S P OT L I G H T
Going with the flow Take expert horsemanship, mix with mindfulness and a belief in putting dreams out to the Universe. Add a serve of serendipity, plus a willingness to go with the flow, and, writes AMANDA MAC, you have the extraordinary life of Warwick Schiller.
W
arwick Schiller still remembers the day the barley burnt.
He and his two brothers all rode, their lives following a well-ordered pattern. “Get up in the morning. Go and feed your horse, clean the stall, go to school. Come home and grab the barley pot that you put outside the back door when you came in from the stables that morning. Bring it inside, fill it with water, put it on the stove and turn it on high. Get changed, have something to eat and by that time the barley pot is boiling so you turn it down low, go riding and when you’re done the barley’s cooked and ready to be mixed with your horse’s feed,” Warwick pauses for breath. The three boys had that system down pat, taking it in turns to get the barley cooking. But systems can sometimes
open to try to get rid of the stench. It got into the curtains, everywhere. We only made that mistake once!”
that it has a lot to do with serendipity. But back to the bush: “Dad had ridden in rodeos, but by the time I was old
be disrupted: “One day one of us put
But that was a long time ago and much
the pot on the stove with no water in it.
has changed since those early days
It was an aluminium pot and the bottom
growing up on a 1,200 acre sheep and
got burned out of it. There was molten
wheat farm near Young, NSW. Now
aluminium all over the stove and the
this particular boy from the bush lives
stench of burnt barley was right through
stateside, has twice competed for
the house. Do you know what burnt
Australia in the World Equestrian Games,
barley smells like?” he asks me. I do, as
is recognised as an expert reiner and
it happens, and the word ‘foul’ comes
trainer, travels the world giving clinics,
to mind. “Well, Mum comes home from
hosts a podcast, has 94,500-odd
work,” he continues, “it’s dark and it’s
subscribers to his YouTube channel, and
Wyalong Rodeo in the calf ride when
winter and it’s cold out – and she finds
has just celebrated 20 million views. How
he was around 10 years old: “But it was
every door and window in the house
did that happen? Warwick’s pretty sure
my oldest brother in particular who
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enough to remember anything he was just into calf roping. He worked on the farm, we didn’t own it but we lived there,” he explains, “and there were always horses around which were used for mustering the sheep.” It turns out that all three Schiller brothers competed at shows. Warwick recalls breaking his arm at the West
