For Carolyn Law, now Lieutenant, and in her 81st year, the continuation of her story is nothing but fascinating. To set the picture, Carolyn lives in a wonderful small house in Bowral in the NSW Southern Highlands — and finding a spare hour to chat is not easy!

“An opportunity arose
to take a horse to Japan.”

“I am sorry, but tomorrow I am off to watch my dressage horse work and to help a little with some of the other horses in training, then of course Saturday is the day I spend watching the races, so the day after that will be great.” Her wonderful home and fabulous garden and roses are always neat and tidy. With her faithful Staffie always around, we agreed to chat about the next decade from her 20s into her 30s.

To recap for those who may have missed part one, having been touring around Europe with her great friend Ann Bary, it was back to life at Aunt Muriel’s in London and to work and replenish the coffers at Dickens & Jones in the aprons and overalls department. Eventually, it was time to leave and head home to Gisborne in New Zealand. The reality was the money was running out!

Prior to leaving for the UK Carolyn was quite successful on a plain bay ex-rabbiter’s horse named Tony, with the pair winning the FEI Showjumping Cup at the Gisborne Show two years in a row — much to everyone’s surprise, as it was her first year in adult classes! For sure the first win, amongst local top riders, may have been a bit of a lucky break in their minds, but the second win put paid to that and gained Carolyn a great deal of silent respect. On her return from Europe, she had plenty of admirers who were no doubt keen to see the development with her experiences overseas — however this would not be with Tony, who found a new home while she was away.

Fortunately, a friend of Carolyn’s father had promised to keep a horse for when she returned, and he stayed true to his word. This horse was a charming and obliging plain brown gelding named The Saint. However, riding him would have to wait — in 1962, Carolyn took up a great opportunity when she was invited to Melbourne to groom for Pam Southby and to attend Melbourne Royal. The horse she groomed for was Jalna, and he went on to win Champion Hack at that Royal Show. At the end of the show she met up with Bridget ‘Bud’ MacIntyre (later Hyem) and Doug Green and they went on a road trip, competing at shows through north-west Victoria and then ended up at Bud’s property near Muswellbrook in NSW.

Bud had given Carolyn a black horse, appropriately called Kiwi, to compete at the time and she remembers coming third in a rescue relay with Barry Roycroft and never jumped a fence. Kiwi refused to jump. Knowing that this was on the cards, Barry took over and completed two clear rounds. It was at this time that Doug Green rode horses for the Fields, a family that would play a big part in Carolyn’s life later down the track.

It was again time to head back to NZ and return to working The Saint. Very soon an opportunity arose to take a horse to Japan to compete at the 1963 Tokyo Sportsweek, an event held the year prior to the 1964 Olympics as a trial event. The NZ horse society invited interested parties who would be willing to form a showjumping team, however the deal was that the horses had to be sold to Japan while there to finance the trip.

“Carolyn’s father swapped
a television set for the
station-bred Marcus.”

Always up for an adventure, Carolyn and The Saint headed off to Tokyo as part of the NZ team, Carolyn by air and the horse by sea! Japan and NZ were the only countries competing, and the team of four NZ horses claimed the gold medal. NZ’s Peter Sherriff won gold individually, and Carolyn and The Saint were individual silver medallists. Carolyn recalls a friend of her father’s once remarking that she would never make a national team, as ‘women didn’t have the killer instinct’. She was already proving that statement wrong!

Like a homing pigeon, it was back to Gisborne again. Life for Carolyn was one event to another, and a new horse entered the picture. Carolyn’s father swapped a television set for the station-bred Marcus, who became one of Carolyn’s favourite and most successful horses. She admits that if she had known more about advanced dressage this horse would have been a great Grand Prix candidate. With his former owner, Snowy Mossman, Marcus was a hunter and after which he would stand in the trailer outside the pub for many an hour. Friends convinced Snowy to sell the horse, as they were all afraid that unloading him at home late after the pub may have been his undoing! It was a great outcome for Carolyn.

The 17-hand Marcus would never walk, only jog. He was a fabulous jumper with amazing elastic paces and became a serious all-rounder. In 1967 he won Champion Hack, Champion Hunter and Champion Dressage Horse (Medium level) at the NZ Horse of the Year Show, and on the final day topped it off with a win in the Puissance — and also competed in a rescue relay! Carolyn also showed him in side-saddle and evented him very successfully over winter.

