Charlie Richardson

NRG Team Ambassador Charlie Richardson

Charlie Richardson

Position: Eventer / Showjumper Vantage Hill NSW

Born to love horses

“I remember my first pony ‘Tommy’, a small black gelding that wouldn’t canter in circles and I would spend so much time trying to kick him on, determined to get him going.”

Inspirational young eventing athlete, Charlie Richardson was born on a cattle farm in Merriwa, NSW 16 years ago. Moving to Scone in the beautiful Upper Hunter Valley NSW at the age of four, Charlies parents Nikki and Blair Richardson established their fast-growing thoroughbred pre-training business at Vantage Hill.

It seems, he was destined to appreciate a life around animals, particularly horses.  “I had a couple of horses after Tommy that I took to Pony Club before my 3* eventer Geoffrey came along. I had plans for Geoffrey to compete at this year’s Sydney International Horse Trials and campaign for the Oceania Championships on the Australian Young Rider Team in June, but unfortunately Geoffrey has sustained an injury which puts us out of contention.

While he is out of action, I am riding Agent, my dad’s grey 3* eventer and hoping to do the 2* at Sydney International Horse Trials with him in the coming month. I have also been competitively show jumping dads ex 4* eventer at 1.30m and Young Rider level and really enjoying riding this horse who we got given after his racing career ended as a 4 year old.

All three of these successful thoroughbreds have been Off the Track. In our breeding program at home, we are crossing warmblood x thoroughbred mares for our riding horses although my favourite horse is without a doubt the thoroughbred. They are very trainable, intelligent, bold, and always give you 110%.

Fitness is the Key

Keeping my horses fit at this is point in time means relying on my parents to work them while I am away at Boarding School. This is challenging for our family as Boarding School is 3 hours away, meaning I am only able to ride on weekends. Luckily mum works on their flat work, while dad keeps them jumping fit for me.”

Keeping himself fit is also important to Charlie and through the winter months, he plays rugby at school, with game day on Saturdays. Summer months are spent maintaining his fitness with athletics. He tells us he loves the freedom of athletics as there are no competitions involved, keeping his weekends free for riding.

Future Aspirations

Keeping his options open after finishing school at the end of next year, Charlie is considering the option of working overseas with an eventing team although he tells us his dad would love to keep him home to help with breeding, breaking, and training their horses.

“If you train hard, you will not only be hard, you will be hard to beat!”

Favourite NRG Product

We use many of the NRG products around our stables, but my favourite without a doubt would have to be NRG No-Nots, it means far less brushing, saving me time to ride more!