About Adelaide Hill
Adelaide arrived at Team Bates in July 2005 as an unbroken 2 1/2 year old. To say that he was a handful would be a serious understatement. But his breeder Beth Turner obviously saw something special in Adelaide that many people would have turned a blind eye to.
As a professional horse breaker it was Matthew’s job to turn Adelaide from a brumby into a competition horse. Adelaide is one of a few horses for whom Matthew has sought advice from one of his respected colleagues.
It took a lot of time and patience to gain Adelaide’s trust. I’m still not sure today that Adelaide really trusts Matthew. To this day Adelaide will still not let Matthew catch him in the paddock.
Adelaide was very difficult to catch whether he was in a stable, small yard or a paddock. To help with this we put him in a paddock with my first really good horse Masterprint. We had hoped being in with a really settled and mature friend might convince him life as a competition horse wasn’t so bad. It helped a little bit but in the end we just had to leave a head collar on Adelaide full time. He still now at 15 years of age lives with his head collar on 24 hours a day.
During the breaking in period of Adelaide, Matthew needed two visits to the Emergency Department at Hawkesbury Hospital. Both times Matthew was on the receiving end of Adelaide’s super fast and extremely athletic cow kicks.
There were two things that kept us persevering. The first one being he showed a lot of ability when free jumping.
I still remember clearly the very first time he free jumped. I had never seen a horse that was so scared of anything and everything canter so happily down to the jumps and look so self confident.
Not once did he ever get a wrong distance to the fence or touch a rail and he sailed over 1.40m with such ease. I can honestly say that this was the only thing that stopped us from putting Adelaide down. I remember my mother in law Catherine sitting me down for a chat about Adelaide. She was concerned for our well-being, and questioned whether it was wise to persevere with such a dangerous animal. We still kept working with him much to everyone’s disgust.
If Matthew started having doubts we would free jump Adelaide just to remind ourselves that he was worth continuing with. This usually got me a couple more weeks of Matthew spending time on Adelaide.
The second reason on why we kept going with Adelaide was I truly believed that he wanted to be a kind horse. I spent many hours handling him and doing things like brushing him to try and gain his trust. I used many a treat to try and convince him. I remember being extremely excited the day I was able to brush him on his right side. This was a major milestone in his training.
Slowly Adelaide began to show progress in his training. It was a tedious process with very little improvement at times.
In 2008 I went to the Beijing Olympics as a spectator. The Eventing competition was held in Hong Kong. As I was cheering my fellow competitors on as they won Team silver I decided that when I returned to Australia that Adelaide was going to be my next Olympic prospect. I set London Olympics as my goal. Matthew was a little surprised with my revelation as I had not yet even ridden Adelaide. By November 2008 I had my first ride. I was extremely nervous as I knew what Adelaide was capable of. I was amazed at how rideable he was. Matthew had done an amazing job.
We had our first competition together in February 2009. He didn’t compete with back shoes on for some time as no one including Matthew really wanted to go near Adelaide’s hind legs. But over time Adelaide started to trust our farrier more and more and eventually he had his first pair of hind shoes on.
Adelaide progressed very well and remarkably quickly despite his slow start. He finished the 2009 season at One star level. 2010 saw Adelaide win in Melbourne 3DE (1*)and place at Adelaide 3DE (2*).
2011 was an exciting year with him stepping up to 3 star level and winning Sydney 3DE and then finishing the year with the Adelaide 4 star. This was both Adelaide’s and my first four start. We had now firmly put ourselves into contention for the London Olympics. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be with Adelaide getting injured just weeks before the team was announced thus ruling us out of contention.
Adelaide recovered well and progressed in his training. He has started to feel like a highly trained athlete and was finally showing some maturity. Although he still had his quirks. In 2015 we set Rio Olympics as our long term goal. We won at the Melbourne 3DE thus qualifying us for Rio. We set the goal of winning Adelaide 3DE CCI4* in the November of 2015. It just wasn’t meant to be with Adelaide hitting his stifle going into the last water complex. As we left the water complex I knew something wasn’t quite right but he was still galloping strongly. The next two fences I felt Adelaide starting to lose power at the take offs and at the next fence Adelaide and I parted ways just three fences from home. We then set our short term goals of tackling some English and European events to give us the best chance possible of gaining selection for the Australian Eventing Team at Rio. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be with Adelaide picking up a minor injury while competing in the Equestriad CIC3*. We were just three weeks shy of flying out to the UK to prepare for the Saumur 3DE. What no one realised was that our lives were going to change forever by the most heartbreaking loss of our wonderful working pupil Caitlyn Fischer.
