Tom and his family have lived in Young for the past seven years and in that time they found and fell in love with the horse Emugully Diggers Blaze, who is affectionately known as Digger.

On April 5, Tom and his mother received the news that he and Digger had won the 2016 Australian Stock Horse Society’s Youth Point Score.

Tom said that being named the winner was right up there as one of his greatest achievements in his short showing career.

Tom originally started off his showing career riding, but as he got older decided that it wasn’t for him. 

“We got Digger and I started to show him and I liked it again,” Tom said.

“Mum asked me if I wanted to do it properly and go to shows and commit to it, and I did.”

Though the 13-year-old only took part in his first national show at Canberra last year, competing against top class and older participants didn’t phase Tom when centre stage at Sydney Royal last week.

“Canberra you get used to it going with some other horses that were there when you were younger,” Tom said.

“But Sydney was a whole new thing for me.”

“I didn’t know what really to do, I mostly followed people around and I thought I was going to be much more nervous than I was,” Tom said.

Tom and Digger practised workouts and trained at clinics in preparation for show season.

Tom’s mum, Charmaine works with Digger four days a week to make sure the chilled out gelding is in tip top shape. 

But Digger isn’t the only one that needs to make sure he’s in peak fitness with Tom training too by running up and down the family’s driveway.

Tom and Digger share a special bond that has only solidified since the pair competed in Canberra last year.

“He’s the horse that got me to Sydney,” Tom said.

“All the other horses that we’ve got don’t have as much trust in Mum and I, cause Mum’s helped him through since we got him.”