Equestrian sisters reunite at Alice Springs Masters Games for first time since flood ‘catastrophe’

Under the huge blue central Australian sky, three sisters stand by a dressage arena basking in each other’s company.

Normally separated by desert and sea, they’ve travelled about 7,000 kilometres to be together in Alice Springs.

A tear appears from under Abina Pope’s sunglasses and trickles down her face.

“I’m just so proud to see them,” she says.

Abina is the eldest of the three and travelled from Christchurch in New Zealand to reunite with her sisters.

The next eldest is Christine Caudo from the Riverland region of South Australia, while the youngest, Margaret Walklim, lives in Darwin in the Northern Territory.

Christine is enjoying the peaceful quality time with her sisters, after the less joyous circumstances which brought them together last time.

“Margaret came down to support me and so did Abina during the floods of 2022 that went through the Riverland,” she says.

“The floods were a catastrophe actually … but it’s nothing like what’s happening in America.

“We just had a slow burn rise in South Australia, and this morning, going back to the emotional side of it, we all had a bit of a cry.”

Two years later, the women are camping at Blatherskite Park to support Margaret as she competes in the equestrian events at the Alice Springs Masters Games.

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For the love of horses

The Masters Games, which is happening this week, is a multi-discipline sporting competition open to athletes from 30 years old.

Standing side by side under the shade of a gum tree, the ladies’ eyes flick in unison as they watch a 70-year-old trot, walk and turn her horse as she rides her dressage test.

Margaret’s horse, a shiny bay, grazes quietly at the end of a lead rope trailing from her hand.

The Darwin Quarterhorse Association member says in part, it’s the sisters’ shared love of horses which has bonded them so strongly.

“It’s just fabulous catching up with big sisters and we’re doing something that’s a lot of fun and exciting.”

Christine agrees.

“It’s just another layer of being sisters and having something in common,” she says.

“And you know, we’re all on the high side of 65 and it’s a lovely interest in something that keeps us connected.”

Abina says growing up in Christchurch the women were never allowed pets or horses, but their father would often take them to the races.

“We’ve been really lucky in our lives, because we’ve all come to the horses at different stages … we can remember when Margaret wouldn’t get out of a car if there was a horse near, now look at her,” she says.

“Christine has a Friesian, and she’s shown and competed.”

Abina herself is involved in equestrian instruction and judging in New Zealand, but isn’t riding since getting her hips replaced.

“I’m very proud that each of us have instinctively done our own horsing in our own time. I’m really so pleased,” she says.

A satisfying journey

Though the trip to the red centre was long and expensive, and Abina and Christine battled bed bugs during their stay, the sisters say it was totally worth it.

Abina says the journey up the Stuart Highway “blows your mind”.

“There’s nothing uninteresting. There is not an inch of the drive that you don’t see something different, unusual or utterly, utterly ancient and beautiful,” she says.

Meanwhile, Margaret towed a horse float about 1,500 kilometres from Darwin to Alice Springs.

“The axle broke on the float, and we thought, ‘Oh my god, are we ever going to get here?’, but we got here,” she says.

“It’s emotional strengthening. It’s good bonding.”

The sisters have two other siblings, a brother in Western Australia and a sister in Tasmania, who they also relish catching up with when they can.

“No one’s under 60, and we get together every every couple of years, and our families. We talk about our kids, our husbands, and everybody’s happy,” Margaret says.

“It’s a very special bond between the five of us. Very special.”

The Alice Springs Masters Games end on Saturday.