Some kind words were spoken by the President of the Tasmanian Endurance Riders Association about my activities in support of equine endurance riding. He admitted he was unclear about how far back my involvement went or exactly what I’d been up to. So, I thought it might be interesting to summarise it.

When I mention endurance riding, some people think I ride motor bikes, others horses. Well, I did ride motorbikes, before I could afford a car, and I have had the odd ride on an equine. Probably the first was a donkey on a northern English beach. I have a faint recollection of being on one of a large bunch, all roped together so they could be managed by one operator. The result of that experience was a pair very bruised legs caused by compression between either the legs of adjacent riders or the ribs of their mounts.

The next experience was somewhere in southern England. I had a vacation student working with me on a geophysics exploration survey. His girlfriend also had vacation work, but at a riding stable not too far away. She invited us for a ride one weekend. Both she and my assistant were experienced riders. I’ve already recounted my experience up to that time. At first the ride was enjoyable, going at a steady walk along rural tracks. They became a little tired of the beginner pace, so asked me if I’d like to go a little faster. Anyway, so’s not to make too much of it, the outcome was that I had major difficulties walking for about a week afterwards - not the best condition to be in for geological surveys carrying survey and geophysics instruments.

I managed to stay clear of the backs of horses and the like for many years. However, a teenage daughter and the opportunity for a Snowy Mountains half day horse trek managed to reinforce my view that equines and I didn’t match - at least when I was thereon mounted. The trek guide gave me the once over and selected what she considered a suitable mount for me. I don’t recall its name, but it was a big beast (which probably says something about my size at the time). I still believe the horse either took an immediate dislike to me or would have preferred to stay in the paddock for the day, or both. In the main, the track was narrow, on steep ground and had small trees close on either side. It seemed the horse was doing its best to wipe me off its back by pushing me into the trees. I managed to avoid an involuntary dismount, but as punishment (I’m sure) the next act of equine vengeance was to stop in the middle of a deep river crossing and react to my encouragement to proceed by heading off upstream rather than for the opposite bank. Thankfully, I was rescued by the trek guide before ending up in the river’s headwaters near some snowy peak. I think that was my last encounter on horseback, probably in the 1980’s.

A major influence on my life has been my early exposure to Scouting, initially as a Cub, then Scout, then Senior Scout. Later as a Scout Leader in various roles. My Guru was BP - Baden Powell and the Scout motto BP - Be Prepared. From teenage, I’ve always enjoyed being prepared by properly organising things - from early climbing and caving trips to later international conferences and multi-day training and development programs in Australia, Indonesia, Philippines and the US.

Following early retirement from full-time employment, we returned to Tasmania from Sydney. I was asked to do some more event management/training, mostly outdoors and including two large events in Coles Bay for a couple of hundred participants. At the same time and with a developing interest in Amateur Radio, especially using radio for events, particularly motor-sport, I again had the opportunity to Be Prepared. Several years of Australian Rally Championships in the Southern Forests and Targa Tasmania provided logistical challenges to be enjoyed.

I’m not sure when my first exposure to endurance riding was but I think it was in 2005, near Bothwell at Dungrove at the FEI Tasmanian State Championships ?

The usual checkpoint crew of “CBers” wasn’t able to make the first day, it being a working day, so via various channels, WICEN was asked to cover the first day of the event. All very new to us and interesting. We bunked on site on the Thursday night, experiencing the big difference between car rally entourages and those of endurance riders. After a pleasant day scattered across the paddocks, we were sad to ‘get the push’ on the arrival of the CBers on Friday evening. Looking at AERASpace, I see there were several people riding at that event who I’ve had many happy and/or lively discourses with since, including Janine, Helen, Neil and Tony.

Fortunately, Dungrove was not to be our last endurance venue. I was introduced to Ossie Owens of STER who was looking for a checkpoint and comms crew for Ringrove at Orford. This was the first of several STER rides for Ossie over the next few years. It included a 120km ride with a pre-dawn moonless start. I was on a checkpoint on the coast at Pt du Ressac and recall being impressed with my mate Stu to see the head torches approaching through the Weilangta forest. We were back at Weilangta in 2007.

After long service working with young people through Scouts, I was impressed with the sport, especially as it involved young folk doing what I considered to be a great developmental activity. I was keen to support it.

By 2008, we were working again at Orford, though Ossie was having great access difficulty with Forestry, due to fires and the green push to keep people out of the Weilangta forest due to the endangered species it was said to home. Interestingly, WICEN was becoming doubly familiar with Weilangta, being involved with endurance rides and with TFS bushfire incident management communications. The discarded fireground maps were keenly sought and retrieved from the bins!

Focus shifted to Fonthill, Cliftonvale and, with Bonny Burgess, at Woodstock. STER was a very active ROC in those days, primarily due to Ossie’s energy and ability to enthuse others. Things really took off in 2009, especially after a chance encounter between one of the WICEN members, who was working in St Helens, and Tara. That resulted in WICEN taking on another client ROC, Portland, at both Pyengana and St Helens. This was the beginning of my familiarisation with the tracks of the region. I even managed to follow Tara’s descriptions which were usually full of names and terms known only to those born, raised and schooled in the area!