About Rob

Raised on a small property in the Victorian High Country, near where "The Man From Snowy River" movies were filmed, Rob first learned to ride mustering (gathering) cattle out of the mountains with some of the last of the old-time mountain cattlemen. At the tender age of 15 Rob left school and got a job breaking in Thoroughbred horses for the track.

As a boy, Rob heard stories of Australia's "Top End" with its vast cattle stations (ranches), wild horses and talented stockmen. In 1998, the 18-year old headed across the country to the Northern Territory. After a couple years working as a stockman, he decidided to put his horsemanship skills to work. He started contract "breaking-in" horses for most of the large pastoral companies in that region, some of the horses were 5- or 6-years old and never had a hand on them. It was then that he decided the best way to start these horses was to gain their confidence and try to make it the horse’s idea instead of the old traditional way of muscling them into submission. In the first year he started 200 horses alone. 

Some of Rob's customers included cattle stations such as Carlton Hill, Rosewood, Newry, Argyle, Newcastle Waters, Auvergne, Bunda, Waterloo, Killarney, Camfield, Montijinnie, Mount Sanford and Manbulloo. During that time, Rob also started colts for a feedlot in the Philippines.                         

In 2005, Rob and his wife Lee, headed to the United States with the intention of gaining experience in the cow horse industry. After spending three months starting colts with Martin Black, his next stop was the Central Coast of California were he got a job working on the Twissleman Ranch under trainer Ed Robertson. A year later Rob found himself running Twissleman's horse operation, where he was in charge of preparing up to 50 horses for the annual Maddonna Inn production sale.

.

In January of 2007, Rob took a job working for AQHA world champion Jake Gorrell. This was the starting point of a successful show career. Over the next two years Rob won the Limited Open at the World Championship NRCHA Futurity on Pep N Coda Lena, the Intermediate Open SRCHA Futurity on Docs Working Lady and trained many other open and non-pro finalists.

Early in 2009, the couple moved to Weatherford, Texas, on the advice of good friend Chris Cox. Chris needed some help for a while riding colts and thought It would be a good place to be exposed to the cutting industry.The move paid off, later that year Rob found himself assistant trainer to NCHA hall-of-famer Roger Wagner.

With the intention of moving back to Australia in March 2011, Rob has ventured out on his own once again. January saw him starting colts in South Texas for the Randermann Ranch as well as famous cutting horse trainer and clinician Barbra Schulte. Then in February, he's off to South Carolina to start colts for Mr. Billy Morris on Creek Plantation.