When Maddison Growcott was a child, her father told her to find something she loved doing and figure out a way to get paid for it. “That way, you’ll never have to work a day in your life,” he said. Now 19, Maddi is up at 5am and is rarely with her boots off before 7pm as she builds a career around horses – and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I was a nuisance as a kid, but I’m sure that I would’ve been a lot more of one if I didn’t have horses,” laughs Victorian dressage rider Maddi Growcott. Maddi has just returned from a busy Victorian Youth Dressage Championships, where her team of two horses and two ponies produced some outstanding results – including multiple championship titles – across a whopping 17 tests at Boneo Park. “It was definitely a busy weekend for everyone. All the horses tried their absolute hearts out and I think that definitely showed in their results. I was beyond happy and proud of all of them,” she says.

Maddi started riding at age six and says her introduction to the sport came about through her parents trying to find a hobby to occupy her that would actually stick. “My parents tried to enrol me in every sport. There was football, basketball, gymnastics, dancing, and I just found it all so boring. They couldn’t keep me in them. And then one day Mum said to Dad, ‘That’s it, I think we need to try horse riding’.”

Maddi explains that her parents both grew up around animals and her mother had a horse through her childhood – however, there were no horses in the picture when Maddi first began having lessons at Oakwood Riding School. She received her first pony at the age of nine: “Her name was Mia and she was an absolute terror. She was only three or four and she used to bolt, stop and spin… everyone would stop in their tracks and go, ‘woah, whoa!’ And I’d just be laughing my butt off, out of control around the arena. I think that was when I knew that was just what I wanted to do.

“I started off eventing at Pony Club, and then a horse I ended up with – a mare named Angel, given to me by Carol Simpson – ended up being a really nice dressage horse. That’s where my love for the sport came from. I went around the Pony Club circuit and then she was getting older and I got my first serious horse, BZ Flynn, when I was 12.

“Flynn was bred by Breanna Tillitzki (Breezie Warmbloods) and I got him from Auction of the Stars; he was four years old and just broken in. He knew nothing and I knew nothing; training him taught me absolutely everything. I’ve never had a school master, I’ve had to learn everything as I go with the help of my coaches. Flynn and I got all the way up to competing CDI Young Rider and almost training Grand Prix movements, before I recently had to spell him due to an injury.”

When Maddi became serious about dressage, she originally trained with coach Sue Chandler for many years. “She was the absolute foundation to everything I know, she really grounded me in the basics of the training scale and how to follow it.” When Maddi’s family moved properties six years ago and travel for lessons became difficult, she moved to coach Peter Fischer – a German ‘Pferdewirtshaftsmeister’ (master of equine industry) who has international level experience in Europe. “Peter’s just been absolutely phenomenal. I don’t know where I’d be without him. He’s so supportive and is at most competitions on the sidelines. Even if I don’t ask him to be there, he usually is, and if he can’t be he’s on the other end of the phone after each test.”

Maddi also has access to great coaching as part of the Victorian Young Rider Squad. “I’m on the A Squad and we get some fabulous coaches who travel from all over to come down and teach us. We’ve had Lone Jørgensen, we’ve had Mary Hanna, Rozzie Ryan. And then there are the seminars that we have and the different workshops. It’s run amazingly and I’m grateful to be a part of it. It’s such a great squad with so many good young riders, it’s just a big family really.”

TAKING FLIGHT WITH QUE

A couple of years after her parents bought Flynn, at age 14 Maddi put her own savings towards purchasing an 18-month-old Warmblood by the name of BZ Qantas. Backing him at age three, he’s now six and proving to be a star in the making.

Also bred by Breanna Tillitzki, BZ Qantas (by Questing out of a Regardez Moi mare, BZ Roma) – aka Que – was named the top Australian-bred horse in the five-year-old class at last year’s Dressage & Jumping With The Stars (DJWTS) and has gone from strength to the strength in the competition arena over the past year.

A highlight was taking part in Sabine Schut-Kery’s masterclass at EQUITANA, where Maddi and Que were invited to participate. “It was amazing. I took him into the arena and he just couldn’t care less. He’s never been in such big atmosphere and he just took everything in his stride. And Sabine was fantastic. It was just such a great opportunity… I was very, very grateful for that.”

