Catriona was raised on a family farm north of Bendigo with her brother and sister. The farm still runs a leading Poll Merino stud, 600 cow dairy together with cropping.

A keen horse woman, Catriona has ridden since she was about two years old when her mother Elizabeth was breaking in a young horse and thought the best way to keep her out of the way was to teach her to ride on an old pony in the next yard!.

Catriona’s first pony, was a part-bred Arabian mare, is now 27 years old and used to teach young children to ride. Her next horse was a part-bred Arabian and Australian Riding Pony mare Shahwan Park Mussulli and attended many Pony Club, showing and dressage meets with Catriona.

In 1993 Catriona moved to Melbourne for work and spent weekends at home riding. Plenty of good friends and of course, Mum helped continue to train and feed her horses.

In 1994 she decided to breed her own Anglo Arabian and in November 1995 a lovely mare called MIPHOXYLADY was born. This horse is now used for everything including stockwork on the farm, camp drafting, showing, trail riding and jumping.

In November 2001 Catriona and MIPHOXYLADY performed in the Mane Event at Equitana Asia Pacific in Melbourne www.equitana.com.au for the Victorian Arabian Promotional Group.

Equitana is the largest horse expo in the Southern Hemisphere and now alternates between Queensland and Melbourne. The promotional group performed the original Afghanistan game of Bushkazi and the act was one of the highlights in the performance watched by 6000 people over the five nights

Bushkazi is a fast pace game. Polo is the modern day version of this game and the Afghans use it to keep skilled for war. The games are a terrific test of horsemanship and a good example of Arabian horses working calmly and well under pressure.

After a year of dedicated training and hard work Catriona found herself looking for another project to get involved with. When riding at the Maldon Campdraft in Victoria, she met one of the support riders for Akta-Vite Campfires Against Cancer, Colin Mitchell.

Initially Catriona was interested in joining the ride for its duration however Dan Phegan, Founder/Organiser and Rider, already had a wait list and it appeared unlikely that there would be a position available.

So she decided she could assist the team by helping gain sponsors and media exposure together with administrative and logistic backup.

Catriona will be in Darwin for the start of the World’s Longest Charity Horse Ride and will join it again at Tamworth for the Country Music Festival.

Catriona will then join the team with MIPHOXYLADY (aka ‘Cheeky’) riding from Wagga Wagga through to Corryong for the Man from Snowy River Festival.

Catriona attended East Loddon P-12 School before Boarding at Girton College, Bendigo for her Middle and Senior Years.

After finishing her VCE she moved to Melbourne. Catriona worked and studied over a period of eight years in Melbourne in a range of Office Management/Executive Assistant roles before deciding to come and work for her father from their family property.

Catriona now works as Executive Assistant for father Donald. Donald is a non - executive director of a variety of company’s including the Reserve Bank of Australia, Telstra Corporation Limited, Ridley Corporation Limited, Deputy Chairman of the Australian Wool Testing Authority and was the Past Chairman of WoolStock Australia Limited.

While working with Donald on WoolStock matters she met a wonderful man called Terry O’Callaghan who is the past Company Secretary and his late wife Rene. Rene had suffered from cancer for about 28 years. She was an amazing lady and never ceased to amaze all those people who met her. Unfortunately for all, Rene passed away in October 2001.

It was this experience that inspires Catriona to work harder and put 100% into everything including helping the team raise more than double their target of $500,000. It is her belief that with greater awareness of the ride through the involvement of corporate Australia, the target will be exceeded..

Together with Dan Phegan and Ian James, Catriona they decided that a communications professional was needed.

John Evans, from the Melbourne-based Pegasus Communications was approached.
Pegasus specialises in rural and regional communications.

So Pegasus came on board in an advisory role to ACAC to the help raise its profile and to assist in acquiring new sponsors.

Catriona has recently been offered a marketing role with Pegasus, working on their Radio programs such as Country RoundUp, which can be heard throughout Victoria and Southern NSW.

There are many challenges ahead as the team travels the route from Darwin to Corryong.

Catriona hopes to meet you when she joins up with the team or feel free to give her a call if you would like to host a fundraising event for the team.