The Thoroughbred Club – Brie Dawson, Hedgerow Performance Horses
How wonderful is it to continue to hear amazing stories about our off the track thoroughbreds. We now are going even further and wanting to know about the amazing people that are retraining them. Our first story is about Brie and her absolute dedication to the retraining of thoroughbreds. He love and passions shines through and we cannot thank her enough for dedicating her time to looking after our much loved race horse.
Please tell us all about you?
Name: Brie Dawson
Business Name: Hedgerow Performance
Business Address: 1264 George Downs Drive Kulnura
Business State: NSW
Contact No: 0435790431
Hello! My name is Brielle Dawson and I am passionate about thoroughbred and their life after racing. I sort of fell into re-training thoroughbreds through a lot of ambition but not a lot of money behind supporting that dream!
My parents never had the money to buy me a ‘schoolmaster’ so I had to learn how to train a horse to a level I wanted to compete at from scratch. My first racehorse was called Born Free who I bought at age 11 and him and I eventually competed to 1* level for many years successfully.
Over the years I have retrained over 50 racehorses to performance horses with all of them being sold on to suitable homes to enjoy a suitable career after racing while working in real estate to support my horses.
Recently with a young family I have taken the plunge to make what was for many years my ‘side gig’ and make this my professional career. I am now selling horses for clients, training my own thoroughbreds and also taking clients horses in for re-schooling with much success.
We currently have 7 racehorses that are in work retraining with us and would love to take on more but unfortunately presently we cannot afford the outlay. At the moment with clients’ horses, I ride close to 11 horses a day with no groom or extra set of hands. The days are long and at the moment very hot but it is all worth it when you see the horses transforming and starting to understand their new careers.
Talk about your property:
I am not lucky enough to own my own property but I have been very fortunate to be based out of beautiful Dalkara Park in Kulnura NSW. The facilities are excellent spread over 38 lush acres with each horse having an individual paddock and shelter with most of them living on hay and getting fatter by the day because the grass is that good! We have a beautiful 80 x 50 sand arena with jumps and a large roundyard where we can start our horses off before they “graduate” to the arena!
What are your goals:
At the moment my goals are all business related, I have some personal competition goals to reach with my two OTT boys who are not for sale but the business is taking priority this year. We are in the process of launching a website to help OTT find new homes and are trying to get to the point that our schooling and horse sales side of the business is making enough profit that we can start bringing on some more OTT’s then we currently have to start their new lives!
Tell us a story about any of your off the track thoroughbreds:
Paddock Name: Humphrey
Race Name: Red Extension
Brief Overview of your OTTT Race History
Humphrey had 17 starts and won close to $70000 so he wasn’t a terrible racehorse by any means! He won at Warwick Farm and Kembla Grange and had a few 2nds at other provincial meetings.
Brief story on how you now own Humphrey?
Humphrey is a little bit of a cheeky bugger and had ended up at a friend of mines place. She was planning on selling him but due to the fact that he absolutely loves to pigroot she didn’t think she would have much luck and didn’t have the time. I was looking for a few new horses and she offered him to me, I also thought I was going to sell him on but I have fallen in love with his cheeky personality and find his pigrooting quite hilarious so he will stay with me and be my comp horse!
What discipline does Humphrey excel?
Humphrey is a natural born eventer, after 4 weeks of training he went out and completed Berrima Horse Trials where he finished 13th out of 33 competitors. He is now training around 1.05 and jumping up to 95cm cross country fences.
What you love most about Humphrey?
That he is an absolute menace to deal with but has an absolute heart of gold.
Paddock Name: Gordon (Gordy)
Race Name: Gordon Gekko
Brief Overview of Gordy’s Race History?
Gordon was bought to go to Hong Kong, had 2 races came dead last and was sent home!
Brief story on how you now own Gordy?
Gordon was at Hillview Thoroughbreds after coming back from HK and I saw him on Facebook and just fell in love with him!
What discipline does Gordy excel?
Gordy could be a superstar at either showjumping or eventing but he loves cross country! He is the most amazing jumper but he is just so reliable and calm that he makes you feel like you could jump anything on him
What you love most about Gordy
Gordy is so perfect in every way, he is kind, gentle, a darling to ride and has the sweetest personality. When I had my baby I made the tough decision to sell Gordy as I knew I wouldn’t be able to compete as much as I used to. His new owner Rachel loves him so much and they are out having an absolute ball together.
Thank you Brie for sharing your wonderful and dedicated story with us.
Here at The Thoroughbred Club always support our slogan – “We Care”.