Maddi and Que contested their first six-year-old class at the Victorian Dressage Festival in December, which they won. “He was phenomenal,” says Maddi, whose success with the horse has continued this year at the Victorian Youth Dressage Championships where they were named the Elementary and Medium Champions.

“Que’s probably one of the best young ones in the country as far as Australian-bred horses go,” enthuses Maddi. “I continue to train extremely hard each day with regular lessons from Peter, to make sure this horse can reach his potential, because he’s just phenomenal. I have super big dreams for this horse and I believe he’s serious international quality. I’ve ridden more horses than I could count, but there’s something that stands out about him. He’s just so special.”

Impressed by her budding star, Maddi purchased his dam from Breanna early last year. “BZ Roma is now at home and I plan to do a little bit more breeding with her. She’s absolutely gorgeous.”

A GROWING HERD

“I’ve got some other young ones on the ground,” says Maddi of the foals she’s bred over the last few seasons, “so I have some exciting young stock that are up and coming.”

Maddi’s prized broodmare is a Fürst Love x Aachimedes mare, named Sapphire: “She was actually out on an injury and we tried to rehab her, but it just didn’t work, so we retained her as a broodmare and she foaled a beautiful Bordeaux colt last year. He’s about 16 months old now… jet black with a white star and he’s absolutely divine. She’s just had another one this season by For Passion, who’s a very exciting young stallion at Bloomfield Farm.”

Maddi is the head rider at Bloomfield, where she spends half her day working horses. “There are some very exciting young stock coming through there. For Passion is actually one that I ride. I love riding him; he’s super expressive and just has the best nature. I also have another of his progeny in half-ownership with Bloomfield, a filly out of a St Moritz mare. She’s something to really look out for as well. She’s something quite special.”

To fit in her work at Bloomfield and then work her own horses back home on her family’s property in Koo Wee Rup, Maddi begins her day feeding horses and cleaning stables from 5am. “I leave here at six and I get up to Bloomfield at about seven. I work all the horses there and then I leave just after lunch and come home to work mine. On the way home I’ll often stop in and do Katie van Egmond’s horses. Sometimes I’m riding up to 10 horses a day. That’s typically what my normal day looks like… I’m up at five and I probably take my boots off after seven o’clock at night.”

At home with Mum, Dad and two sisters, Maddi has plenty of horses to keep her busy – some, like Que, are her own, while others are in work for owners. Her three other rides at the Youth Championships all have other owners who Maddi loves working with.

“I’ve been riding Katie van Egmond’s Viggo KVE for a while and she’s super supportive,” explains Maddi. “The Youth Championships was his first competition and to come out and do so well (Viggo was both the Participation Preliminary and Novice Champion), I think Katie was absolutely blown away as well.

“Chris Weymouth and Deborah Lampard’s pony mare, Nova Dancer, is a gorgeous young pony. I started working with her last winter and she’s just come on in leaps and bounds. I don’t think she’s even turned five yet, and she’s just such a quick learner. They’re fantastic owners and so supportive and often out at competitions. Chris is always there to lend a hand, not just with his horse, but with all of my team. It’s incredible to have such amazing owners like that.”

Nova Dancer was Reserve Pony Novice Champion, third in the Elementary Pony Championship and also won the Novice Freestyle at the Youth Championships. “That was a funny story actually. I said to Mum, ‘I don’t think I should do a Freestyle with Que, he’s just a bit tired.’ And she said, ‘No worries, we’ll swap it with Nova.’ So I had to fish back in my archives and find the Novice Freestyle that I rode five years ago on Flynn! I listened to it and thought I could make it work.”

Riding through a freestyle for the first time in five years on a pony rather than a horse is no mean feat, but Maddi explains there were little things in the music she could pick up on and work out where she needed to be in the arena at each point. “I made it work and it was Nova’s first freestyle… she absolutely took it in her stride in such a big arena and atmosphere.”

