Kirsten Twining

About Kirsten: 

Your pony’s trainer and your coach on site has a wealth of experience. 

Kirsten started riding at the age of 10, a couple of times a week after school on a friend’s pony. After some persistent nagging to her Mum, she was then permitted to go to the local Riding School where they offered some fun trail rides to the river as well as basic lessons. Kirsten’s favourite part of the trail rides was the small logs that could be jumped along the way! She learnt some new skills at the riding school and rode a few different ponies, but sadly the riding school closed down and a new path was needed. 

An opportunity arose to lease a pony in the local area, and thus began the journey of learning horse management and care. 

Kirsten’s parents were not experienced in the horse world, so having a lease agreement where she could learn the responsibilities of feeding, rugging, washing and general horse maintenance under solid supervision and assistance was the perfect stepping stone. She was soon able to take her lease pony to pony club and participate in her first few shows. Kirsten was hooked and her parents could see that this was no ‘pony phase’ - they were going to be in it for the long haul! 

The lease pony was quite old and soon needed to be retired, so another transition phase began. 

With enough knowledge and experienced gained to feel comfortable to care for a horse, Kirsten’s parents told her that if she wanted her very own horse, she’d have to buy it herself, but they would help pay for the agistment and ongoing costs. A beautiful thoroughbred mare at a local agistment centre caught Kirsten’s eye, and through selling manure and putting together all her pocket money, at age 14 she purchased her first horse, an ex-race horse, for $600. 

‘Sariska’ taught Kirsten an enormous amount, including how to sit to a buck and cope with thoroughbred tension! It was evident that many lessons were going to be needed to progress, and thankfully Kirsten’s parents were very supportive and allowed her to have weekly dressage lessons and the occasional jump lesson. Progress was fast and successful competition results soon followed, along with a great partnership between a girl and her lovely horse. 

Over the next few years, Kirsten started her first ‘casual job’ of riding horses for other people, to help them with the basic dressage and jumping that she had learnt through the training of her own horses. She also started coaching at the age of 16. Whilst she had some success in dressage with Sariska, including winning the Junior Novice and Elementary at the Perth Royal Show, Kirsten’s love was always jumping. Sariska was sold and Kirsten purchased her next horse, also a retired racehorse, to see if she could take him further in the jumping field. 

‘Charlie’ was a wonderfully kind horse, and did indeed take to the jumping. Several happy years followed as Kirsten finished high school, always enjoying her horses between her studies. There was definitely no time for any rebellious teenage antics, and the time spent outdoors with the horses kept her physically and mentally fresh in those notoriously difficult latter teenage years.  

Deferring Uni with a desire to travel and see some of the outside world, Charlie was sadly sold to fund a trip overseas. It was in France, in a beautiful park, when Kirsten saw a couple of horse riders trotting through the grounds, and thought to herself “of all the places in the world I’d like to be now, it’s on the back of a horse”. 

So home she came, enrolled in Uni, and not being in a financial position to have her own horse whilst studying, she started riding for an experienced eventing identity in WA. Kirsten competed horses for their owner in eventing for the 2-3 years of her degree, then was able to get a part time job and once again purchase her own horse. 

‘Darcy’ was another retired racehorse, and was one of the more difficult ones to train in the dressage. He was however an extremely bold eventer, and much to everyone’s delight, after a few years of hard work, including hundreds of lessons and help from quality coaches, Kirsten and Darcy managed to compete successfully all the way through to what is now called 3* Eventing. 

Kirsten’s parents were in need of buying a house near Perth, and in a massive show of support and commitment, they purchased a property of 5 acres, where Kirsten could keep her own horses, and avoid the massive costs involved in agistment. 

From there Kirsten’s involvement in the horse world went from strength to strength, competing her own eventing horses, often bringing them from off the track through to the high levels of the Equestrian disciplines. In order to fund her extremely expensive sport, she was paid to educate other people’s horses as well as help sell ponies and horses on behalf of their owners. 

