Life Members

Sue Fraser

Pat persisted in the face of opposition from some quarters to become Tasmania’s second female Chief Steward. Mentored through the training by Sandy Little and Tom McCormack, Pat has supported many rides on the Tasmania calendar in the CS since about 2006. She has been a CS at Tom Quiltys in every state except Western Australia. (two in SA, four in Vic and one in each of NSW and Q’land).

Alongside her involvement in the organisational and administrative side of endurance was the establishment of the Malricia stud by Pat, Dickie and Tammy. This began in 2002 with the birth of their first stallion Malricia Bill B Boy. Her favourite horse Nabowla Nook Nite remains on the property today.

What about Pat’s riding career? A quick search of Aeraspace would indicate that Pat has never done an endurance ride. Not so! Pat met the Horton family at a Quilty and subsequently went to their property in Victoria to help replace fences burnt out in a bushfire. That led to her completing a 40km in Victoria on Mytai. Then there is that top secret 20 km ride at Sassafras. The first most people knew about it was when she rode out the gate! Not bad for someone who got on a horse for the first time when she started going out with husband Dickie, fell off and was discouraged from further attempts.

Asked what the best thing about endurance is, Pat doesn’t hesitate to say that it is the friendships that she loves the most. Recent social media posts show Pat doing all sorts of things in all sorts of places with some of her closest friends from endurance. Beyond that close circle though, Pat is respected and admired by so many who appreciate her forthright approach, her persistence and her enduring contributions to our sport. Her achievement of Life Membership of TEERA in 2017 was well deserved.

Denise Williams

Born at Kimberley, Dr Pat Hodgetts grew up enjoying milking the cows and especially delivering and raising calves. Pat always wanted to be a veterinarian.

While she and her two older sisters were away at university, her parents started restoring carriages and used the family’s horses for showing.  Pat recalls her Mum being attracted to smaller types and Shetlands because, when washing big horses, the water runs down your armpits. Hence the formation of the Paluka Pony Stud in 1975. Over time this grew to 80+ Shetlands with 20+ foals per year.

Dr Pat’s passion for endurance and fair competition developed whilst a student at Sydney University. From 1971-74 she assisted with vetting at Tom Quilty rides in the Camden area.

After graduating, Dr Pat vetted at some early Tasmanian rides but being available on weekends was quite difficult as she was also running her own practice. Practice sold and two children later, Dr Pat returned to endurance, vetting from 1989 onwards.

Dr Pat’s involvement with endurance deepened from 1993, when she joined TEERA and became the Tasmanian delegate to AERA. A hardworking member of the TEERA SMC until 2019, and an AERA delegate until 2022, Pat’s work included: assisting Andrew Blake and others in co-ordinating the TEERA Rules and National Rules, initiating a formal process for swabbing (medication control) at the national level, working with Tom McCormack and others to update the AREA rule book, significant input into horse welfare and Endurance Vet accreditation, development of the original biosecurity protocols, and all things Tom Quilty related.

Dr Pat attended her first FEI course in South Australia in 1998 and worked her way up to become an FEI 4* Veterinarian, representing Australia on the international stage. She was a vet at many FEI rides in Australia and several in New Zealand. International events where Pat has represented Australia include the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen (Assistant Team Vet.), Youth Events in Argentina and Namibia (Team Vet.) and the 2012 Tevis Cup as a veterinarian.

Her commitment to Tom Quilty events is well known. Indeed, Dr Pat vetted no less than 26 consecutive Tom Quilties (1993-2018 inclusive) - that is in addition to the four she assisted with as a student! She was Head Vet. at the 1999 Deloraine Quilty and again at Sheffield in 2005. She was Event Director at the 2012 St Helens Quilty and an invaluable Committee member for Scottsdale in 2018. She was certainly well qualified to work with Tom McCormack on the Tom Quilty manual!