It was time to get out again, this time to work as a nanny and farm hand at Peter Murphy’s property, Panikau station, near Gisborne, where they raised sheep and cattle. Peter also had an imported Lipizzaner stallion and bred a few nice horses from him. The thoroughbred Harringay (aka Harry) was a handsome horse and Peter gave him to Carolyn to compete on. It was at this time that Karl Jurenak would go to NZ for clinics, and he was impressed with Carolyn’s riding — this would eventually lead Carolyn to yet another exciting opportunity.

As Peter had lost his driving licence, Carolyn needed to drive the little open-topped truck to shows, which necessitated acquiring a heavy vehicle licence. The roads around Panikau were steep and winding, but that wasn’t going to stop her. For the test, she took the truck loaded with wool bales down the road to meet with the policeman, and he said: “If you can get that laden truck down here you deserve your licence!”

It was then off to Rotorua for the first ever three-day event in NZ with Harringay. Carolyn admits that his totally upside down neck was no advantage in the dressage phase, but despite this they were 13th after the dressage. No problems on cross country day, and up to third, but one rail down in the showjumping and it was back to fourth for Harringay and Carolyn. Not bad for a first three-day event!

Back at Panikau, and it was 2am starts due to the summer heat, to muster sheep for shearing and then help with five children. It was some job, but Carolyn loved it and was there from 1963 to 1965. She then moved to work for the Coop family at Tukituki River in the Hawkes Bay (one of the children, Sue Coop, now Sue Gunn, is a friend to this day). There was plenty of hunting and eventing to be done here.

It was then another move to Hastings to work for Hugh and Jane Thompson on their property. The country was wonderfully undulating and the hunting fantastic! This was another sheep and cattle property with children to nanny for. Hugh gave Carolyn an older sheep dog, Bonnie. The experience of learning to work with Bonnie and vice versa was a true experience Carolyn remembers well, with her tin whistle for commands and learning not to let Bonnie get too far away… as she then choose to feign canine transient deafness and run amok!

“Cover that up now and
keep it above your head!”

Her next posting was with the Bostocks, an ENT (ear, nose and throat specialist) doctor and his wife out of Hastings. Their three kids all had ponies and one donkey. Carolyn helped them with their riding and had a great time, including making a dressage arena with posts and tying string together. On chopping off the excess rope with a tomahawk, she managed to chop the corner of her finger off. She presented to her ENT doctor boss in the kitchen, who was home for lunch: “Take off the towel and show me,” he asked politely. On doing so, he promptly thought about passing out and said, “Cover that up now and keep it above your head!” It healed, but today Carolyn still has a slight deficit of finger to remind her of the Bostock days! Not that she realised it at the time, but the Bostock family were to be the end of her nannying and jackaroo days.

Many of Carolyn’s friends were now married and moving along with their lives, and Carolyn was at a stage where she was a little betwixt and between. She moved home to Gisborne again, and the Land Rover that Carolyn used to tow her float to all the shows was away from the property more than her father thought fair — and so he put his foot down. So Carolyn went and bought a pink flat-topped truck, which she adored and used to tow the float to all the jumping shows — covering a large part of the North Island in the process!

Carolyn admits that she rode to compete, and that she was competitive (I have to say not was but is!) Carolyn was always and still is uncanny at keeping her eyes wide open for a better way to be in front of her competitors. She was always watching the best of the time, seeing their ways and how they gained that extra mark. She took it on board to make herself a better competitor; she never let a chance go by, stayed well read and always knew the rules inside out. The quite achiever who was always at attention!

On the way home from a show in her pink truck with Marcus and a good mare named Marnie on board, she was wondering about her future. She was not the happiest, as Marcus had started to stop, something that Carolyn knew wasn’t right; it was found out that he unfortunately had ringbone and his jumping days were limited.

As with a cat falling on its feet, there was a call from Karl Jurenak, asking if Carolyn would come and join him and his wife at Tibor Equestrian Centre as their working pupil on the outskirts of Sydney. After talking with her parents — who were not that keen — she spent a short while thinking about it and then returned the call and agreed. It was a whirlwind pack-up, and then off to the airport… next stop, Sydney, Australia!

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Carolyn’s story in the October issue of Equestrian Life!

Catch up on Part 1 in the August issue of Equestrian Life. EQ

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