Georgia Maben: 2024 ABBEY Open Challenge Winner

Competing against seasoned professionals, Georgia Maben rode to victory in the prestigious Abbey Open Challenge at the recent ASH Nationals. At just thirteen years of age, Georgia showed her maturity and skill level in the Hack, Working, and Time trial sections to come out on top in this iconic event. Horse Deals spoke to Georgia about this win, her success and her future goals.

Age: 14yrs

Lives: Merriwa, NSW.

Education/occupation: Currently completing Year 9 through Euka homeschooling.

Family history with horses? We have always had horses, with them being used for mustering, pony club and competition. In the last 12yrs, we have focused on breeding and training performance horses for Stock Horse showing, campdrafting and challenges. My mum grew up mainly in the world of eventing and dabbled in polocrosse and campdrafting. Both mum and dad played polocrosse before I came along when they were living in Queensland. My grandparents have always had Stock Horses for work and played polocrosse for about 20 years.

Tell us about your early involvement with horses. I started off attending Cassilis and then Merriwa Pony Club rally days, Zone ribbon days and before long I was keen to compete at State and Royal level.

What was your first competition, and how did it go? I don’t really remember it very well, but I was two years old and went to the Zone 7 Jamboree held at Cassilis on a little Shetland pony named Zoro. 

What are your top three most memorable wins? Definitely the ABBEY Open Challenge at the recent 2024 ASHS Nationals. Second would be Supreme Working at the 2024 ASHS Nationals and third would be a toss-up between the R.M.Williams Most Versatile ASH Exhibit under 18yrs at the 2023 Sydney Royal and winning the 2024 Rookie Hunter Challenge at Scone, which is part of the Australian Stockmans Challenge Association series.

You’ve had Riverglen Black Magic since he was a two-year-old colt. How has he developed over this time? My mum campaigned Magic until he was four years old. She advertised him for sale as a four-year-old as she wasn’t convinced he was going to be suitable for us kids. Thankfully, he didn’t sell and when I was nine, mum allowed me to compete him. I’ve had to work hard on developing a lengthened trot as he’s not a natural. He was a quick learner when it came to working patterns, sporting, and tracking a cow and even was a natural no.3 horse when I played subbies polocrosse. He is pretty set in his training now, and it’s just a matter of keeping him fit and supple.

And your partnership together, tell us about that. We rarely ever have any arguments. He loves snuggles, and we just seem to mesh so well. He sometimes likes to outthink me and anticipate our next move, which keeps me on my toes. 

The last time we spoke, you were dabbling in polocrosse. Have you continued this? I loved polocrosse, but Mum made me choose between polocrosse and campdrafting as we just couldn’t fit every competition in. I chose to focus more on campdrafting and challenges this year.

You also mentioned that you wanted to become a horse trainer. We have been breeding and buying young horses, which I have been helping with the training of. I sometimes have an outside horse here to ride as well, but like to focus on our own horses mainly.

Congratulations on your success at the 2024 ASH Nationals. What was your preparation like heading into the event? The national horses came back into work in January, and then we ramped up their work about eight weeks out. Just making sure we had all the movements required in their patterns as solid as we could. It was a fine line between not souring them in the lead up, but having them working to their best ability the days leading into Nationals. 

How do you cope with the pressures, nerves and atmosphere at these large events? I just treat it like any other event.

How did you feel when you found out you won the ABBEY Open Challenge? I knew I placed in different sections and Magic had worked well, but I didn’t ever think that I could win it overall, especially in the company of all the great riders and horses I had to compete against.

Given that the ABBEY Open Challenge is judged across a range of sections, how do you balance your training and focus to ensure you are consistent throughout? Each week leading up to the Nationals I would just practise on different manouvres from all the sections including hack, working, time trial and cattlework. I also was fortunate to have Michael Wilson make sure my training was on track in
the lead-up.

What is the most challenging aspect of swapping between the different sections? Definitely remembering all the different patterns. 

Your success is proof that age is no limit. What has it been like competing against professional riders at such a young age? It has been very inspiring to compete against professional riders in both the Stock Horse and Stockman Challenge arenas.

Do you have any other rides? I have a great little two-year-old I’m really enjoying riding who will be more suited to stockman challenges. I also have a four-year-old, which my sister now rides, but I enjoy drafting. My nine-year-old mare, Chandelier, who I did a lot of youth showing on, is mainly used for stockman challenges and drafting now.

What are the top three life lessons you have learnt since working with a range of horses? Work hard. Be patient. Let your results do the speaking.

Walk us through a day as Georgia Maben. Every day is very different. I do a few hours of school work, help with work on the property, then work my horses and feed up.

Who’s your idol? Emma Webb is an all-around great horsewoman.

What are the best words of advice you’ve been given? The 5 P’s - Proper Preparation, Prevents, P###-Poor Performance.

What are your future plans? To finish year 12, then I’d love to go up north and work on a station or work for a successful horse trainer to further my knowledge. 

If you could give one tip to another up-and-coming rider, what would it be? Just focus on being the best version of yourself. Ignore any negativity and focus on the positives.

Georgia is proudly sponsored by Kohnkes Own are fabulous sponsors of Maben Performance Horses keeping them happy & healthy from the inside out.

Looking for your own campdraft horse? Check out these campdrafting horses for sale.