It is hardly wonder that Dr Pat received Life Membership of TEERA in 2013 and AERA in 2019. Other Life Memberships include the Tasmanian Carriage Driving Society and the Australian Pony Stud Book Society. But did we know she is also a Life Member of the Sydney Women’s Sports Association (Blue for Badminton in 1973!)? And that, in 1983, Dr Pat featured in a Nescafe advertisement! And did we know that Dr Pat was a member of the Sydney University Musical Society and sang at the opening of the Sydney Opera House? Perhaps all that singing in the dairy did much more than just serenade the cows!

Taken from the presentation speech made by Deb Wyllie at the 2022 Annual Awards presentations —

It gives me great honour to stand up here tonight to introduce our next award recipient. It is no secret I have a great love for this sport, and particularly the horses and the people that make up this endurance family so when the name was put forward for this award and Trenton and I were asked if we would put together a short citation, recognising the qualities this person brings to our sport there were many things that popped into our minds that I could talk about …

 This person has been an integral part of our sport since the early days … legendary you could say,  giving much back to the sport  both at the ridden level but also serving on TEERA and AERA Committees; a fierce and frequent competitor who has achieved much within our sport; in excess of 16000km most always at the pointy end;  regularly travelling to the mainland to compete in Tom Quiltys, Shahzadas and FEI events ; a breeder of beautiful and yet tough horses; an emergency farrier at many events nailing lost shoes back into position; an advice giver, not always asked for, some would say opinionated even; and more so lately TPRing or just sidelines giving his two bobs worth, at the vet ring. 

But the quality that stood out was the unassuming generosity this person quietly demonstrates within our sport. 

 As I look around this room tonight there are many, myself included, who have been recipients, of this generosity, and it comes in many forms. Looking back over my 10 years in this sport and speaking to others who can remember much further back, there are very few rides where this person has not been in attendance, often with several fit horses ready to run, most always trained solo by this person - there is certainly not a stable full of jockeys helping …

 We could not even try to put a number on the amount of riders who have, because of this generosity, been enabled to achieve their endurance dreams. There may be a few dread locks in manes and bailing twine headstalls but, as we would be told, fancy gear won’t make them go any better, the horses are always fit, happy and ready to run.

 Back quite a few years ago a team of Queensland juniors flew into Tassie … first three juniors to cross the line were again  horses bred and trained by this person. As recently at the Wattlewood  Park ride earlier this year a mainland rider flew into Tasmania and successfully qualified for TQ22 in NSW on a horse fully prepped by our recipient . TQ18 … another perfect example of this generosity  with five horses entered at five separate camps achieving five successful completions, one of those taking line honours!!

 I could go on but I think enough has been said … so it is with great honour that we would award life membership of the Tasmanian Equine Endurance Association to Tony Purton.

Passed Life Members

Andrew tried riding and purchased a mare, Miss Mac, from Dennis. He completed an 80km ride on her in 1993 and went on to do a couple more rides over the next two years. Andrew bred a foal from Miss Mac, which was later sold to someone in Japan.

Although pain prevented Andrew from participating in endurance rides beyond 1995, he continued to contribute, strapping for Dennis and the Mahoney’s, and becoming a member of the State Management Committee. His roles included representing Tasmania at AERA meetings and assisting in rewriting the AERA Members Handbook.

In addition, Andrew became a Chief Steward and was on the organising committee for the 1999 Deloraine Quilty. His contributions were recognised in 2003 by Life Membership of both TEERA and AERA.

After a diagnosis of cancer, Andrew and Jennifer left Tasmania in 2004 to fulfill Andrew’s dream of caravanning around Australia. He continued to travel to Tom Quilty events, with the last being at Tonimbuk, Victoria in 2009.

Since Andrew’s death in 2010, a perpetual trophy in his memory is awarded at the Tasmanian State Championships to a junior rider displaying good horsemanship. Jennifer has returned to Tasmania on numerous occasions to present this trophy.

