When Mary Nitschke caught the dressage bug as a teenager, things began to snowball. With the 25-year-old now based at Ryans Horses with a team and a breeding program underway back home in South Australia, that passion has become an avalanche – one she hopes will roll all the way to Brisbane 2032.
In 2016, an 18-year-old Mary Nitschke travelled to Melbourne with her mother to watch the CDI-W Grand Prix dressage at Equitana. She was blown away by the competition – particularly Australian Grand Prix Champions Heath Ryan and Utopian Cardinal. “I remember watching and thinking, ‘That’s something that I really want to do’,” recalls Mary. Little did she know that six years later, she’d be there at Equitana riding Cardinal herself.
Although both her parents had been involved with horses growing up and had continued to dabble with them over the years, Mary didn’t start riding seriously until the relatively late age of 10, after her family moved from Victoria to South Australia. However, she says the obsession “snowballed very quickly”.
Her first horse was a chestnut Stock Horse named Quaid – selected largely because her mother had a history with the breed – and Mary says he was a really good horse besides the fact he liked to buck. “Oh, gosh, he was naughty… he bucked,” she laughs. Together she and Quaid did everything from Pony Club to beach riding, and Mary learnt a lot. Around the same time, she also had a 13-hand palomino who she recalls being “a wicked little games horse” and again she did everything with him until her younger sister, Claire, eventually took over the ride. Vinnie is now 21 years old and remains at the family property in South Australia as a valued companion.
DRESSAGE PROMISE
By 2015, Mary had well and truly caught the dressage bug and found herself in need of a horse for the Pony Club Australia National Championships. Mary’s mother called Heath Ryan and, on his recommendation, Mary and her mother came and tried out a horse named Promise R, aka Percy.
“That was our first look in here at Ryans,” recalls Mary of how her family came to the purchase of her first “serious” dressage horse. “I had no idea, absolutely no idea,” she says of her dressage experience at the time. “I think I’d done one really bad Elementary test and I don’t even think I really knew what travers was. I came to the Ryans and trialled Percy, with Heath shouting across the arena, telling me to half-pass, and I had no idea what a half-pass was either!” Percy was trained to Prix St Georges level, and Mary says he was crucial in her progression in the sport: “I owe a lot to him; he was a really good horse.”
In 2018, the opportunity arose to bid on none other than Utopian Cardinal at Ryans’ Auction of the Stars. For Mary and her family, it was an opportunity too good to pass up. They were the highest bidders, and so the partnership began – and as Mary explains, the purchase had a snowball effect in terms of her association with Heath and Rozzie Ryan.
“I’d done the odd clinic with Heath previously after purchasing Percy, but with Cardinal I began travelling from South Australia to Ryans for a couple of weeks at a time, tying it in with competitions before going home again… and then coming back. There was a lot of back and forward.”
Mary and Cardinal went on to have great success over the years together on the Under-25 Grand Prix circuit, winning at the Sydney CDI three years in a row and claiming the 2022 Australian Under-25 Grand Prix title.
Mary also achieved her dream of competing in the CDI-W at Equitana: “Equitana was something that I really wanted to, and to have the opportunity to go down there last year… it made it even more special that it was with Cardinal and Heath.”
LIFE AT THE RYANS
In 2020, Mary travelled to Ryans in Heatherbrae, NSW, with plans to stay for five days. The state border then closed due to Covid restrictions, and Mary never left. “I just absolutely love it. I love having the opportunity to be here and learn from Heath and Rozzie, and I’ve made really good friends here. I love having access to so many competitions… I just love it and absolutely would not change it for the world.”
Mary says that no two days are the same: “Today we had the China Pony Club visit, so we had 16 people come from China for a display… every single day at Ryans is different, you never know exactly what is on the cards each day! We just go with whatever the day brings. It’s never the same, ever!”
While the morning is meant to begin with cleaning stables at 7.30am, Mary explains that it often begins a little earlier. “I regularly end up with a lesson at 5am. That is very common for me to be having the 5am lesson. It is a little bit insane,” she laughs, adding that she typically rides four or five horses a day before heading inside to complete office work (which ranges from answering emails, to researching results for Ryan’s Rave and even orchestrating large-scale fundraisers as she did recently for the Australian Virtus Global Games team).
Eleven-year-old Hanoverian Astronomical (Quaterback x Gymnastik Star) is one of the new additions to Mary’s team. Purchased in March 2022 as a green Grand Prix horse, Mary is starting to get him out and about at the level and contested the Under-25 Grand Prix at the Australian Youth Dressage Championships earlier this year. “I had no idea what I was going to get in such a big atmosphere with him being so green to the Grand Prix level; Astro did a good job, so I was quite impressed with how he went there. He handled the atmosphere really well, and that was really the thing that was most important as he’s quite a spooky horse.
“I love having access
to so many competitions.”
“That’s why it’s been so important for me to be able to drag him around to all these local competitions; I take him everywhere because he’s so spooky. I had no idea how to handle the spooky and I was only going to learn by taking him. Fingers crossed I’m starting to figure it out!”
