Stephen Way.
Image supplied.
By Equestrian Life
British-based Aussie eventer Stephen Way moved overseas in 1996 to complete a teaching degree. Finding himself in an international eventing hub, his love of horses took over. It wasn’t long before his school teaching was sidelined as his eventing career began!
Stephen is competing at Barbury International Horse Trials this weekend in the Young Horse class. Equestrian Life caught up with Stephen to find out more about his career highlights to date, his current competition horses, and his ride at Barbury…
You moved to the UK in 1996 to complete your teaching degree; at the time, did you have any intentions of restarting your eventing career over there, or did that come about by chance?
I moved to UK to complete my teaching degree at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. During this time my passion for riding led me to get in contact with a friend of the family who re-introduced me to horses, the drive to compete took over and the school teaching took a sideline as my eventing career kick-started.
The decision to stay in the UK – how did that come about?
The UK is the hub of the eventing world. There are fantastic events in the UK and in Europe and my passion for horses and competing has kept me here! I have now set up a base in the UK with my English wife and young son, where we are building a nice team of horses and I have fantastic facilities for coaching and training riders.
What are some of your career highlights?
I have been very lucky to ride some lovely horses and work with some very supportive owners which has led to travelling all over the UK and Europe to compete at many fantastic events.
My biggest career highlight was competing at Luhmuhlen 5* with Secret Picnic. I have had a number of placings at Le Lion D’Angers Young Horse Championships, competing there with a variety of different horses including the great Hop and Skip who I produced up to 4* level before he went on to make his appearance on the Japanese and later, German teams.
Other highlights include qualifying Secret Picnic for the National Dressage Championships at the age of 21, retired from eventing but still delivering results. Another highlight was winning an accumulator at Gatcombe Horse Trials with wins at the Spring and Autumn events with the prize being business class flights to a destination of your choice. Obviously I used this for a trip back home to Australia, travelling in luxury!
Tell us about your current competition horses?
I currently have a team of exciting young horses. I have a 5-year-old gelding “Dunkerrin Grey Gunsmoke”, owned by The Kenny Syndicate, who competed in 4-year-old classes last year and is beginning to step up this year with some good runs at BE100 level.
I also have a 5-year-old mare “Congress Master”, owned by my wife Mel. She won a 4-year-old qualifier last season and competed at the championships at Osberton. She has had a slow start this season due to a field injury, but is about to come back to competing. These two horses will be produced and prepared to progress through the levels and aim for the 6-year-old championships next year.
“Da Vinci Beekhoeve” is a 3* level horse owned by The Mad Hacker Syndicate, and I have a recent addition to my team “Standlynch Accolade”, this is a horse that Mel and I competed for three seasons up to 3* level before he was sold in 2017. He has now come back to us and we will be aiming to get him out competing again later in the season. We have a small string of event horses, which gives me the time to devote to each horse and I am always looking for more rides to add to our team.
Who are you taking to Barbury Horse Trials, and which classes are you competing in?
I had planned to run Da Vinci Beekhoeve in the CCI3*S, but have had to withdraw due to a minor set back. I have a 4-year-old mare “Alice”, owned by Thomas Heffernan Ho, in the Burghley Young Event Horse class which will be her first outing… so looking to give her a nice introduction to her competitive career.
Best of luck Stephen, we look forward to following your progress in the Young Horse event at Barbury and throughout the rest of the year!
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