John Jetson

Doug Lockhart

Laurie was a member of the Leven Pony Club. His first pony was named Topper. Later, on his Arabian gelding Hamish, Laurie successfully competed at rodeos, polocrosse and reining. In 1975 he purchased a purebred mare named Godiva with a colt foal at foot. The colt at foot, Star of Arabia Sir Ghazal became, amongst other things, a very intelligent trick horse for Laurie. His next purchase was the lovely mare Shazilla who went on to become the first 1982 Reserve Australian Champion mare and producer of supreme champions and winning endurance horses.

By the time of the 1988 Quilty, Laurie, still keen to breed performance arabians, was on the lookout for a stallion. In 1991 he and Lyn purchased Princeton. Since then, their breeding program has produced horses of considerable note, competing in Australia and overseas with wins in the 2011 HH Sh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Endurance Cup FEI ***160km and 2nd in the 2011 HH Sh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Endurance Festival -CEI***240km. Closer to home, Lauralyn Notorious, with Debbie Grull, was a 2016 Quilty winner and 2022 will likely see him attempt to successfully complete his 10th Tom Quilty, with a top five placing in most of these.

Laurie participated in endurance as a rider from 1987 until 1994. His riding achievements included two Tom Quilty buckles on Laurjil Osca in NSW (1991) and Tasmania (1993). These are all the more significant given his riding weight of 120+kg.  He and Lyn also hosted the Gordan Williams Memorial ride at their Nietta property for around 30 years and were hard working committee members.

While battling cancer, which he overcame in 2015, Laurie recalled three wishes: to be elected to the Arabian Horse Society of Australia (AHSA) Board of Directors, to become President of AERA and to breed a horse that wins the Tom Quilty Gold Cup.

He achieved his first goal in 1999 when he became the Tasmanian representative on the AHSA Board. He continued in this role for 10 years.

Already elected President of the Tasmanian Equine Endurance Riders Association (TEERA) and AERA delegate in 1990, Laurie later achieved his second goal of becoming AERA President. He remained one of Tasmania’s delegates until 2002.

As previously mentioned, goal number three, and perhaps the most challenging one, was achieved in 2016 when Lauralyn Notorious won the Victorian Tom Quilty Gold Cup.

A past President of TEERA, AERA and Tas Arabs, Laurie’s contribution to the sport is recognised by his Honorary Life Membership of these organisations. In addition, in 2008 he was made an AERA Living Legend. These were very special awards for Laurie.

Famously, Laurie once responded to a query of the nature, “who the heck are you”, with his usual wit and dry humour, by quoting his TEERA endurance membership number of 70001. Endurance was Laurie’s passion for 32 years and saw him make many lifelong friends around Australia.

Laurie’s favourite quote was from his grandfather “Look after your horse boy.”

Claude Filleul

Claude was a founding member of TEERA. In 1975 a group, which included Claude, Don Fraser, Doug Lockhart, Max Denney and Pat Hodgetts (there may have been others), held a meeting at Deloraine and established a committee. The first ride was held at Sprent in conjunction with the school fair. Claude and Edna also hosted rides at their farm at Ridgley and Claude served on the management committees of both TEERA and AERA.

Claude’s riding career began when he was around 23. Gordan Williams and George Gaffney taught Claude to ride and his first horse, Joe, came from Gordan Williams. He trail rode extensively and was a member of the North West Hunt Club. Claude’s life revolved around horses and later, endurance.

He particularly loved 100 milers, and the challenges posed by rides such as the 100 miler that went up through Lake McKenzie. He achieved his first Quilty buckle in 1988, in Queensland, and played a key part in track marking for the 1993 Sheffield Quilty. Other highlights in Claude’s riding career include success in two of the three Shahzada’s he attempted and his 1989 successful completion at the Tevis Cup in the United States. Amongst the horses he rode, Moonshine and Worrandi Marissa were a couple of his favourites. All the while, Claude was supported by strapper and cook, Edna.