Equestrian trainer wins Coach of the Year Award

Jim was nominated for the Coach of the Year award by his long-time student Victoria Davies-Koch.

Jim has trained Victoria for the past 6 years and has been instrumental in her selection on the Australian High Performance Squad and her long listing for the 2016 Rio Paralympics.

Despite no previous experience in coaching riders with physical disabilities, Victoria says Jim has taken the time to learn the Para Equestrian tests and worked with Victoria’s limitations.

He has helped her strengthen her weak parts and trained her horses to be lighter to the leg aids so Victoria can ride them more effectively.

Victoria said Jim had helped with her pre competition preparation, helps her stay focused at competitions and then helped review her performance after competition, all this whilst staying positive and supportive.

Jim has been training horse since he was 15 years old.

In 1999 he graduated from Orange Agricultural College with a Bachelor of Horse Management and won the college award for Excellence in Horse Management.

Jim then moved to the South Coast where he competed in Eventing and Show Jumping and focused on starting young horses, a side of horse training he has always found very rewarding.

After a serious accident in 2005 where Jim was kicked in the head by a young horse resulting in a broken neck and six months’ rehabilitation, Jim decided to focus more on riding dressage and training as well as continuing breaking and re-educating horses.

Jim has ridden successfully to FEI level and has been having a lot of success lately with Neversfelde Kipling, a lovely five-year-old gelding owned by Jim and Tempe Lees.

Jim and Kipling recently won the Novice Champion at the Regional Dressage Championships in Bowral and are now preparing for the Australian Young Horse Championships in Werribee later this month.

Jim will be presented with his award on Wednesday, March 9 at the Equestrian NSW awards night at Rosehill Gardens Racecourse.