Jamie leaps onto world stage

Jamie, Woolsheds, broke new ground earlier late last year as the first Australian to compete at a Federation Equestre Internationale World Cup Vaulting event.

After being invited to take part in the Salon du Cheval de Paris, he won third place in the competition.

Jamie has long loved animals and competition, which is reflected in his sporting and side career.

“I started my first farming enterprise of a dozen crossbred chickens when I was four years old,” he said.

“In primary school, I showed chicken, eggs and even my poor Koolie farm dog was forced to take a bath so he could compete in the pet parade with me.”

He started riding at six years old and, after he fell off his pony, his mother Sarah took him to vaulting lessons so he could develop a safer riding seat. Fifteen years later, he is vaulting competitively across the globe.

Vaulting is described by Equestrian Australia as “gymnastics and dance on horseback”.

“Balancing on the back of a big and powerful animal is an amazing feeling,” Jamie said. “They have a moment of suspension in canter where all their hooves are suspended off the ground for just a moment.

“If you have a good strength and gymnastic skill and can move very softly on your horse, you start to feel like you are flying.”

The invitation to the FEI world cup came as a surprise to Jamie.

He had been working with eight-year-old horse French Kiss for about two years and this was their first year of “serious” competition together.

“Horses in Europe aren’t allowed to compete at international level until they are seven years old, so (French Kiss) is considered very inexperienced,” he said.

“This is why I am so proud of its achievements this past year.”

Jamie said the idea of competing at a World Cup always seemed to be a “long-distance” goal, so he was honoured to be the first to represent Australia.

Jamie’s next goal is to try to compete in the World Equestrian Games in the United States this year.

For the past few years, Jamie has been based at Jelling, Denmark, working with coach Lasse Kristensen. To fund his airfares and competition expenses, Jamie works “as many odd jobs as I can” back in Australia, including at a local piggery.

At nine years old, Jamie borrowed money from his parents to buy a ram and 10 Polwarth ewes from Victor Harbor stud Ashby.

“I paid it back in three years and through my primary and secondary school years the sheep brought me some really good income to fund my sport,” he said.

Jamie said the sheep were still proving their worth after he took a “horsefloat full of wool” to Michell Wool, and sold the 2016-drop of lambs through Richard Jones Livestock, Mallala.

“Fortunately wool prices were really good again,” he said. “I got my tax back, my wool cheque, my stock agent’s cheque and all that together was enough to get back to Copenhagen plus set a bit aside for competition.”

Jamie said it could be tricky to find the balance between work and competition but he got home when he could.

“Home is definitely Woolsheds,” he said. “I’m not going to see much of it in the next few years if my plans work out the way I hope, but home will always be SA.”