Living his best life
Afterlife wasn’t a racetrack star, but when he partnered with Jess Morrison, he found a new way to shine, writes AMANDA MAC.
Jess Morrison’s introduction to horses began on her third birthday when she was presented with not one, but two Shetland ponies. She still owns the Shetlands – a mare, now 24, and her 20-year-old daughter – to this day. “They’re my little soul animals,” she says, “they’re beautiful.”
Although Jess’s mum, who herself had been a keen horsewoman, taught Jess the basics, Jess didn’t do much riding until she joined her local Pony Club in 2015, where the then 14-year-old tried out all the disciplines on the Australian Stock Horse she owned at the time.
Next in line for Jess was Alley Cat, a Connemara cross Thorough
bred mare with a mind of her own. “When she first arrived, she was really headstrong. But we got her going nicely and I started competing in jumping with her in 2017,” Jess says. But it was after more than a few nasty spills that Jess later decided the sport wasn’t for her.
Another deciding factor in that scenario was Jess’s discovery of a different discipline. She had begun having lessons with well-known dressage rider, coach, and judge Christine Sievers, and was hooked on the sport. “The more I learned, the more I excelled at it, and the more I loved it,” she says.
Around this time Afterlife (aka Barney) arrived on the scene. It was 2020. COVID had changed our collective way of life and with time on her hands, Jess thought that another horse, “a bit of a project pony” would be a good idea. After a visit to McMaster Family Performance Horses, Acknowledged Retrainers in Racing Victoria’s excellent Off the Track program, she settled on Afterlife, her very first OTT horse. “Barney was everything I had been looking for. He’s so willing to please and I’ve learned so much from him,” she says.
Despite his distinguished bloodline – he was sired by Dalakhani (IRE) out of Heaven Instead (AUS) – Afterlife’s track performance was lacklustre and he was retired in 2020 after two unimpressive starts. But a new career path was about to change all that. “To start with I just did a little bit at home with him. Then after lockdown there was an occasional Pony Club rally, or an occasional lesson but I wasn’t getting out and about with him much. I was still competing on Alley Cat because I was trying out for the Pony Club Nationals with her, and I was also doing Young Riders” Jess explains.
But in 2021, Barney and Jess did their first Pony Club show together. Barney went well, to the point where Jess wanted to be able to take both horses to competitions. However, there was a problem. Due to a personality clash, Alley Cat and Barney could not be floated together. “So, I had to make a choice, and because I was thinking of buying a Warmblood, I decided to sell Alley Cat and work on Barney for another six months before selling him and putting the money towards the Warmblood, which I thought would be my dream dressage horse,” Jess tells me.
All well and good in theory, but then Jess took Barney to a dressage lesson with Christine. When she told her coach that she planned to sell Barney, Christine was horrified: “She was like, ‘You’re not selling him. He’s got so much potential’,” Jess laughs, “and that was the start of our journey together.”
And Jess would be the first to tell you that it’s been quite the journey: “When I first took Barney to Pony Club, someone said I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him because he was such a plain looking horse. But he’s gone to more places than you would ever have imagined. He stands out too, I think. He used to look all legs before he put on a bit of weight. Now he’s much better proportioned and his top line has improved so much.”
It would seem that Barney has taken to dressage with much the same enthusiasm as Jess. In the Equissage Victorian Amateur Owner Rider Dressage Championships held at Boneo last September, they placed 5th out of 30 combinations in the Novice 2.3 with a personal best score of 69.286%, scoring 65% to finish 9th overall in the Novice Championship and earning Barney the title of Novice OTT Champion, his first trophy rug, and $200 in prize money. Additionally, they finished 3rd in Racing Victoria’s Off The Track Dressage series Novice division that same year.
But the icing on the cake of an exciting year came when Jess received a call from Equestrian Victoria, letting her know that Barney had been named one of three finalists for the Equestrian Victoria 2023 OTT Dressage Horse of the Year Award. “I was in utter shock and I started crying,” Jess tells me. “It was just so exciting to be recognised in that way.”
And from there, the pair’s progress has been quite phenomenal. At last month’s Autumn Dressage Championships held at Boneo Park, they were Off The Track Novice Dressage Series Champions and Overall Novice Champions (not bad for a long-legged horse that wasn’t going to get anywhere!) with some impressive scores: 1st place out of 16 competitors with 71.12% in Saturday’s Novice 2.2; 1st out of 11 with 70.782% in Sunday’s 2.2; and 1st out of 9 with 71.643% in Sunday’s 2.3. And let’s not forget their very first Elementary 3.1 where they placed 6th out of 13 with a score of 64.78%. Taking home around $1,000 in prize money from that outing alone, Jess reckons it’s safe to say that Barney has now won more prize money from dressage then he ever did in his racing career!
Jess and Barney have successfully competed against more experienced riders and horses (some of them Warmbloods) and yet have still achieved remarkable results, so what’s next? “With two scores over 71%, I need one more to be eligible for a Novice Bronze Medallion. So short term, I’d like to achieve that. Also, Barney and I did our first Elementary dressage test last month at Boneo, so I would like to try and get out and do some more Elementary,” Jess says.
And with potential to burn, you can’t help but think that the best is yet to come.
