Izabella Stone has had a season to remember. The 26-year-old not only finished runner-up in the Senior Championship at the Australian Jumping Championships – she went one better at the Melbourne Showgrounds a week later to win the EQUITANA Jumping Grand Prix.

The equine part of the winning equation, grey gelding Oaks Ventriloquist, is a new ride for Izabella this year – and she’s thrilled with how the partnership is developing. “He’s on the greener side at that level, so just to do three bigger classes in a row at Boneo Park for the Australian Jumping Championships – with good footing, good jumps and good courses – was great for him. To then back it up and do EQUITANA, I think he really improved from it and came away with some valuable experience.”

At the Australian Jumping Championships, Izabella, from Sutton, NSW, finished second behind her long-time coach and mentor, Tom McDermott. At EQUITANA, it was her turn to shine – but even after a superb jump-off round, she wasn’t about to start celebrating too early. “I wasn’t getting my hopes up because I had Tom behind me!” she laughs. “Once I knew I’d won, I was really excited. It was my first Grand Prix win on ‘Venti’; he was super for me.” As the richest Grand Prix in Australia this year – offering a prize pool of $51,500 and with $15,000 to the winner – it was the ideal first victory.

Izabella purchased Oaks Ventriloquist, a rising 10-year-old by Vivant and out of Renata Ego Z (by Rex Z), in May this year from one of her best friends, Kate Hinschen. “He is my sort of horse to ride, so I felt like I got the hang of him fairly quickly,” explains Izabella. “He was pretty much a finished product; Kate had done a really good job with him. She’d taken it really easy on him and produced him to Grand Prix level. So it was just about getting our partnership right and doing a good job together. I felt like the couple of shows in a row helped to start that.

“Venti is an amazing horse; he’s very scopey, he’s careful. He’s got lots of blood… his best jumping is on the last day of the show usually, and I think that’s why he shone at EQUITANA after two weeks away competing. We’re starting to become a really good team now. It’s not perfect, but I think we’re on the right track.”

Izabella’s other grey Grand Prix horse, Tulara Stolzette – a 10-year-old mare by Stolzenberg out of Tulara Cornetti, by Cornet Obolensky – also performed well at both events and was better for the experience. “I think she has just as much quality as Venti; she’s a little greener, as I got her in the middle of Covid when competitions were few and far between, so she’s probably about six months behind Venti, but she’s an amazing mare.

IT STARTED WITH ‘GINGER MEGGS’

“Our family had racehorses, but they were not horse people as such. I started riding when I was two at Forest Park Riding School with Grant Hughes,” explains Izabella of her early days in the saddle. After a few years of riding lessons, she received her first pony when she was five, and a second pony soon followed. “That one was an absolute champion,” says Izabella of the cheeky chestnut named Ginger Meggs, who remained with her until his passing at age 28 earlier this year. “I got him when he was five, and he kicked off the start of it all!”

Izabella entered the competition arena at age 11 via Pony Club and was convinced she wanted to be an eventer. “I regularly got penalties for going too fast on my pony in the cross-country phase and couldn’t really understand why that was a problem,” she laughs.

Show jumping for Izabella started with Forest Park’s Grant Hughes, whose clinics, training days, grid lessons and shows had a huge influence over many of the top riders in the region. “I loved the style, technicality and accuracy involved in show jumping and went through the ranks wanting to be a good rider and producer of horses,” recalls Izabella. When she started competing at bigger shows across NSW, Tom and Greg McDermott took her on as a student – and 12 years later, Tom is still her coach.

“Greg and Tom and the McDermott family… they’ve been there every step of the way for me, helping produce the horses, and producing me as a rider – which was quite a big job, I think! Tom is such a hard worker, he really cemented the work ethic into me. We work really well together. He’s amazing.

“Tom was really excited for me winning at EQUITANA… it was a little bit weird for me, because normally he wins!” laughs Izabella, adding that the three-time Australian Senior Champion has been a huge help with getting her partnership going with Venti. “In a short time, he has really helped me form that partnership and ride Venti the way he wants to be ridden… and to make him a little bit more ‘my horse’. He’s been really helpful with that.”

INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Izabella had her first FEI World Cup start at the 2014 Melbourne Royal show when she was just 18 years old, and then the next year she took the leap and travelled to Germany to train for two years. Working for Stall and Gilbert Böckmann for the majority of that time, she then trained with former top Schockemöhle rider, Patrick Döller.

“It really opened my eyes up,” says Izabella of her time overseas. “Mainly just the management and the production line of the horses; they all have a program. All the stables vary, obviously, but they have a really good way of doing it. They have the right shows and the right resources to do it really well. In Australia, we don’t always have those opportunities that they have.

“I did a lot with the young horses, including young stallions, and I learnt so much. The management of the older horses and the sport horses… I really learnt how to manage horses. They polished me up on the flat quite a lot as well, and I just threw myself in there and had a go at a bit of everything – it was really cool.” Having taken her horses Cosmorex Coffee Lattè and Akon with her, Izabella was able to compete and gain invaluable experience at some of Europe’s biggest venues such as Aachen.

“When returning from Germany, I was determined to start my own equestrian business. I was fortunate to have the backing of my parents and a beautiful property to start me off,” she explains. “I now currently run Ouverture Sport Horses, based in Sutton, NSW. Ouverture specialises in producing, training, and selling top quality sport horses.

“We are mainly producing and training up horses, but also do the sales side of it and some breeding. We have full-time clients, offer lessons and provide full training programs. Kate Hinschen has come on board with me and she has a lot to do with the clients, as well as the riding and lessons; we’re quite a good team, and we’ve got a great group of staff.”

Izabella explains that they’ve also just purchased an old racehorse stud out at Murrumbateman, were they plan to ramp up the breeding side of their business with the addition of stallions, and also work with Thoroughbreds, offering pre-training.

EUROPE BECKONS AGAIN

Having recently sold her long-time World Cup horse, Lincoln MVNZ, Izabella explains that besides her two grey stars, the rest of her team is quite young. “I’ve got lots of babies, my oldest being actually a beautiful paint stallion that I bought recently off Melissa Froesch. His name is Glenara Bollinger’s Cowboy (Balou du Rouet x Glenara Mudslide), or just ‘Cowboy’, and he’s a really exciting five-year-old. He is showing all the quality. The next are three- and four-year-olds in the paddock, so they’re doing preps here and there trying to just get the basics.”

The year is not over for Izabella, with both her Grand Prix horses entered in the World Cup class at the Chatham Park Summer Showjumping Classic at SIEC in December. Looking ahead to next year, she is keen to head overseas again. While she has been following the recent success of Australian riders in the USA and admits that heading to North America is tempting, at this stage her plan is to skip the Canberra winter and head back to Europe for their outdoor summer circuit.

“My plans are potentially to go overseas next year with Oaks Ventriloquist and Tulara Stolzette. We’re just throwing some ideas around at the moment and trying to plan what is going to best suit the horses. I’d like to do a couple of Nations Cups, and then just go with the flow a little bit and see what comes about while we’re over there. I’d love to get my MER (Minimum Eligibility Requirement) for the Paris Olympics, and just see what happens.”

With a strong finish to 2022, the momentum is certainly with Izabella and her talented grey pair as they look towards what could be a very exciting year ahead. EQ

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