I made the decision to retire Adelaide from eventing. Adelaide didn’t compete again until December 2016 in some show jumping classes. During 2017 we focused on dressage and show jumping. Adelaide competed at Prix St George level dressage and started competing at 1.40m level show jumping. We tackled our first Grand Prix placing a respectable 8th at the NSW State Indoor Titles. Towards the end of the year I decided to bring Adelaide back eventing as his passion for cross country was so clear. Adelaide was set to win at Adelaide. After such a great performance Adelaide was then aimed for Sydney CCI3* 2018. Adelaide was in his best form heading into Sydney 3DE. Our experience and wonderful partnership shone through in all three phases. Enabling us to take the win.
Adelaide has come so far since 2005. I have such an amazing relationship and bond with this superstar. He truly trusts me, and I’m so very proud of what we have achieved together so far. We were so lucky to have him come into our life. He truly has taught me so much about horses, but also about myself. You wouldn’t meet a kinder or softer natured horse. He loves his treats; his favourite being Nutrigrain. In fact we both share breakfast in the mornings.
A word from Adelaide's breeder: Beth Turner
"As a breeder I was fortunate enough that the late George and Betty Richardson sent me their mare Euralla Orana my way, George was primarily a stock horse breeder but he was involved with the Havilah Horse Trials and had bred the wonderful Uralla Jubilee sired by renowned stallion Koyuna Souvenir, ridden by Derek Piper. Euralla Orana’s dam line is also the well known Koyuna Souvenir line. I worked closely with Derek and Jubille and without a doubt Jubilee was an amazing jumping horse, they were not easy horses but had great ability. Adelaide’s sire Stirling Sprite was by Salute, so a double dose of jumping talent, good confirmation and quirkiness. I recognised Adelaide would be difficult but I was all too familiar with dealing with the more challenging ones having spent lots of time on hot thoroughbreds. I was sure Matt and Christine would work on him and figure him out, and that they have."
Adelaide arrived at Team Bates in July 2005 as an unbroken 2 1/2 year old. To say that he was a handful would be a serious understatement. But his breeder Beth Turner obviously saw something special in Adelaide that many people would have turned a blind eye to.
As a professional horse breaker it was Matthew’s job to turn Adelaide from a brumby into a competition horse. Adelaide is one of a few horses for whom Matthew has sought advice from one of his respected colleagues.
It took a lot of time and patience to gain Adelaide’s trust. I’m still not sure today that Adelaide really trusts Matthew. To this day Adelaide will still not let Matthew catch him in the paddock.
Adelaide was very difficult to catch whether he was in a stable, small yard or a paddock. To help with this we put him in a paddock with my first really good horse Masterprint. We had hoped being in with a really settled and mature friend might convince him life as a competition horse wasn’t so bad. It helped a little bit but in the end we just had to leave a head collar on Adelaide full time. He still now at 15 years of age lives with his head collar on 24 hours a day.
During the breaking in period of Adelaide, Matthew needed two visits to the Emergency Department at Hawkesbury Hospital. Both times Matthew was on the receiving end of Adelaide’s super fast and extremely athletic cow kicks.
There were two things that kept us persevering. The first one being he showed a lot of ability when free jumping.
I still remember clearly the very first time he free jumped. I had never seen a horse that was so scared of anything and everything canter so happily down to the jumps and look so self confident.
Not once did he ever get a wrong distance to the fence or touch a rail and he sailed over 1.40m with such ease. I can honestly say that this was the only thing that stopped us from putting Adelaide down. I remember my mother in law Catherine sitting me down for a chat about Adelaide. She was concerned for our well-being, and questioned whether it was wise to persevere with such a dangerous animal. We still kept working with him much to everyone’s disgust.
If Matthew started having doubts we would free jump Adelaide just to remind ourselves that he was worth continuing with. This usually got me a couple more weeks of Matthew spending time on Adelaide.
The second reason on why we kept going with Adelaide was I truly believed that he wanted to be a kind horse. I spent many hours handling him and doing things like brushing him to try and gain his trust. I used many a treat to try and convince him. I remember being extremely excited the day I was able to brush him on his right side. This was a major milestone in his training.
