GROOMS WITH HORSES

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28800, 22 January 1959, Page 2

GROOMS WITH HORSES

Long Experience With Jumpers

Two women who enjoy outdoor life and caring for animals are Mr* K. Burgess and Miss Pet* Brown, who are groom* touring New Zealand with the Australian Equestrian Federation team whose horses will jump at the Addington Show grounds tomorrow and Saturday. Between them, the women are responsible for grooming eight horses on the tour. This means rising about' 8 a.m., giving the animals fresh water, feeding them and washing them after they have been exercised each morning. Mrs Burgess has ridden horses since childhood. Marriage and three children left her little time to pursue her interest, but when her hiisband died She began show riding again. She now rides and grooms the horses of her neighbours in Victoria, Mr and Mrs Colin Kelly. Mr Kelly will ride his horse Polar Bay in New Zealand.

Miss Peta Brown, now 19, also has been Interested in horseriding since she was six. At 18 she became a groom in Cornwall. She went to Australia with her parents 14 months ago and has already established' herself as a competent jumper at horse shows in Victoria. At the end of the New Zealand toiir She will return to Victoria to .prepare for shows in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney where Australia’s most important horse show will be held at Easter.

At the Addington Show Grounds yesterday, Miss Brown was squatting in the sunshine outside her caravan, washing bandages for the horses’ legs in a foaming bucket of suds. Commenting on her experience in Australia compared with Britain, Miss Brown said that she believed grooming in Australia was more rough than it was in England. Grooms trained in England were much in demand in Australia she said. There was good opportunity of getting to the top in jumping events in Australia because of less strong competition.’ But because Australia was so far away from other countries, there was little opportunity of competing against international jumpers and, therefore, the standard was noticeably lower she said.