Jason Webb - Biography

Jason grew up on his family's 4000 acre sheep and cattle property at the foot of the Snowy Mountains in New South Wales, Australia, where he was bought up to be “honest, hard working and respectful” – lessons which he has carried with him throughout life!

Described as “being born in the saddle”, Jason and his three siblings spent their formative years gaining an all-round equestrian education working the farm from horseback, and competing at Pony Club, show jumping, polocrosse, campdrafting and rodeo. With a passion for racing, Jason's father, Doug bred Thoroughbreds for the local racetrack and it wasn't rare for these horses to be retrained for the polocrosse field alongside their homebred Australian Stock Horses.

In his early teens, Jason was taught to break-in horses using the same methods handed down through generations of horsemen in his family – the same methods that are widely described as ‘natural horsemanship' today. Having developed an interest in this area of work, Jason spent time with some excellent competitors and trainers in Australia where he improved his understanding of horse psychology, the methods of starting young horses and remedial work with ‘problem' horses. During this time, Jason captained the New South Wales U21 polocrosse team to victory at the 1998 National Polocrosse Championships and travelled to Zimbabwe for an eight month stint playing polocrosse and training horses. He then came to the UK , again to play polocrosse, but found himself becoming sought after as a breaker of young horses in south east area. He quickly gained a reputation for producing calm, well mannered horses and for having an ability to turn around horses with severe behavioural and ridden problems.

In 2002, Jason decided to settle in the UK and set up his business, Australian Horse Training, at Risebridge Farm – the family farm of his future wife, Penny. It has gone from strength to strength, handling over 120 horses a year, and employing five full time and four part time staff. The horses come from professional riders, studs and private owners nationwide and he regularly receives referrals from vets, farriers, equine dentists and other equestrian professionals.

Jason also stands the only Australian Stock Horse stallion, Risebridge Diesel, at stud in the UK and has fun producing his homebred horses for polo and polocrosse. He is in demand for clinics and demonstrations and in 2009 performed on Diesel at Your Horse Live.

Polocrosse has remained a constant passion throughout. Jason has won the UKPA National Championships on five occasions, coached the UK Men's and Ladies teams to international victories and since gaining British Citizenship, has been part of the UK Men's team. He recently won Best Player awards at the Australian Quadrangular Tournament, The prestigious Zimbabwe Open and in the 2009 test matches against South Africa .

Although he has been involved in producing polo ponies, he has recently started playing more regularly, as well as taking in other disciplines of dressage and show jumping for fun! Outside of horses, he is kept very busy by his two children, Jack and Rosie, playing squash and golf (badly) and having a couple of beers with friends.