A young girl from Tansey has proven that if you put in the effort, you’ll be rewarded.
Ella Stanton, 14 as of January 2025, is a local of Tansey, and has turned her love for riding horses into a competitive sport, as she starts participating in endurance riding.
Ella started her endurance racing career off strong, winning the Michael Gabriel award for 2024.
The award is presented to a new member of QERA, Queensland Endurance Racing Association, with the recipient selected based on their ’ideal start’ during their first year of endurance riding.
The recipient might not have done the fastest times or had the most number of rides, but they have ridden steadily and with a 100 per cent success rate.
In 2024, Ella Stanton was honoured to receive the Michael Gabriel award.
“I was very excited to receive the Michael Gabriel award,” Ella said, “because it means that all the hard work has paid off and that I have excelled in my first year of endurance.”
Ella began endurance riding at the start of 2024, after having a passion for riding horses since she was little. She was introduced to the world of endurance riding after being invited to participate in an endurance ride at Imbil, where after saying yes and participating, fell in love with the sport and has continued to pursue it.
Endurance riding has many challenges, which is what Ella loves about the sport, as it has much to offer both mentally and physically.
“The people I have met along the way and getting to be with the horses,” are aspects of endurance riding Ella likes.
“My favourite part about riding is the friendships that I’ve made with many people and horses,” she said.
Ella’s journey into endurance riding began as she completed her intermediate rides in March, qualifying her as a novice rider before completing the endurance rides to become an open rider.
“I had to complete two 40km endurance rides to be able to do an 80km ride,” Ella said. “Then I had to do three 80km rides before I could become an open rider.”
Ella explained that when you became an open rider, you could go as fast as you wanted and do any distance.
“To be eligible to ride in the national ride, I had to successfully complete a 160km ride.”
“The competition is different for everybody,” Ella said. “It’s all about managing your horse’s health and personal health.”
“It is very important that both the horse and rider are fit and ready to ride.”
The Quilty competition started on Saturday, 19 October at 12am, with the race broken up into five legs, with each leg covering different distances and terrain.
“I found the second leg was the hardest,” Ella said, “due to a small injury on my calf.”
“But my aim was to complete the ride and get my first Tom Quilty buckle, and I ended up placing 7th junior,” she said.
“After each leg, riders must take their horses through the vet ring for a vet check,” Ella said, “to make sure the horse isn’t lame.”
“You can only continue to race if you have passed the vet check,” she said.
Ella was able to complete the year without having any of her horses vetted out.
“This means that both horses that I rode haven’t vetted out this year and we got a 100 per cent completion rate,” Ella said.
Ella mostly competed on Boonara Dark Ruby, while completing some rides on Boonara Redfire.
To add to her accomplishments, Ella received the Tom Quilty buckle.
The Tom Quilty buckle is the national endurance ride completion prize.
“It was the best feeling,” Ella said, when she learnt she received the buckle, “and I was so proud of Ruby, my horse, and our team and myself.”
“I was super excited to have completed a Tom Quilty.”
Ella’s journey into endurance riding began during Easter, where she had her first ride at Imbil, participating in a 40km ride.
This was followed by a ride in April, where she successfully completed her first 80km ride at Killarney.
In June, Ella completed her second 80km ride at Biggenden, where she won a memorial award.
She completed her first 160km ride at Widgee in July, where she ended up coming third.
After these rides, she qualified for the Quilty in October.
At the Quilty, Ella rode 160km on Boonara Dark Ruby, where she successfully completed her first Quilty, walking away with a buckle.
Ella thanked Boonara Endurance, “because without them I wouldn’t have done any rides last year.”
Ella is excited to see what her future with horses has in store for her.
