Australia's current top ranking dressage rider Brett Parbery is hoping to make it to the World Equestrian Games in the North Carolina in September.
Dressage competition looks elegant but it requires long hours in the saddle to train half a tonne of horse to dance like a light-footed gazelle.
Australia has never won a medal in Olympic jumping or dressage events so the eyes of the Australian equestrian community will be on Parbery in the lead up to the summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2020.
Parbery grew up in a country town and spent years wrangling steers.
"I grew up training with my family stock horses for sports such as camp drafting and polocrosse," Parbery said.
"I always had this real desire to train horses. I really loved cutting… but I couldn't get access to cattle.
"Just by chance I ended up doing some dressage work and one thing led to the other and here I am." he said.
Hard work pays off
Parbery represented Australia at the World Equestrian games in 2010, placing ninth on an Australian horse "Victory Salute".
Just getting there was an achievement
"Riders face the constant challenge of trying to remain at the top level."
"It's a five-year process to actually train a horse to Grand Prix, assuming you don't have any problems along the way.
"Horses go lame, they get sick … and just to get the horse to do what you want them to do consistently, at a given time, is where all those years of training comes into it."
Parbery said it was incredibly hard work.
"Horses require attention seven-days a week and sometimes 24-hours a day. It has to be a lifestyle", he said.
New facility will raise skill level
There is little funding for riders and there are huge costs associated with training and travel but the equestrian scene in Australia received a substantial boost recently with the development of $110 million equestrian complex Willinga Park on the South Coast of NSW.
Owned by billionaire Canberra Airport developer and philanthropist Terry Snow, the complex sits on 500 hectares with world class facilities for almost 300 horses.
Mr Snow hopes Willinga Park will become a training hub for Australia's top riders and a place to nurture the next generation of equestrian stars.
"I think a facility like this and the level of competitions we can hold here will help to elevate Australian dressage on the world scene," Mr Snow said.