Slowly Adelaide began to show progress in his training. It was a tedious process with very little improvement at times.
In 2008 I went to the Beijing Olympics as a spectator. The Eventing competition was held in Hong Kong. As I was cheering my fellow competitors on as they won Team silver I decided that when I returned to Australia that Adelaide was going to be my next Olympic prospect. I set London Olympics as my goal. Matthew was a little surprised with my revelation as I had not yet even ridden Adelaide. By November 2008 I had my first ride. I was extremely nervous as I knew what Adelaide was capable of. I was amazed at how rideable he was. Matthew had done an amazing job.
We had our first competition together in February 2009. He didn’t compete with back shoes on for some time as no one including Matthew really wanted to go near Adelaide’s hind legs. But over time Adelaide started to trust our farrier more and more and eventually he had his first pair of hind shoes on.
Adelaide progressed very well and remarkably quickly despite his slow start. He finished the 2009 season at One star level. 2010 saw Adelaide win in Melbourne 3DE (1*)and place at Adelaide 3DE (2*).
2011 was an exciting year with him stepping up to 3 star level and winning Sydney 3DE and then finishing the year with the Adelaide 4 star. This was both Adelaide’s and my first four start. We had now firmly put ourselves into contention for the London Olympics. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be with Adelaide getting injured just weeks before the team was announced thus ruling us out of contention.
Adelaide recovered well and progressed in his training. He has started to feel like a highly trained athlete and was finally showing some maturity. Although he still had his quirks. In 2015 we set Rio Olympics as our long term goal. We won at the Melbourne 3DE thus qualifying us for Rio. We set the goal of winning Adelaide 3DE CCI4* in the November of 2015. It just wasn’t meant to be with Adelaide hitting his stifle going into the last water complex. As we left the water complex I knew something wasn’t quite right but he was still galloping strongly. The next two fences I felt Adelaide starting to lose power at the take offs and at the next fence Adelaide and I parted ways just three fences from home. We then set our short term goals of tackling some English and European events to give us the best chance possible of gaining selection for the Australian Eventing Team at Rio. Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be with Adelaide picking up a minor injury while competing in the Equestriad CIC3*. We were just three weeks shy of flying out to the UK to prepare for the Saumur 3DE. What no one realised was that our lives were going to change forever by the most heartbreaking loss of our wonderful working pupil Caitlyn Fischer.
I made the decision to retire Adelaide from eventing. Adelaide didn’t compete again until December 2016 in some show jumping classes. During 2017 we focused on dressage and show jumping. Adelaide competed at Prix St George level dressage and started competing at 1.40m level show jumping. We tackled our first Grand Prix placing a respectable 8th at the NSW State Indoor Titles. Towards the end of the year I decided to bring Adelaide back eventing as his passion for cross country was so clear. Adelaide was set to win at Adelaide. After such a great performance Adelaide was then aimed for Sydney CCI3* 2018. Adelaide was in his best form heading into Sydney 3DE. Our experience and wonderful partnership shone through in all three phases. Enabling us to take the win.
Adelaide has come so far since 2005. I have such an amazing relationship and bond with this superstar. He truly trusts me, and I’m so very proud of what we have achieved together so far. We were so lucky to have him come into our life. He truly has taught me so much about horses, but also about myself. You wouldn’t meet a kinder or softer natured horse. He loves his treats; his favourite being Nutrigrain. In fact we both share breakfast in the mornings.
A word from Adelaide's breeder: Beth Turner
"As a breeder I was fortunate enough that the late George and Betty Richardson sent me their mare Euralla Orana my way, George was primarily a stock horse breeder but he was involved with the Havilah Horse Trials and had bred the wonderful Uralla Jubilee sired by renowned stallion Koyuna Souvenir, ridden by Derek Piper. Euralla Orana’s dam line is also the well known Koyuna Souvenir line. I worked closely with Derek and Jubille and without a doubt Jubilee was an amazing jumping horse, they were not easy horses but had great ability. Adelaide’s sire Stirling Sprite was by Salute, so a double dose of jumping talent, good confirmation and quirkiness. I recognised Adelaide would be difficult but I was all too familiar with dealing with the more challenging ones having spent lots of time on hot thoroughbreds. I was sure Matt and Christine would work on him and figure him out, and that they have."