Picture the scene …
Will and Tiger
You are at a clinic and your coach (who doesn’t know you) asks the question “Tell me what level you are riding at?”
“Well I’ve only been riding for a couple of years and have done Introductory and Preliminary with my old horse.”
“Okay, so tell me what your horse is called and what he has done in the past,”
“This is Tiger, he hasn’t done much since Kentucky and Burghley due to a tendon injury and he’s only been back in work for about six months.”
Coach is now thinking … ‘Mmm – I can see I’ve got a bit smarty pants boy in this lesson.’
In fact young Will Quirico wasn’t trying to be smart he was answering the questions truthfully. But what he didn’t add was that he was in the incredibly lucky position to be riding an ex-four star horse, previously ridden by his owner Hamish Cargill.
Happy horse and happy rider
We spoke to Will recently to find out how he came to be riding Tiger?
Now take a look at Will and Tiger in one of their lessons at Mirrabooka
In his younger days Tiger raced under his Thoroughbred name Danribot but after very few starts ended up at Rod Brown’s property to try his hand at jumping. Soon after his arrival, Prue Barrett happened to be there and Rod suggested to Prue that she try this very nice young thoroughbred that had turned up. Prue rode him to 1* level during which time the Cargill family bought him for Hamish’s sister Kirsty to ride but when Kirsty went overseas for a while Hamish was quick to get his foot in the stirrup … and left it in there, even when Kirsty returned home.
A snap shop of Hamish and Tiger at Kentucky
Together Hamish and Tiger worked their way up the eventing ladder but in 2008 at the Adelaide CCI4* Tiger suffered an injury that would see him out of action for well over a year. When Hamish was given the all clear to start Tiger back on the road to recovery his patience paid off and by 2011 in made the big trip to America to ride at the Rolex Kentucky CCI4* and later that year rode at Burghley, where sadly things didn’t really go to plan.
We asked Hamish how he felt about his very ‘special’ horse re-joining the Australian eventing scene.
“It's so exciting to have Tiger out and about again. When he broke down at Burghley in 2011 we weren't sure what he'd be able to do, or how bad his injury was. But we bought him home, operated on his annular ligament and then put him in the paddock for a year.
He's been really sound since he came back into work, and we're stoked that he's found a new lease of life with Will. Tiger can be a handful at times, but Will's a great little rider and really appreciates the chance he's been given to sit on such an experienced horse. I can't wait to see what they get up to over the next year or two.”
Sadly Sandhills Tiger died in December 2014 - read Hamish's tribute here