Kirsten’s business was registered and ‘NewHope Equestrian’ was born – giving new hope to both horses and riders who needed a helping hand to progress in life.

Through this, Kirsten worked with a huge range of breeds and temperaments, having to learn flexible and tailored ways to bring out the best in each horse. Constant learning was always key, with the importance of horse management plans becoming increasingly evident. The hands on experience with the vast array of complications and possible solutions was met with an open mind, something which is still held as important to this day. 

Kirsten gave lessons to kids and adults on an almost daily basis, absolutely loving seeing other people learn how to overcome hurdles and enjoy success with their horses. 

Her focus was always to listen to a rider’s concerns and address them with empathy and a desire to help in a productive, encouraging way. Riding is supposed to be fun, and whilst hard work is required for progress, she believes the best support a rider can receive is from someone who cares about the individuals within the big picture.  

Kirsten also organised regular clinics with top coaches for many years, flying some in from interstate in order to access the expertise from the country’s most experienced professionals.  

In line with learning as much as possible, Kirsten zipped off to England for a summer and spent a short time working at an Eventing stable, seeing how the horse management practices were different to those in Australia and seeing how some of the English shows are run. She then groomed for a rider in the Australian Team at the Trans Tasman Event in Taupo. 

During these years was also lucky enough to have Jock Paget (Badmington and Burghley winner) and William Fox Pitt (world wide Eventing icon and legend) ride her horses in the premier event “Eventing in the Park”. Watching these riders on her own horses was a special moment. 

Kirsten’s eventing years from 2003 – 2019 were an incredible time with an enormity of highs and lows, as is experienced by any top level equestrian competitor.

She was named on High Performance Squads and won the top WA Eventing Leaderboard in 2018. 

She also gave back to the sport, being on several event committees, but more notably starting the WA Helper Duty Database that greatly assists riders and eventing committees fill jump judge duties across multiple eventing competitions in the state. This program still runs with over 1500 members.  

Kirsten’s most notable Eventing horses were: 

Darcy (OTT) 3*

Neo (OTT) 3*

Alex (OTT) 2*

Zed (OTT) 2*

Bill (OTT) 3*

Jett (OTT) 3*

Elljay (OTT) 2*

Sparky (OTT) 3*

Max (ISH) 4*

In the year 2020, having sold Sparky and with Max being sadly retired, Kirsten decided to have a change of scene and left WA with her new WB horse ‘Danz’ accompanying her. Danz didn’t love Eventing but was a flash careful jumper so Kirsten show jumped him, starting in SA, then moving in to VIC to attend the AUS Champs. It was whilst preparing for the AUS champs that Kirsten was employed by Rehab4Rehab, a stunning property on the Mornington Peninsula that couples retired racehorses with children with mental health struggles, for equine therapy purposes.  

Kirsten kept the retired racehorses in work and also started coaching some local kids in the area. In this time Kirsten also became an author, writing the informative book “How to Train your Retired Racehorse” which is for sale in paperback from Rehab4Rehab. 

As it sometimes happens, Danz wasn’t quite the perfect match for Kirsten's goals, and in selling him, Kirsten met Connie Hustwaite who bought Danz for her daughter Lily. Over the next 12 months of chatting all things horses, Connie asked Kirsten to join her in running the Hustwaite Performance Pony Lease Program. It turned out to be an opportunity too fun and exciting for Kirsten to resist! 

Kirsten now looks forward to training the Connemara ponies, including breaking some in, then helping their lease riders learn new skills and horse management within the program. Some of the athletic ponies may even find themselves out on a cross country course with Kirsten on board, aiming for the stars!! 

Kirsten still loves helping owners with all breeds of horses, and will have paddock space available for schooling and possible competing of clients’ horses, or assistance in the selling progress. She will also be available for coaching in the local area. 

Kirsten is very approachable and always happy to try and help anyone who needs some advice or hands on assistance, whether they are an experienced competitor already, or just beginning their journey into the world of horses. So don't be shy in asking