With her father, mother and grandfather all being successful show jumpers, it is no surprise that Jamie Priestley is not only following in their footsteps, she is now the family flagbearer.
“With Dad and Mum and I,
we are a great team.”
Catching up with Jamie Priestley at the Jumping@Willinga show last year, we quickly learned that this up-and-coming young show jumper is a down-to-earth quiet achiever. She is a thoughtful and modest character who gets about her busy schedule with time for all in her life.
Jamie was excited to be at Willinga Park, where she enthused about the international quality of the facilities and what an asset the competition is in building confidence for Australian show jumping riders. Having trained and competed around the world, she was delighted that such facilities with immaculate surfaces were just over an hour from her home!
Jamie’s father, Kel, has always been in the sport and is a farrier by trade. He was an accomplished show jumping competitor himself, riding successfully as a junior and then also as a senior, and competed to World Cup level. He had many good horses, notably Sister Act.
Of course, the genetics were there from Kel’s father, Warren, who was also extremely successful in the sport having many top horses and competing at Sydney Royals. Jamie’s mother, Kareena, was into showing horses and also a successful show jumping rider herself. It was her interest that first started Jamie into the world of competing in showing. Jamie was obviously one that was going to be a horsewoman herself and was always keen to help and ride from a very young age.
Her first good show pony was a brown riding pony, Saltram Centrefold, known as ‘Ben’, who won large pony of the year at the Horse of the Year Show. Jamie decided it was more fun to go jumping so the beloved immaculate pony hack was tried at jumping. When Jamie was 12, they went around a 1.05m course and jumped 1.25m in a six-bar. Ben had never jumped before and so they learnt together and what a combination. This was a great lead in to jumping and Jamie admits in the beginning that jumping was a little scary – but not as scary as telling her mum that she did not want to show hacks anymore!
Kareena loved the preparation and presentation involved in showing, and readily transferred her skills to the show jumpers which are the best presented on the circuit. “This attention makes it all the better to feel proud to be out there,” says Jamie “With Dad and Mum and I, we are a great team, and especially now on good horses that we have bred and started from the beginning, it’s very special.”
THE DARK HORSE
Jamie’s first serious show jumper was a Thoroughbred purchased from George Sheridan who had been eventing him. However, his dressage phase was not that good, so Plan B was adopted to turn him into a show jumper. His name was The Dark Horse and he started Jamie in the Juniors; they qualified and headed to Sydney Royal when she was 14. They had clear rounds at the Royal and Jamie is so complimentary of the way that horse looked after her – and of course all under the watchful eyes of Kel and Kareena.
Jamie decided to leave school in year 11. She had clearly decided that horses, competing and training were here to stay and so she devoted much time to the sport. All the same, she also covered the bases and did a vet nursing course, which has proved helpful in the scheme of things.
Now it was time to get going. Kel and Warren each had a great eye for a horse and they set out to find appropriate mounts to help Jamie on the road to success. It was not all about winning, it was more about getting the right horses for her stage of training competence and future development. Jamie knows now that it was this learning curve that formed the basis for the future. It was not about the winning but about appreciating the experiences and always to be riding within her capabilities and never feeling pressured to be super successful.
Jamie started competing seriously when she had the horse Kolora Stud Optimus. He was only seven when she started him. She has had him now 10 years progressing from Juniors, Young Riders and Mini Prix to Grand Prix level. She says this horse was not always easy but taught her so many things along the way, and he remains very special to her in his retirement.
On a trip to Holland looking for horses, the grey Courage was purchased and would become a horse that took Jamie to World Cups. He was very green and just a three-year-old when he was imported.
Jamie is now the only family member competing as Kel has handed the reins over to her and enjoys working with her on the ground. Oaks Diamantina was purchased from Oaks Sport Horses as a five-month-old foal, and Team Priestley (TP) Leda Ego Z was purchased at 18 months old from Linda Mayer, and these two have really become great jumpers.
WORLD CUPS
Jamie won a lot of classes at local country shows on the way up the ladder and then was extremely successful in the Junior classes on the east coast. She won the Grand Prix for young riders at the Australian Championships one year, and more recently won the NSW Senior State Championship title on the grey imported Courage. She has also had some placings at World Cup competitions. Her first World Cup, of which she has now done four, was at Melbourne Royal in 2019, where she had a couple of fences down. In her second World Cup at Sale, they jumped a clear round to gain half the qualifying required for Olympic selection. Courage is the only horse so far that Jamie has jumped World Cup on, but TP Leda Ego Z is looking really promising and doing well in the Future Star competitions.
Jamie has had a wealth of experience and competed in Colombia in the Children’s FEI Category B 10 years ago and has trained and competed in Holland, Germany, France and Ireland. She is proud of her achievements but hesitant to single out the most outstanding. “There have been so many moments,” she says. “Actually, every day I ride and train is a highlight, but to start in a World Cup for the first time has to be a real pinnacle. To be able to have trained and been guided so well along the trail to that moment it was a real highlight. It came at a great time and to jump clear in my second one was testament to a confident and well-rounded training progression to that point.
“The two four-year-olds are
the best we have had so far.
“Of course, to win the 2019 NSW Senior Championship on Courage was amazing! I was lucky to ride in the Global Champions Tour in Berlin and how could that not be the best? To top that off I actually ended up on the podium there in the 1.30m medium tour. It was on a borrowed horse called Powerball that I had only ridden twice before the competition. Such luck to be such a good fit!”
Jamie readily credits her parents for her progress. “There is no question that my dad has been the total guiding light behind all that I have achieved,” she says, “and of course my mum who is always supportive. Our family team is special. Rod Brown has also been a great help over the years and he is so supportive. Dad walks the courses with me but when he is busy with other clients I am happy to walk by myself.
“Thanks to all this I am now taking clients’ horses on training and really enjoy the work and the challenges associated with the horses and running a business. It’s been a wonderful road that I have been lucky to tread. The guidance has been specific and ordered and with no pressure. I am super lucky and super appreciative. Now that the grounding is so well established it’s up to me to stay dedicated and devoted to my sport and horses and I look forward to every new day.”
Jamie now does some coaching from the family’s well-established property in Cambewarra at the foot of Cambewarra Mountain on the South Coast of NSW. They have 60 acres with four stables as the horses are in great paddocks with good shelters in each and they live and are trained from there with the stables only used if the weather is wet or windy. They have two mares that are for breeding but no foals this year.
Kel and Kareena have taken to breeding jumpers themselves and Jamie is now breaking the progeny in and training and competing them. These two mares now have a four-year-old mare and gelding that are in the early stages of training and showing great potential. “The two four-year-olds are the best we have had so far,” says Jamie. EQ
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