually try to ride properly... But just knowing they are in the paddock is all the therapy I need! Its most frustrating because I have to do everything from a sitting position, and if I try to do anything standing, I end up passing out - NOT good when you are around horses! |
| It was because of his accident and injury that he was spending time on the computer and we got to know each other as posters on the horse forum. He left the Private Investigation job to go manage a Thoroughbred Stud which we actually got while looking for a pony for a friend of mine as I was taking my old pony off her to move to NSW at the time! We didnt find a pony, but found a job that came with a house instead! |