THE time-honoured ‘Garryowen Equestrienne Turnout’, one of the most prestigious riding events in Australia for women, has been run and won by Jessica Stalling of Tahmoor NSW, last Friday, September 29 at the Melbourne Royal Show .
However, while 21 of the very best horse and rider teams in the country today were strutting their stuff for a record $11,000 in prizes, organisers took the opportunity last Wednesday to cast their minds back to the achievement of one particular horse and rider in the event 70 years ago – Don Quixote and Anne Gibson (Tate) of Inverloch.
It was back then that Miss Anne Tate of East Kew, riding Don Quixote, triumphed in the Garryowen at her third attempt, among other scores, receiving the perfect rating of 20 out of 20 for her riding ability and ‘The Don’ 29 out of a possible 30 for conformation and general soundness.
But it wasn’t because it was 70 years ago this year that Anne and her favourite old horse Don Quixote were remembered ahead of the draw for this year’s event, in fact, Don Quixote was being elevated to ‘Hall of Fame’ for his performances over the years.
According to Noelene King OAM, a board member the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria Limited, and a Charolais breeder of note from Almurta, each year a horse, rider or a person associated with the event is voted on to join the hall of fame.
“This year it was Don Quixote who was chosen, not just because Anne won with him in 1953 but also because he competed at a high standard for three years, including another placing, that he was considered worthy of the honour,” Mrs King said.
Anne Gibson and some of her family members were on hand to see the presentation of the award by Brad Jenkins CEO of the Melbourne Royal Show.
Back in 1953, the Argus newspaper carried half a page of coverage about Anne Tate’s victory:
“Anne Tate of East Kew has captured the greatest equestrian prize of the year, the Garryowen Trophy at the Royal Show.
"Here Anne shows us how to earn a winning total of 89½ points in a high-class competition (with phot).
“Right, Anne’s horse Don Quixote stands as steady as a rock as the eyes of the judges sweep over him.
"For conformation and general soundness ‘The Don’ took 29 out of a possible 30 points.
“For equipment and saddlery, the judges awarded 6 points out of a possible 10 and for costume, including the traditional English hunting attire of woollen breaches, black woollen coat, bowler hat, lanyard, stock, hairnet and, of course, a white gardenia pinned to the jacket; 6½ points.
“For the action, ‘Don’ was awarded full marks, 20 out of 20, for manners and paces, Anne managed 28 points out of a possible 30 for her riding ability. This year was her third attempt to win the Garryowen.
“Anne is the daughter of Dr and Mrs Frank Tate and hunts with the Melbourne and Yarra Glen Club. Don Quixote is her own horse.”
Mrs Gibson recalls competing in the Garryowen on about six occasions, but it was a mishap at her first attempt in 1951, still as a teenager, which ultimately saw her team up with Don Quixote, and win the competition in 1953.
“I was competing on a black horse that I also got from Arthur Newman at Tocumwal, and I’d effectively completed the event when the judges asked me to come forward,” Mrs Gibson said.
“He stepped out and unloaded me and that was that.”
“Fortunately, Arthur Newman came up to me after and said he had another horse for me, one that would suit me better, and that horse turned out to be Don Quixote.
“I had him his whole life after that until he went lame, and we turned him out into the paddock.
“Funnily enough, he got over it some years later and I had a few more rides on him.”
After competing at the Garryowen in 1951, 1952 and winning in 1953, Anne said she took a year off “because I wasn’t sure I could win it again” but came back to compete four more times for two seconds, a third and a fifth in her final year before having a baby.
The Don died more than 50 years ago and while Anne remembers him fondly from time to time, it was only when the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria announced last Wednesday that they were raising the bay gelding to the Hall of Fame that the memories came flooding back in greater detail.
“I didn’t know they even had a hall of fame.”
Anne acknowledges that it was quite emotional.
“He had a beautiful temperament, but he was pretty toey as well, he loved to go.”
As a thoroughbred, tried for flat racing and over the jumps, he managed to adapt well to the discipline of dressage, but it was when Australia was gearing up for the inclusion of equestrian in the 1956 Olympics that Don Quixote and Anne came into their own.
A member of the Melbourne and Yarra Glen hunt clubs, a regular at all the major shows including the Sydney and Melbourne royal shows as well as being at the Waverley Riding School, taught by the likes of Olympic coach Franz Mairinger, Anne regularly competed at the disciplines of showjumping, dressage and cross country, and was invited to join an exclusive group of riders from most states of Australia to try out for the Olympics.
One of these trial events, over 12 days in Bowral in NSW in March 1954, at the estate of Sam Hordern, the president of the Equestrian Federation of Australia, featured most of the riders subsequently selected in the first Australian Olympic Equestrian Team and a number of horses that also went on to the Olympics.
The Victorians selected for the trial were Miss A Tate (East Kew), Bert Jacobs (Narre Warren), Colin and John Kelly (Caramut) and David Wood (Berwick) with Wood and Jacobs ultimately being named in the first Australian team with Franz Mairinger as coach.
The training school was featured in the Women’s Weekly at the time and Anne received prominent coverage.
However, while organisers made a bid to take Anne’s horse to the Olympics, it was to be 10 years before a woman was selected for the first time in an Australian Olympic equestrian team, for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Not only were women behind the 8-ball when it came to competing against men in those days but the heritage of the equestrian event at the Olympics was also against Anne, where only the military were originally allowed to enter, as the ultimate test for man and horse.
Horse riding continued to be part of Anne’s life, with one of her fondest memories being riding the Bicentennial National Trail from Healesville to Canberra in 1988 with her husband Bruce as part of the official opening of the trail in October that year.
The Garryowen Perpetual Trophy has been awarded annually as part of the Melbourne Show since 1934 missing only 2007 (equine influenza) and 2020 and 2021 (COVID). The competition is named after three-time Royal Melbourne Show champion saddle horse, Garryowen, whose owner Violet Murrell died tragically whilst trying to save Garryowen from a stable fire in 1934.
Celebrating its 89th year in 2023 with a prize pool of $11,000, the biggest in the competition’s history, including some diamond encrusted gold jewellery by the Melbourne Jewellery Service, it’s a far cry from what winners received back in the day, a sash and a trophy. There was also the prize of an $8000 County Turnout Saddle for one lucky competitor, Kristen Brennan.
