Transition from pool to racetrack for Stef
WHEN it comes to training horses, former elite swimmer Stefanie Horner uses the knowledge she gained from her days in the pool.
The Mareeba-based Stefanie, wife of fellow Far North horse trainer Gareth Horner, will have her first race starters under her name tomorrow afternoon at Atherton.
But, almost two decades ago, it was the five rings on the Olympic flag that Stefanie had her sights on, not thoroughbred horses winning races.
The freestyle and butterfly specialist swam under her maiden name Campbell and was set to represent Switzerland at the 2000 Sydney Games, under her father’s Swiss heritage.
That was before disaster struck.
“I was picked and was going to swim for the Swiss Olympic team, because at the time I was not an Australian citizen, but just days out, I broke both col- larbones,” Horner said. “I fell down the stairs, backwards, and they both broke.
“I was heartbroken at the time, it shattered me.”
Stefanie, whose mother, Cali Campbell, was an Olympic swimmer for her native USA, never returned to the elite level of the sport following the accident.
“It stopped me swimming altogether at a competitive level,” she recalled this week.
“I competed in a few local events in Switzerland after I was over the injury, but I did not have the drive, I did not want to get in the pool.
“It was 10 years of hard work gone.”
Stefanie was involved in dressage in earlier years but never with race horses, until Gareth bought her one four years ago.
She has helped her husband out in his stable over the last few years, before recently taking out her own licence, with Backtospec, Yankee Roller and Shudakeptim her first trio of starters tomorrow.
Stefanie described gelding Backtospec as her “baby” and is pleased he is one of her first to run in a race.
“It was a huge learning experience, finding out how everything is done with horse racing,” she said. “I look at it like how I used to when I was swimming, for example, I train much differently to someone that was a long-distance swimmer or a triathlete.
“I am trying to figure out how to get the best out of the horses; I like to pamper them and let them enjoy life out in the grass.
“I want the horses to be happy because from my experiences through swimming, when you do not want to do something, you are not going to do it.”
Stefanie thanked Gareth for his help and joked that even though they worked as a team, they were going very competitive towards each other on the racetrack.
I FELL DOWN THE STAIRS, BACKWARDS, AND THEY BOTH BROKE. I WAS HEARTBROKEN AT THE TIME, IT SHATTERED ME. TRAINER STEFANIE HORNER