Greenrocks Quiver, by Questing R and out of a Regardez Moi x Jive Magic mare, is also part of Mary’s team. “As a family, Quiver was bought sight unseen during Covid lockdowns from Sevenoaks Farm in Queensland. She’s certainly a little bit of a madam, but she has a canter that feels like you’re climbing to the moon; she has the most incredible canter to sit on. She’s amazing, if you can just get past her being a bit of a mare sometimes. I’m really enjoying riding her.
“I’ve also got a little Preliminary-level horse, Rosella R. She’s by Regardez Moi out of a Fiji R x Jive Magic mare. I am completely obsessed with her. I’m her biggest fan and she is the most divine little horse.”
Back home in South Australia, Mary and her family have developed a not-so-little breeding program that Mary admits is “actually getting a bit out of control”. “We’ve got five foals due this season, including some by stallions Glamourdale, Totilas and Sir Donnerhall. We have an assortment of mares that are at home, and we have also done some embryo transfers. So it’s a pretty significant breeding program and it is keeping Mum and Dad flat out.”
Mary is grateful for the support and enthusiasm her family shows for breeding Warmbloods, however she says there is one downfall. “The tricky thing about it, being at home, is that my sister Claire is at home, and I have to be a bit careful… because she will claim the foals. She gets to see them, and so she claims them. I’ve lost a Totilas x Regardez Moi/Alabaster colt because she claimed it as her own, even though Claire’s an eventer! This little colt’s name is Toast and he is a very exciting horse for Claire to hopefully join us on the dressage circuit.”
TOTAL OPTIMIST
The latest addition to the Nitschke team is a Total Hope x Negro gelding, known as Theo. “He’s been broken in here and is going really well and looks to be pretty fancy. We’re hoping he’s going to be a horse that we’d be lining up for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032. That’s the plan anyway; you never know what’s going to happen between now and Brisbane. I haven’t come up with a competition name for him yet, it’s a work in progress.”
“We’re hoping he’s going to
be a horse that we’d be lining
up for the Brisbane Olympics.”
So Brisbane 2032 is on Mary’s radar, and not surprisingly Heath is a driving factor in terms of goal making and planning on that front. “Heath is the eternal optimist. It’s hard to be anything but that when you’re here every day.”
Mary says the other thing she loves about basing at Ryans is the friendship and support she has from the other girls who are currently living there. “Everyone has the same goals in that they want to compete at the top level, either in eventing or dressage, and we want to represent Australia. Being surrounded by people that are trying to do the same thing as you and trying to compete at a high level… everyone understands it and everyone’s really supportive of each other.
“Having someone else in the arena to ask, ‘Is this okay? What does this look like?’ is amazing. I have been at home in South Australia and ridden on my own – I had Mum and Dad there and my sister, but it’s different to riding in a busy arena full of people. Having that support network, it adds to the competitiveness as everyone’s trying to do better. Seeing one person do better, number one, makes everyone else happy for them… but it also makes you want to try and improve your score too. Everyone bounces off each other, it’s something that’s really important to the dynamic here at Ryans.”
At the moment Mary is the lone dressage rider amongst eventers Georgia O’Meara, Ellen McCourt, Tiani Stewart and Kiara Kerrigan. “They all get cranky with me when I want to go to a dressage day, because they all want to go jumping,” she laughs, adding that she tries to head along and watch the eventing when she gets the chance – even if it does make her nervous. “The last time I went and watched, Heath fell off Bronze Boy R right in front of me at the water… that cured me of going and watching eventing for a little while. I’ll go again in a few months’ time!” Of course, Heath and Bronze Boy R bounced back at their next event and won the four-star at Quirindi.
HAPPY & HEALTHY
Mary’s support network not only includes her family and the team at Ryans, but also sponsors Kentucky Equine Research. “I’ve been with KER for three years as a sponsored rider, but I have always used and believed in their products,” she explains.
“My favourite product at the moment is the Bio-Bloom HF, which is a hoof and coat supplement. Then I use the EO-3, an omega-3 supplement. I’ve got a couple of horses that have had the itch, so I tried them on the EO-3 and it does seem to improve that. Between the EO-3 and the Bio-Bloom, they all look beautiful. That really focuses up on their coats.” For gut health, Mary is currently using Sucralox, which is available via veterinarians.
When it comes to first aid kit essentials, Mary is never without B-Quiet Paste and Restore Paste. “The second a horse seems slightly off after traveling, they get a Restore Paste,” explains Mary. With a hot summer predicted, having electrolyte supplements on hand when travelling will be more important than ever.
Keeping her equine team happy and healthy is evidenced by none other than 19-year-old Utopian Cardinal, who Mary says is still very much going strong – not that he has anything left to prove. “Although he’s not in as much intense work as he was, I’m still riding him and he’s just ticking along. He’s a good boy, and he doesn’t have anything else to prove.
“If he feels like he wants to compete, I will take him. There’s nothing sadder than leaving him at home when he prefers to come with us – so if he wants to come, I’ll take him. But if I don’t feel like he wants to go or isn’t going to stand up to a big trip, I don’t need to do that to him. He’s done more than I thought we could ever achieve, and he’s a very, very special horse.” EQ
This article was written in conjunction with KER. To find out more about their product range click here.
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