Cheval Chilli Deluxe, owned by Michelle and Geoff Carthew, is another pony that Maddi rides. “They’re absolutely gorgeous owners as well. ‘Jimmy’ hasn’t been in work for that long, he’s only just turned four and has a lot of filling out to do and a lot of growing… but he’s a super quick learner and I’m really excited for his future.” Maddi says the pocket rocket showed pleasing work across the Pony Preliminary and Novice tests at the Youth Championships.

“It’s just so good to have such a fantastic team of owners. They’re just super supportive and in it for the atmosphere and the experience. I have high hopes for all of their horses and ponies. I absolutely love it and they love watching the journey that we are going on.”

While Maddi says she never originally saw herself riding ponies, the quality available here in Australia is improving all the time and the two she’s ended up riding are very exciting. “I also had a super one at the start of last year who I took out and did some five-year-old classes on, a Welsh D little stallion, and he was absolutely fantastic. I sold him up to Queensland.” Maddi says she’s enjoyed working with the ponies so much she’s now bred her own, with a very cute little foal born in January.

Between riding at Bloomfield, working her own horses and riding for her owners – as well as undertaking all the other work that inevitably comes with owning horses – each day is a busy one at Growcott Equestrian. “I’m definitely very busy and just training really hard, I try to get to my coach as much as I can. It’s just training all the time and I absolutely love it. You’ve got to work hard to get where you want, but when you love it, that helps.”

THE YEAR AHEAD

While 2022 was a big year for Growcott Equestrian, 2023 could be even bigger. Maddi is of course excited for what lies ahead with Que: “This year I’m not going to take him out to a lot of competitions, we’ll just do the main ones.” DJWTS in March is again on the radar, and then Maddi says she’ll head up to the Sydney CDI in May. “I’ll take Que up there and might also take a couple of other young ones. In between, it’ll just be training. If it feels necessary that we need to go out to one in between, then we will just to double check that we’re on the right path.” Maddi says she also has a few others at home in training who are yet to have competed, and they’ll come out when they’re ready.

A big hope for 2023 is that BZ Flynn, who is currently out with an injury, will be back in work by the end of the year. “I got him up to doing Small Tour (before his injury). He did his first Intermediate I and he absolutely smashed it and was awarded close to 70% in one of the tests. He’ll only be 11 at the end of this year, so I hope we can get back in the competition arena.”

One of Maddi’s biggest plans for the year is a training trip to Europe over the southern hemisphere winter. “It’ll be exciting. I haven’t been to Europe at all, so it’s going be my first time over there. I’ve wanted to do it for a while, but with Covid I put it off a little bit. I wanted to make it an experience where I could go out and see everything, which wasn’t really an option when Covid was happening. There are a few different options in terms of where I’ll be based, but we’re still just working that out with accommodation and everything.”

Maddi’s horses will stay home, and Peter will keep Que ticking over. “It’s a crucial point in his training, so I don’t really want to give him four months off. And then when I get back, we’ve got the Australian Dressage Championships and Victorian Dressage Festival again at the end of the year.”

It’s evident that Maddi has very much worked out what she loves in life and is well on the way to figuring out how to make a living from it – a real credit to someone who is still a teenager. And while she’s putting in the hard yards, she’s pragmatic in the sense that she’s had that all-important good support along the way thus far.

“Dressage is an incredible sport to be a part of and as a young rider, you have a lot of idols that you look up to and you want to follow in their footsteps. I think if you work hard enough and you have the right people around you, you’ll get there. I’m incredibly grateful, as I have some great sponsors: Mary Mumford at the Dancing Horse, Hi Form and also our local feed shop, Koo Wee Rup Stockfeeds. And obviously my parents have been super supportive throughout this whole process and I couldn’t have done it without any of them!”

Maddi hopes that with a great team around her, an exciting stable of horses, and valuable experience from her forthcoming European training trip, she can continue to progress up the levels and reach her career goals. “I’ve got big plans for Que. I just love every day and every moment training with him, he’s just so special. In a few years’ time I hope that I could take him over to Europe to train and compete… who knows, maybe for a year, two years… or 10 years!” EQ

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DJWTS, Where The Youngsters Step Up – Equestrian Life, February 2023