Ringmaster passionate about horses

Beryl Sutton has never wavered from her love of horses, even when it threatened to derail her wedding.

Beryl, 18 at the time, fell from a horse as she was preparing to marry her sweetheart, plasterboard fixer Frank in 1960.

“I smashed my ankle on a horse the year we got married, ” she said.

“It only just got out of plaster in time for the wedding.

“I was still hobbling a bit, but it didn’t turn me off it.”

Beryl fostered her love of animals growing up on a dairy farm in Jindong.

She said her childhood was unique because she rarely visited the Busselton town centre.

“We played outside on the farm, played with cows and pigs and horses, and helped my father when I got a bit older, ” she said.

“I learnt how to rake hay with a horse.”

Beryl received her primary school education at Jindong School, now the Kaloorup Hall.

The school had just 11 students and one teacher.

After attending Busselton Senior High School, Beryl worked as a shop assistant and at an abattoir before marrying Frank and having five children.

She attended the Busselton Show from a young age but said she stepped up her involvement as a mother.

“I always showed there from the time I was 12, riding in novelties, ” she said.

“When my son started to ride 41 years ago, I got on the ring committee and I went from the committee to ringmaster about six or seven years ago.

“I enjoy it, otherwise I wouldn’t do it.

“Every year, you meet up with different people and people you don’t see from one year to the next.”

As ringmaster, Beryl’s role is to organise the judges, helpers and program.

She said the day always threw up new challenges.

“The year before last, at six in the morning, a judge’s wife rang up and said ‘he can’t come today, he’s in hospital’, ” she said.

“I rang a friend who I knew could judge.

“You have to think quick.”

Beryl’s countless hours of dedication have been rewarded with life membership of the Busselton Agricultural Society.

She is also a life member of the Busselton Pony Club and Busselton Trotting Club, and has been involved with the hockey club, badminton club, the Broadwater Par 3 Golf Club and the darts association.

While Beryl once owned 30 horses, these days she owns just one, Ambin Sandy Surf, and looks after two for her granddaughter.

This is fine with Frank, who strangely enough has never liked horses.

“He only likes his cat, ” she said.