Warwickdailynews.com.au - Full Article30th Jan 2013 7:00 AM
WHAT started out as a business deal 22 years ago, turned into a lifelong passion for accomplished endurance rider Dick Collyer.
Dick, who operates his Arab stud from his 688 hectare property Totara at Leyburn, with partner Jill Crowley has been breeding arabs for 40 years.
I saw all these exhausted people come in to check points on their horses and then take off again and I admired them so much. There was real buzz about taking off at midnight.
However, it wasn't until he sold one of his "good horses" to a bloke he thought was a "good rider", that his love of the sport was born.
"It was 1991 and a bloke I knew wanted to win the 1994 Tom Quilty Endurance Ride, as he had already come second twice in what is regarded as the pinnacle of the sport," Dick said.
"However, the horse and the bloke didn't suit each other, so I took the horse back and decided I would take up endurance riding myself," he said.
"I set my sights on the 1994 Tom Quilty, as it takes about three years to train a horse to compete in a 160km ride..."
Read more here:
http://www.warwickdailynews.com.au/news/addicted-to-endurance-tough-rides/1734150/
