Sponsored Riders

Vet in the Valley loves giving back to the communities that support us. We have begun this by sponsoring riders - providing a leg up for those that may not otherwise get it. We hope to facilitate these rider and horses to achieve their dreams!

Celia COnder-Lang

When Celia got her first pony at the age of 7, she had no saddle and an ill-fitting bridle. Not able to have lessons at that time, she remembers riding around up on a mountain and getting dumped over and over until she learned to stay on. A little later on she had the opportunity to attend pony club a few times. The only way to get there was in a local farmers' cattle truck. They would load her pony onto the big truck and then drop her along the road at a cattle ramp. She then made a friend at pony club who's mum had a float so she could arrive in style. They started to attend one day events, this is where Celia and her pony jumped a whopping 18cm and her competition career began.

Her desire to compete was slightly hampered by the lack of instructors available at the time so she started to travel. Before heading overseas she worked for Heath Ryan in NSW (olympic Dressage rider, 3 day event champion & Grand Prix champion) and then numerous stables in the UK and Wales.

Celia then travelled to America where she managed a Quarter Horse breeding ranch, and rode western pleasure and competed Quarter horse in in-hand classes. She then returned to the UK to work, in both race stables and point to point horse stables. Little known fact about Celia is that she used to show sheep, Welsh Mountain Badger face sheep and Black Welsh Mountain sheep. She would showed them at the Royal Welsh Show and this was where Celia also got to watch amazing horses competing.

During this time Celia had the opportunity to have some lessons with world renowned olympian dressage rider, General Hans von Blixen-Finecke Jr. (aka The Baron). Celia remembers being completely besotted with the Baron, watching him ride and tapping into his knowledge, sparked her passion for dressage.

She wasted no time in starting her dressage training and during this time she started her BHSAI (British Horse Society Assistant Instructor) certificate in Wales which took 4 years to complete. She then headed off to travel Asia for a year, and in true Celia style, she also became a grade 5 commercial chef as well as obtaining her Equestrian Australia coaching certificate when returning back to Australia.

To date Celia has been Tasmania State Champion 7 times and Reserve State Champion 6 times across all levels and on multiple horses. One of Celia's most memorable moments and biggest achievements, is training her Irish Draught Sports horse (SP Diamond Kate) to Advanced Prix St George, where they became Champion and Reserve Champions and were added to the National Medium Horse Leader Board for Australia.

Most recently Celia and her horse Woody (Ben Hur) were Reserve State Champ in 2021 and she is currently training for the 2022 Hygain State Championships. Celia enjoys the challenge of training horse and riders and finds the competitions as a test of how your training is progressing.

Past SPonsored Riders

Halla Parr

Halla started showing interest in endurance at 9. Strapping for her mum at competitions. Then wanting to learn more she started pencilling for the tpr's and vets.

In her first season Halla & Buffy successfully completed 7x40km. This earned her Intermediate Rider if the year 2019.

Last season Halla stepped up to 80km competitions. In doing this she also stepped up to an Arab (Mickey). She completed 3x80km's qualifying herself and Mickey. She again stepped up to another horse (Shimmer). Halla and Shimmer then campaigned towards Tas State Championships. Unfortunately through no fault is their own they had to retire at 80km's. This was still enough to earn her Tas Junior Rider of the year 2020.

This season Halla and Shimmer have pushed themselves aiming for Distance Horse & Rider. So far they have successfully completed 9 x 80kms and 1x120km (100% completion) with only State Champs left on the calendar.

So far Halla and Shimmer have together clocked up 1080km with no vet outs. Care of her horse and successful completions is what Halla is striving for, not the individual win.

Georga Brenna

Georga has been riding ever since she could walk. She started her riding career on a Shetland pony named Sophie, who typically left her on the ground in search for more grass. You could say Georga’s determination started early. After going through pony club, Georga was lucky enough to be given a job by Olympian Sonja Johnson as a riding groom which saw her move from Tasmania to Western Australian for 2 years once she had finished collage. In her time with Sonja, she produced young horses and competed up to 2* eventing. Georga was able to groom for Sonja at both Melbourne and Sydney 3-day events and at 5* level at Adelaide. Georga also went to Europe as Sonja’s groom as part of the Australian Squad in preparation for the Rio Olympics. 

After two years of working away Georga returned home to Tasmania with a Thoroughbred which had been purchased for her to continue competing, his name is Parkiarrup Graphite (aka Graph). Georga and Graph have been competed at 2* level eventing and are aiming for Melbourne 3-day event 2022. Georga has her sights set high and if all goes to plan, will attend Adelaide 3-day event in the 3*. Georga also has a young warmblood mare who she is retraining and hopes to have her out eventing in the near future. 

Georga also dedicates a lot of her time giving back to the sport and is currently the Southern Tasmanian Eventing Association (STEA) president. In the future Georga hopes to earn her course designers ticket to be able to help develop new and existing ross-country courses in the state.