Many Australians have headed to the UK to attend Badminton. Two such people are Mim Poolman and her daughter, Bird, who were combining a trip to Badminton into a hectic schedule of sourcing more great products for their online shop - Birdsequisports. Read what Mim and Bird have been up to on their travels, which so far includes catching up with Brett Parbery and Rozzie Ryan.
To introduce ourselves …
Both Bird (Camilla Palmer) and myself (Mim Poolman) have been involved in the equestrian sports as both competitors and judges for many. When we were at the WEG in Kentucky Bird purchased a pair of ‘Signature’ gloves (above) and at the time was offered the rights to distribute them throughout Australia. This she declined as she already had a busy job with IBM, two young children as well trying to find time to continue to train her FEI dressage horse Lenny (Glenquarry). However after using the gloves she was so impressed that she decided she would try and juggle her life a little more and become involved in promoting the gloves in Australia, hence the formation of Birdsequisports, which I somehow got involved in as well!
All the products available from Birdequisports are quite unique and we have now added a fabulous range of Spanish leather boots, hand bags and belts as well as the full range of gloves from the everyday training glove to the finest leather competition glove. We started showcasing our products at Equitana last year and have been at most of the FEI events and are now on a quick visit to Europe and the UK to check if their are any other products we might like to add to our online store.
We managed to catch up with Rozzie Ryan and Brett Parbery before heading off to Hagen to watch some of the world's top riders compete and then the plan had been to go to Badminton. Never mind – let's hope that Windsor Horse Show is on and we’ll be able to tell you all about that.
On the day we spent tracking down Rozzie and Brett our first stop was to Stal Bartles (above) where Rozzie is based for her campaign for Olympic selection. The Bartels stables are located in a very picturesque part of the Netherlands and it had a very welcoming feel to it. Rozzie who at present is house sitting for the Bartels gave us a full tour of the property which was very impressive. At the moment it seemed rather quiet but things must really buzz when the stables are full. Bullwinkle, the horse Rozzie hopes will take her to the Olympics has been in residence for about a week or so after proving to be a very good traveller on the long trip for Australia to Europe. Pictured here with Bird and Rozzie, Bullwinkle has a small complex to himself which includes a small indoor arena leading off his stable block. Also on the property are two outdoor arenas plus a full sized indoor arena.
Brett Parbery and Lord of Loxley are stationed about an hour down the road at the stables of Edward Gal and Hans Peter Minderhoud. Here we ran into another contingent of Australians over for the dressage, Bev Edwards, whose horse Jaybee Alabaster ridden by Rachel Downs is also campaigning for Olympc selection. Lord of Loxley is certainly a very elegant horse and Brett seems very happy with his progress to date. He, like Rozzie, was off to a training competition on Friday. These competitions seem a marvellous idea with riders getting to perform in front of judges but able to repeat movements if some problem arises.
After coffee Brett took his Australian contingent on a grand tour of the establishment. Quite an amazing set up with multiple arenas indoor and out, several large stable barns, flats for visitors plus large laboratory set up for the collection and freezing of semen. I have no idea what it costs to heat these places but both complexes were very cosy so cleaning gear, sitting in a cosy tack room, would seem appear to be quite pleasant.
I don’t think that we really understand or appreciate the huge effort that our riders make to try and represent Australia, particularly at the Olympics. Obviously it is all worth while if you make the team but this will not be the case for all the riders. The fact alone that they are prepared to make such huge sacrifices for their sport makes them very special, regardless of what might happen in the run up to London.
