Frank & Emily

A condensed version of who we are & where we have come from!

Growing up - Emily

- I came thru pony club and competed every weekend, at least 1 competition, but more likely 2-3 every weekend! Nothing was off limits, if there was a comp, I was going, including hunting, showjumping, eventing, dressage & showing to name a few

- Lead rider for a family friends trail ride business in The Grampians on school holidays

- Riding & breaking ponies & horses for other people

- Assisting in running the family beef cattle farm, including calving down thru to finishing

- Assisting in running the family Shetland stud, including foaling down, weaning, handling, breaking, campaigning & selling

- Lived at an Indoor Equestrian Centre & horse agistment farm that my parents ran for a few years, while living here I was able to assist & teach within the RDA

Thru my 20’s - Emily

- Rider & stable hand for Cliff Saunders, he was a breaker & trainer who specialized in breaking QH’s & TB’s, but we worked with all breeds and genres. During my time with Cliff I got to expand on my already established breaking & training skills. I still remember the first TB breaker I rode thru the barriers, he went on to race and win the prestigious Garryowen in his career after racing! Cliff & his extensive knowledge hold a special place in my heart

- Riding & competing my own OTT’s

- Riding instructor

(Not many pics of this decade, pre-iPhone)

2010-2020 - Together

- We met in 2010 while both working for the same plastering company, Frank as a Construction Manager and myself an Estimator. In 2012 we started our own plastering company, it made sense as Frank had been plastering with his Dad since before he could walk and I came from a concreting & estimating background, at our peak we employed 70+ staff, with an annual turnover in excess of $10m

- In 2012 Frank & I established and ran a very successful horse agistment farm, accommodating 70+ horses at any time, on 104 acres, for 10 years

- We had our two sons Michael & Luke who are currently 10 & 7, they are the true definition of farming entrepreneurs

- Built up our beef cattle herd from zero, today we currently hold between 2-300 head at a time. We have been working on breeding our herd thru to purebred Simmental via AI. We have been calving down between 50-100 head a year

- Bred and foaled down our own TB broodmares, for the purpose of breed to race

- Competing in the dressage & show arenas (Emily)

- Transitioned to competing in the western arena, focusing on Reining, Cutting & Cowhorse mainly (Emily)

- I will be returning to my English riding roots in the near future (Emily)

(Pictures speak a thousand words, so I have added quite a few below so you can see the condition of our animals, some of our foals, my show prep abilities and the fact we are animal mad)

Current decade

- Bred and foaled down our own TB broodmares, for the purpose of breed to sell at yearling sales

- We have sold our plastering company and land banking farm, this has led us to feel it is the perfect time to sink our teeth into purchasing & running Rushton Park!

It is really important to us to honor David & Kayley's vision, we hope to seamlessly take over the day to day running of the fabulous establishment they have created. David & Kayley have also generously offered to be on hand for any questions that we have after handover.