Age no barrier for Toko showjumper

STILL GOING STRONG: Carol Stewart with her horses Hit Parade and Tennessee Waltz. Picture by Diana Dobson/The Black Balloon

SHOWJUMPER Carol Stewart is nearing 70, but someone forgot to tell her at that age you’re meant to take things a little easy.

Instead, this farmer’s wife from Tokoroa likes to load her truck up and travel the island to compete in showjumping aboard her two horses, sometimes in classes up to 1.3m. It’s probably no surprise that Stewart also shoes her own horses.

She’s back in Gisborne with her horses Hit Parade and Tennessee Waltz for the Larsen Sawmilling Showjumping Championships. It’s something of a homecoming for Hit Parade, who hails from Matawai, but probably not one she needs to remember as she has found far greener pastures with Stewart.

It is just the second time Stewart has competed at the January show, and its proved a good decision, with ribbons on her horses' necks on the opening day.

“I had intended to come last year but ended up in hospital,” she says. “I got bucked off but just had damaged ribs.”

Stewart is known for her kind hand with her horses. She has had eight-year-old Hit Parade since she was five and seven-year-old Tennessee for the past year-and-a-half. She has done very well in the Caledonian Holdings Amateur Rider Series, and stepped up to the Let’s Bale Pro Amateur Rider Series this year, but Hit Parade has been a little off with a virus, so she’s pulling back a bit.

The duo have previously won the Mitavite Six-Year-Old Series, and won the final of the Cortaflex Seven-Year-Old Series last year.

“Hit Parade has just been off, so you have to take things day by day,” says Stewart.

It’s not that much different with herself.

“Each time I fall off I wonder if it is the last,” she says.

Husband Neil is very supportive but they both prefer he keeps the home front ticking over in her absence.

Stewart has been riding since she was three.

“It’s like a disease really, it's not something you can get rid of easily.”

But it’s not all bad.

“I am also a bit frightened to actually stop riding,” she says. “It is so good for you — it’s like physio and keeps me young.”

That said, she contemplates that this season may be her last.

“If I sold my horses to somewhere I was happy for them to be, then maybe it will be my last. Then I could get something ordinary and just go out and enjoy myself without any pressure to win.”

She muses as to whether it is she who puts the pressure on to win, or others who expect it.

“I'm not really sure, but when you are going well, people just expect you to be out there.”