Feature: It’s a Balancing Act

FEATURE

It’s a balancing act

Megan Jones is an Olympic eventer, wife, and mother of one. She recently spoke to CHRISTINE ARMISHAW about pregnancy, juggling family and horses, and how she keeps things running smoothly with a human foal at foot.

Olympic event rider Megan Jones has horses running through her veins. Her greatest equestrian achievements are her silver medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and coming an individual fourth at the same Games – made even more special because it was with Kirby Park Irish Jester (Festy) a homebred horse. “I was the first person to breed, break in, train and medal, all on their own horse at an Olympic Games,” recalls Megan with a smile.

Megan was away competing on the weekend Festy was born. “In fact, my sister nabbed him before me because she was there at the time,” Megan says.

ABOVE: Finnley, happily stealing Megan’s limelight since 2019 (all images PYT Equestrian Photography). LEFT: Queen of the team, Kirby Park Impress always gives everything she’s got.

“She had him for a couple of years before he was broken in, but then she stopped riding and kinda lost interest, so her horses became mine.” Little did Megan’s sister know that young Festy was going to take her dedicated sibling all the way to the top.

Alongside that, Megan has many other equestrian accomplishments to be proud of, like a team bronze at the 2006 Aachen World Championship and winning the Anna Savage Best and Fairest Award three times, just to name a few. However, Megan’s achievements don’t stop with horses. She is also a wife to husband James and, more recently, a proud mother of two-and-a-half-year-old Finnley.

Megan is the first to admit that as far as having kids goes, she wasn’t previously clucky. “I never really had a burning desire to have a child. Maternally, I felt pretty fulfilled with teaching all my young students, as well as breeding my own foals,” she says. But James had always wanted a family at some point, which Megan was totally on board with. “Then, as I was getting a bit older – I was fortytwo – I thought we better start actually doing this!” she laughs.

When Megan did fall pregnant, it was still a bit of a surprise for the couple. “We went overseas for a quick trip to the UK for a week, where they flew us around by helicopter to look at horses between England and Ireland. I was sick the whole time we were there. I get really motion sick from flying anyway so I thought that that’s what the issue was, but it was actually morning sickness, and I had no idea.”

When the couple found out that they were pregnant a month or so later, they kept it under wraps for as long as possible, which led to many an awkward stare coupled with blaring silences. “We trucked ten horses interstate to an interschool competition for a group of parents. On the second day of the comp it was a bit hot, so I had to take off my big puffer jacket and just had a t-shirt on. You could tell I looked a bit like I’d eaten all the pies,” laughs Megan. But of course, no one wanted to be the person to mistakenly ask if she was with child! Throughout her pregnancy Megan stayed busy and kept riding, after all “this was a baby for James. He could play with it and I’d just keep riding my horses,” she recalls of her thoughts at the time. “I didn’t compete, though I was still riding five or six a day and still jumping at home. I told myself the safe option was to show jump in the arena and to not cross country school. But if I was to have another, not that I am, I wouldn’t ride as much as I did last time, or for as long,” she concedes.

Megan stopped riding only about seven weeks before she had Finnley. “I was so small though, and he stayed really, really high,” she says. Her obstetrician decided she should have a caesarean, a decision he didn’t take lightly, because he felt Megan was ‘too old and too strong’ from riding to safely deliver on her own.

When the big day came James was arguably the more concerned of the two. “He was standing at the back door waiting and I pulled up on the quad bike with blood all over my hands because I’d had to go cut some proud flesh off

With RLE Barina at the Adelaide International, one of Megan’s favourite 3D events.

a horse before I left,” she recounts, cracking up. “He’s saying ‘Megan, we’re going to be late, this is non-negotiable! You’re having a baby, get in the car!’ I’m late for everything and James is having a complete breakdown while I tell him ‘I’ll be there in a minute, just gotta wash my hands and get changed’,” says Megan, who’s got us both in fits of laughter at this point. “So, three hours later when we finally got to the hospital my doctor said ‘wow, you actually turned up, I can’t believe it, I thought maybe you would have missed the day’.”

Although outwardly casual about the whole affair, Megan shares some of her inner feelings from that time. “I was really scared about not having a traditional birth, and whether I’d get enough of the right hormones to make me fall in love with the child. I’d been so non-maternal the whole time, was this going to be a disaster or what?” But nature took the helm and Megan needn’t have been concerned. “Once they got him out and showed me his little face, I

was gone! I was like, mine, mine, mine, don’t come near him, he’s mine!” And I can hear the love in her voice as she shares this sweet memory. and then she took him everywhere she went. “I’d be breastfeeding while doing jump lessons, squatting down to change the height of the jump and all that kind of stuff. He just hung out with me,” she says. Clearly, there was no way this baby was ‘just for James’ once he’d arrived!

Now, nearly three years later, horses are still an integral part of life and this professional equestrian has continued to keep the show running like a well-oiled machine. Megan captains a tight ship, the success of which is down in no small part to the day-to-day running of the Megan Jones Eventing Team. With the help of three grooms she works eight horses a day. “I usually get on the first horse at 6:00am, ride ‘til 11:30am and then teach throughout the afternoon into the evening,” she tells me. “I’ve had to adjust how much I can ride based on how much more mobile Finnley has become as he’s gotten older. But we just timetable it.”

Once they got him out and showed me his little face, I was gone! I was like, mine, mine, mine, don’t come near him, he’s mine!

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ABOVE: Guhr, a rising star Megan hopes to 4* with next season. BELOW: Toulando lapping up some serious attention.

Between her, James and the stable girls, the crew have got it under control.

The whole team has Mondays off and Finnley is home with Mum and Dad, where they enjoy time in each other's company. On Tuesdays and Thursdays it’s day care, while on Wednesdays Finn gets to hang out with his cousin at Megan’s parents. The boys are of similar age, so it’s great fun for them both. Friday is often comp day and the whole family bundles into the truck before hitting the road together for the weekend.

When he’s home, Finn goes to cross country lessons with Megan, or ‘helps’ James with farm jobs. “You’ve just got to be a changing beast, you know,” she says. The family simply figure it out and make it work and, if Megan can’t ride for some reason, her awesome girls are able to exercise the horses.

So she gets maximum bang for her time available buck, Megan swears by following a few time-saving rules, like washing manes pre-ride so they air dry before rugging the horse back up, and having the ultimate travel kit for super speedy comp preparation.

It’s safe to say that maternal instinct definitely kicked in. “I thought I’d feel really guilty if I couldn’t ride and had to look after a sick child or something. But there’s never an ounce of guilt, he comes first,” Megan says. What’s more, she thinks that the horses are now going better with more days of lunging and hacking out with her girls instead of schooling all the time. “It hasn’t affected the training of the horses or anything like that,” she smiles. “A lot of people tell you that life changes so much when you have a child, but it only changes a lot if you let it.”

Sounds like a new family member for the win.

Stay tuned for our podcast with Megan when she’ll share her industry secret, top time saving tips, including what goes in that travel kit and her favourite Bunnings hack! To listen, jump on over to our VIP area.