Steph Mackillop
Age: 27
Occupation: Coach and trainer at TM Equestrian, Owner and Manager at La Paloma Farm Glamping and MacBacon Farming Co. in Cowra AND Product Manager for an Agriculture Logistics company
Current horses: Brenin (For Your Eyes Only) and Ronny (Christiano Ronaldo)
Career: Growing up surrounded by ponies was a dream childhood for me, allowing me to gain invaluable equine experiences that I still draw on today. I started on my grandparent's Shetland ponies and Welsh ponies broken to harness and saddle, who ended up taking me to Pony Club when I was 7 years old. Throughout my time at Pony Club I had lots of ponies and galloways and competed in all disciplines. I had a passion for showjumping early on, as well as a love for sporting and mounted games. I won 2 state sporting championships on my pony Laura and a state equitation championship on my mare Amber.
I started riding my super pony Alcheringa Tradition (Cy) when I was 8 and grew with him for years. Cy was broken in as a 2-year-old at Team Mackillop Equestrian and progressed with Mum, Dad and myself until I took the reins when Cy turned 4. I progressed with Cy from jumping 80cm to eventually starting in 1.40m Mini Prix and Young Rider classes where we won and placed in many. We also won many 6 bar competitions clearing 1.65m, pretty impressive since he is only 147cm! Producing Cy has been one of my greatest achievements and I am very proud of the pony he became.
From there, with many horses in between whom each taught me many valuable lessons and developed my riding skills, I was extremely lucky to purchase the beautiful Yirrkala Exclusive (Carla) on Christmas eve 2014 (what a great Christmas present!) Carla and I have been very successful in Young Rider competitions winning the National Young Rider series 2016 and many other Young Rider and open classes around Australia. We have placed in the top 7 overall in the Australian Young Rider championships for the last 3 years. We also placed 3rd in the Silver tour final at the AQUIS champions tour 2016.
I now have two horses, Brenin whom we bred (Alcheringa Rhiannon (Cy's full sister) X Casino Royale (Casall)) and Ronny who we also bred (Yirrkala Exclusive X Christiano (Christian)). I have broken in both Brenin and Ronny and am successfully competing both horses up to Amateur level. Both are beautiful horses with a very bright future ahead of them!
