Reader of the Month – Jenny Gallup King.
The latest  Reader of the Month is a fabulous way to start the week. Due to being caught up with Book 3, I haven’t had a Reader of the Month for a while but Jenny has more than made up for it with this wonderful profile. I was told I could edit it but I enjoyed it so much I thought I should leave it as is, so you can enjoy it as much as I did…

Jenny’s adorable dogs

Five random things about me the person:
1. Love most animals but in particular: Arabian Horses and Ponies; Welsh Mountain Ponies; Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and Tonkinese cats. As a child loved to sketch, paint and write (about horses of course!) and am wishing I’d kept up the gift I was given but having tried drawing again – forget it I can’t even get them in proportion anymore! I don’t think I ever finished any of my stories….

2. Love a wide variety of music: Trad Jazz, Rock n Roll, Folk and some classical, particularly Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Bach, Chopin. Currently loving Geoffrey Gurrumul’s indigenous music. I love architecture, antiques, theatre, movies and food!!

3. My first Arabian Stud was Yarongmulu Lodge Arabians (Yarongmulu being the area where my property was on the outskirts of Laidley) and then after marrying Brian King and having a break from horses, I then had withdrawal symptoms of course missing the horses SO much and started again under the pre-fix of Bri-Jen. After breaking my hip in 2004 and leasing all the horses as unable to care for them, we moved into Ipswich and with no land did not take the horses back. It was the only way I would ever have parted with them, never voluntarily.

4. Opportunities missed: (a) Was offered to lease the great Naazim (Mustafa x Naadirah) but declined; (b) Was praised by Wivenhoe Arabians for breeding Yarongmulu Saffesp (Especial x Hazeldean Saffira) (full brother to State Res.Champion gelding Esphir Y.L.A.) but I had gelded him a few days before they contacted me to lease him as they loved his length of rein and strong hindquarter! (The reason I gelded him was because he attacked my beloved Exotica. Normally a gentle colt this shocked and upset me as well as Exotica so I instantly called the vet to geld him the next day. Even the vet said “are you sure you want to do this ?” (c) Declined marriage proposal from Ken Irvine-Brown a crazy, red-headed Australian Scotsman I met in London, only because it was too soon after my first marriage. The ironic thing was, he emigrated to Australia a few years after me and I didn’t know it.

Exotica (The General [Bask x Wirginia] x Scimitar Mantilla [Count Manilla x Sharine x Grand Royal]) Supreme Champion Arabian Mare at 1992 Gatton Show. Also Champion Arabian Under Saddle same day even with Jenny riding her.

5. Opportunities taken: (a) My last employer in the UK (the Bloodstock Insurer) arranged for my flight to Australia on a plane full of T.B. racehorses being exported to N.Z. and Australia. Didn’t cost me a cent and I had the pleasure of looking after them during their flight. (b) Leased the beautiful mare, Nasula (Sirocco x Nofret) in foal to Pembac Park Keegan, a half brother to Exotica. Sadly, she absorbed her foal and because Keegan had been sold, I was unable to repeat the mating. (c) On a trail ride with Exotica I met Gail Thomas who told me her young daughter, Michelle, had just started training Arabians professionally for the show ring. Michelle showed Esphir Y.L.A. to Res.Champion Gelding at the Qld Championships and then Exotica to Top Ten Australian Champion Mare.

Favourite Authors: Anyone who can write about Arabian Horses! Tanya Hawley, Carmel Rowley, Peter Upton, Judith Forbis to name a few.

Where to contact: Facebook

About Me: Born in Sussex, UK. My father was a poor farmer and my mother came from a well off family but fell for my good-looking Dad who also ran a Livery Stable where mum kept her horse. I was the eldest of three girls and we had a great childhood on the mixed farm and used to love helping with the baling of hay and riding on the Combine Harvester as well as milking the cows. Dad Point-to-Pointed his own thoroughbreds and then took out a Trainer’s Licence under National Hunt rules. The best-known horse he trained was renamed Tunbridge Wells after Dad purchased him to be owned indirectly through trustees by about 250 members of the public from the town Tunbridge Wells in Kent. The scheme was allowed as an experiment but although the National Hunt stewards praised the project, they did not allow it to continue for long because of pressure from others for public syndication. Tunbridge Wells the horse, won several three-mile steeplechases in Southern England. The most successful horse Dad trained was Bronze Sovereign who sadly was involved in a doping incident and after he fell, the horse behind him landed on his neck, killing him instantly.

Jenny’s trip to Egypt for the 1992 WAHO Conference

I was not academic and all I wanted to do was to leave school and take over the training of the racehorses from Dad but luckily my parents insisted that I went to Business College where I studies Pitman’s Shorthand, Typing, Bookkeeping and English. I say “luckily” because after working six and a half day weeks for two years for another Point-to-Point family to broaden my knowledge, I decided boys and going out on weekends were more appealing than getting up early and going down the stables in the snow and realised a five day week office job was more appealing! I did ride (race) a few horses for that family in Surrey and also for a friend of my parents. Then when I came home to settle into office work again, my parents bought me a horse to race, Welsh Joker. We had more falls than wins but discovered he needed the slower pace, carrying a heavier weight of a Hunt Race where we ladies could race with the men, rather than the lighter weights in the Ladies Races, so we finally had a win against the men which made me very proud. My dad was ecstatic, sadly I cannot find the photo of me unsaddling Joker in the winners enclosure that had not only dad in it but also in the background my two sisters!

After selling Equestrian Properties for a Real Estate company in Tunbridge Wells and then Head Office in London, I then went Insurance Broking and was one of the first females to be allowed to enter Lloyds of London.

I decided I wanted to spread my wings, after an unsuccessful marriage, and travel. So again, thanks to my shorthand, I was able to obtain a Working Holiday Visa for Australia and I worked my way around this vast country with some amazing experiences. One of the best was not work but a camping trip from Perth to Kununurra, sleeping under the stars – unheard of in cold UK! and of course climbing Ayres Rock. It was whilst I was in Perth that I realised I wanted to live in Australia and soon after arriving in Brisbane, met an ex-pom, a banjo player and we bought property together, first in Brisbane and then Laidley which is where I started breeding Arabians – totally unplanned! It all started when Arabian Racing came to the old Laidley Racecourse so off I set looking for a registered Purebred to race. However, my boyfriend at the time, bought a flashy chestnut stallion and wanted to show him so, after finding my red-bay gelding, I too ended up showing rather than racing. Then of course because we had a stallion we thought we should buy some mares for him and that’s how it all started. My favourite bloodlines were the Russian and Polish because of their athleticism. I was breeding not only pretty enough for showing but wanted them to go on to race and endurance.

My most successful mare was Exotica (Polish/English) who became 1995 Australian Champion Top Ten Mare and the most successful horse I bred was Bri-Jen Silk ‘n’ Gold, a 15.2hh Palomino, 87.5% Partbred Arabian colt who was sold as a scruffy, unshown 2yo to the very patient Sara Davies in W.A. who waited two years before he was the right colour, condition etc. etc. to then become a Multi-Champion and Supreme in both Palomino and Partbred Arabian Classes.

My trip to Egypt to attend the bi-annual WAHO Conference in 1992 was an amazing experience. Met some wonderful people (and horses) during the first week of the conference and the second week I joined a Tour down the Nile but on our way to the Aswan Dam became violently sick, confined to Hotel room and missed out on not only the Dam but also after arriving back in Cairo, still too sick to make it to the Museum. I did at least make it to