Rebel Morrow and Oaklea Groover’s story, which culminates in a 2004 Olympic appearance, seems so improbable that it most surely comes from the pages of fiction.

In 1999, Morrow, of Queensland, Australia, was alerted to a horse languishing at the local “knacker’s yard” not far from her home. She tracked down the owners, who told her he was a failed race horse and that he had a condition that caused blood clots to form in his skull. With no future on the racetrack and a debilitating condition, the owners had decided the only course of action was to cut their losses and sell him for $300 to the slaughter house.

However, when Morrow, 28, first laid eyes on the doomed horse, she knew he was something special. She arranged for the horse to be given a two-week “stay of execution” and spent that time putting the horse through his paces in a bid to see if he was worth saving. That decision came easily, within minutes of sitting on his back for the fist time.

“I’d never sat on a horse that felt like that; it was just amazing,” she said. “Right from the start he had this unreal canter, and his jumping was just so natural and easy. In the end, the decision to buy him was easy, and even back then I had a sense that we could really do something together. I wanted to see where we could go.”

Morrow happily parted with $300 to buy the horse and immediately set about finding the best veterinary services available.

Preliminary tests determined the horse had ethmoid hematomas. The ethmoid bone is part of the horse’s skull, and in cases such as this, hematomas grow off the bone and cause the blood to clot. Although treatable, most animals with this rare condition are destroyed as the surgical procedure is extremely difficult and expensive. The operation requires the horse to be anaesthetised and the hematomas removed from the bone. Many horses die on the operating table or have to be destroyed shortly afterwards due to the trauma of the procedure.

Oaklea Groover underwent not just one but three operations.

On more than one occasion, Morrow questioned if the whole process was worthwhile.

“I really had some tough decisions to make. I was constantly wondering if I was being selfish and putting “Groover” through unnecessary pain and trauma,” she said.

However, Groover recovered strongly after each operation, and Morrow took a calculated risk in sending him back a second and third time. After the final operation, the horse was given the all clear, much to Morrow’s delight.

“It was amazing the way he got through those operations. Sometimes I think he was just meant to do great things because he recovered so well in the end and has never looked back,” she said.

The Road To Athens

Once Groover was fully fit and recovered, Morrow put him into work, and almost immediately, they started to make their presence felt in competition.

For Morrow, the best part of competition is the partnership between horse and rider. “Groover is just the best. I love him to bits, and when we are out there [competing] I love the feeling that we are a team and that we could really achieve something together as a great combination,” she said.

In 2003 the combination was selected as members of the elite Trans-Tasman team to compete at Taupo (New Zealand). Morrow’s ninth-placed finish in her first ride on a senior Australian eventing team signaled that she was well in contention for the Olympic squad.

Despite that strong showing, however, Australian selectors and indeed Morrow herself had become increasingly concerned by her inability to capitalize on strong dressage and cross-country performances by closing out with a good show jumping round.

“Basically, I just used to break under the pressure of show jumping,” she said. “Groover would be going really well, but thanks to my nerves I would make mistakes and have rails down.”

To overcome the problem, Morrow undertook an intense, three-month show jumping training program with friend Michelle Lang. The pair worked on ironing out deficiencies and keeping things as simple and clean as possible.

After that, the combination’s show jumping improved markedly. Morrow and Oaklea Groover finished fifth in the Adelaide CCI**** (Australia) in 2003, which qualified them for Olympic selection. Soon after, Morrow finished second in the Albury CCI*** (Australia) and then demanded a place on the Olympic team by winning the Athens format three-star event in Sydney in the lead-up to the Games.

“She worked really hard on improving her work to the point where after she won the Athens format event in Sydney, we were able to select her with confidence and say to her, ‘Well done, you’ve improved where you needed to,’ ” said Australian Chairman of Selectors for the eventing squad, Jim Dunn.

After Morrow’s selection to the Athens team, one more surprise was still waiting. For the past three Olympic Games, it has become somewhat of a tradition for Australian athletes to disrobe in a leading art/photography magazine, Black And White.

Officials contacted Morrow and invited her to be one of just 16 athletes to appear in the magazine. She jumped at the opportunity.

Soon after, she found herself at her parent’s property in Kilcoy, sitting naked astride a borrowed horse and striking her best Lady Godiva pose for the photographer.

Morrow laughed when she recounted the experience, which she really enjoyed, despite some understandable early nerves. “It was great fun once I relaxed, a really good experience. My only real concern was giving the local guys an eyeful as they drove past the paddock on their way to work that morning,” she said with a laugh.

More To Come

Morrow finished a creditable 11th individually in Athens, after being placed as high as fifth after dressage, where she attained a personal best score of 40.6 penalties. She was Australia’s leading rider in Athens, no mean feat when you consider that the team contained such illustrious names as three-time gold medalist Andrew Hoy and Morrow’s much-admired role model, Stuart Tinney.

Ever the perfectionist though, Morrow was disappointed with her final result and is using that disappointment to fuel her determination to improve further.

“I was pleased with our dressage, although our trot work needs to be better, but after the final show jumping round I felt like I hadn’t really put in my best performance. I was a little bit disappointed by our end result,” she said.

Such seemingly harsh self-assessment from a first-time Olympian is typical of Morrow’s fierce determination to succeed. She was slightly more philosophical when discussing the fortunes of the Australian team. After three consecutive gold medals in Barcelona, Atlanta and Sydney, the team had high hopes of placing higher than their eventual sixth place.

“The team was a little bit glum once it seemed certain we couldn’t finish in the medals, but that’s eventing for you. You can’t afford to let your guard down at any stage, particularly at international events. It’s a tough sport, and you have to be on the ball all the time,” she said.

Dunn is similarly philosophical when assessing the team’s performance in Athens. “Our team was the only team to have all five riders score below 50 in the dressage. We had never done that before so that was a bit of a positive for us. At the same time, what might have hurt us is the fact that we didn’t have the riders scoring in the 30s or more riders scoring very low 40s,” he said.

Away from the glare of international competition since Athens, Morrow has returned to her home base in Kilcoy and is looking forward to the World Equestrian Games in 2006.

Since returning from overseas, she has established her own business as a rider/instructor and has been busy working with local Pony Clubs as well as fulfilling numerous public appearance requests. As one of Australia’s most popular equestrians, Morrow enjoys consistent exposure in the mainstream press and has done much to raise the profile and understanding of the sport.

In 2005, Morrow plans on giving Oaklea Groover a relatively light year, although he will return to the Adelaide CCI in November.

Morrow is mindful of the need to manage Groover care-fully as he looks set to carry her to the World Equestrian Games, and, hopefully, Beijing in 2008.

“I really want to keep my name out there on the international stage and just work really hard over the next couple of years and see what I can do. I have a huge appetite for learning these days, especially from other riders,” she said.

To that end, Morrow also is keen to travel to the United States to compete and train before Beijing. More particularly, she hopes to work with Karen and David O’Connor.

“Karen and David are both such great horse people and people I really respect and could learn so much more from,” she said. “I am just determined to do the best I can and enjoy everything that comes my way. I want to really make a name for myself, to be remembered and who knows, go down as one of the really great riders.”