From Sheep Stations to Racetracks — An eventing life on Jess Rae time
44 min
What do you get when you mix a gutsy country kid, some difficult horses, a four-star eventing career and a 2:50 am alarm? You get Jess Rae! Jess joins Prue Barrett and Fiona Hughes to chat about growing up riding ponies in western NSW, chasing the dream of becoming an elite eventer, and the horses that have shaped her journey. From buying Indy for just $2,000 to breeding and producing the quirky but incredibly talented Rascal, Jess shares the highs, the heartbreaks and the lessons learned along the way. These days, Jess’s life is anything but quiet. She starts her mornings riding racehorses before working with pre-training horses, riding her own eventers and teaching lessons. And somewhere in amongst all that, she’s still finding time to chase her four- and five-star ambitions! We talk about resilience, the reality of funding a career in eventing, the importance of having a life outside horses, and why Jess still has unfinished business when it comes to competing overseas and representing Australia. Plus, we get to the bottom of “Jess Time” — the mysterious time zone where a 10 am start might not quite mean 10 am — and discover there’s a rogue eyebrow involved too! It’s an honest, funny and inspiring conversation about hard work, big dreams, great horses and learning to enjoy the ride, even when life doesn’t quite go to plan.
