Ride Like A Girl

GEORGIA CONNOLLY HAS BEEN ON HORSEBACK SINCE SHE WAS THREE YEARS OLD – BUT NOTHING COULD PREPARE HER FOR THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE MAGNOLIA CUP. SHE OPENS UP TO ELLE ABOUT THE RIDE OF HER LIFE.

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FOR GEORGIA “GIGI” CONNOLLY, it has always been horses. From the time she could walk, she was head over heels for riding, and that passion has stayed with her for nearly three decades. “It definitely made life easier for my parents when I was a teenager,” she says, laughing. “If I was to stay out too late the punishment would always be, ‘You can’t ride.’ That was enough to keep me in line.”

When Connolly was 11, she met Amanda Ross, an equestrian at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, and realised she could make a career of her equine obsession. “Amanda went to the same primary school as me and she was always my idol,” Connolly says. “When I was 10 and she was competing in the Olympics, I wrote her a letter. We ended up meeting, which was exciting enough, but then she started giving me riding lessons and became the biggest mentor and friend and inspiration to me — she has guided my entire career.”