Jack Barker is only 18, but his name already sits comfortably in some serious company. Fresh from winning the Mini Prix Championship at the Pet Circle Australian Jumping Championships, he has just finished his final Year 12 exams and is already talking about World Cups, Europe and an Olympic medal with a calm sort of certainty.

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Horses were always part of the Barker family. Jack’s mum was, as he puts it, “always a horse person,” while his dad came from a very different sporting world of cricket and footy.

“When mum had children she stopped riding,” Jack explained. “Then when I was about seven or eight, mum started riding again. She did a bit of Dressage and she actually thought my sister was going be the one that would show hope of riding, but she doesn’t like it now. And I ended up taking more interest in it.”

He used to go with his mum to the agistment centre and sit on her horse after she rode. That simple routine was the start.

“I think that’s where I grew my passion for it, just following her. And eventually I got my first pony. That was pretty special.”

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Like many Australian kids, Jack’s next step was Pony Club.

“Mum was pretty quick to get us a pony who I learnt most on. Mum taught me to ride. Then I went to Main Ridge Pony Club on the Peninsula (Mornington). It was pretty local for us. It was a really good pony club and that’s also where I developed my passion for the sport.”

There are still connections that have lasted.

“I still know a lot of people from that club. We’ve got some good friends, people that we’re still in contact with, people that mum’s good friends with and who I still talk to.”

With a sporting dad, it is no surprise that Jack did not start out solely in the saddle, but once the horses started to play a bigger part in his life, something had to give.

“The first thing I gave up was footy. I tried to juggle cricket and riding. That was quite tough. I found cricket is the sort of sport where you have to fully commit to it. You have to be training two or three times a week and then it takes up your whole Saturday and I couldn’t really do that and go to shows and keep horses and work.”

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By 14 or 15, the decision was made.

“I gave up cricket and I put all my focus into riding. It was definitely tough, but I don’t regret it at all. I think riding is definitely the best sport.”

“I started off as a Dressage rider when I was younger. I had a really good Dressage pony and I had help from Julia Stewart. Then I had some Jumping lessons. I was Eventing for a bit and had some lessons with Mark Griffiths.”

The turning point came with a horse called Mighty Toska.

“It was my first competitive Jumping horse,” Jack said. “We actually bought him as an eventing horse for me to do Eventing on, but he was 17 and it was just before COVID had hit. He was a 4* eventer back in his day and he had an amazing show jumping record. He hadn’t had a rail in six years and for an Eventing horse, that’s pretty incredible.

“Because it was just after COVID, the horse was an older horse, we just decided I would do some Jumping with him. He was amazing. He was so competitive and extremely good junior horse. I think that’s how I started to love show jumping over anything else.”

From there, Tulara Colchic arrived and made a big impression. Known at home as Chisel, she took Jack into some key young rider classes. With Chisel, Jack went on to claim the Stal Tops Young Rider Series two years in a row.

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The 2025 Australian Jumping Championships marked Jack’s final season as a Junior, and that Junior Championship was clearly one he had hoped to win.

“It was my last year in Juniors,” he said. “I did want to win it. But Charlie Magnier is a great rider and he and I are pretty competitive with each other, so I’m always happy for Charlie when he wins.”

While many riders at the Championships were fully focused on their riding, Jack had something else on his plate: his final school exams.

“I actually had my Year 12 exams on during Aus Champs. I had my second last exam on Thursday at the exact same time as the first Young Rider class,” he said. “You can’t get exams moved. So it was impossible for me to jump in that class, which was a shame. But it is what it is. I can do it next year for the next three years and it actually suited anyway because those horses I had were really ready to jump in the Mini Prix.”

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At one point he was literally driving between the show and the exam room.

“I jumped in the Juniors first class and then I left and I did an exam and then came back and I jumped in the Mini Prix,” he said. “My school were very good with it. They were understanding of the commitment that I have to put into the horses. I dropped one subject this year, so I did one less subject, which gave me a bit more free time. But it was just a lot of early mornings. I couldn’t have done it without the help from my parents and also the girls that came and helped me in the mornings which allowed me to do all my school stuff in the afternoon.”

Even with that load, he never talks about it as a burden. “I don’t mind. I enjoyed school. Obviously it’s hard work, but the social side of it is good. It wasn’t too bad really.”

Jack went into the Mini Prix Championship with Cornets Prinzess, a mare still relatively new to that height.

“Yeah, I think it’s probably been, for me, the hardest transition, from young rider classes to jumping Mini Prix and Grand Prix,” he said. “Once they go up a few holes from Young Rider, you really can’t afford to make any small errors.”

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That reality has shaped his work at home.

“I’ve really been working hard at my ride. I’ve tried to do as many of those Mini Prix classes as I can. It was pretty good that it all came together for that class because I’ve certainly been working on my own ride and my horse. Cornets Prinzess, she jumped super and she’s also green at that level.”

There is also the mental shift of riding against seasoned professionals.

“You’re against all the professional riders, which is mentally a bit different,” he said. “They go faster. It’s just a different atmosphere in the warmup. There’s better horses you’re competing against, all those mental things too. I just try and focus on myself and giving my horse the best possible chance of jumping a clear round. It’s easy to get distracted by that, but I just try and focus on what I can do.”

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Behind the ring performances there is a lot of detailed work at home, much of it with his long term Jumping Coach Michelle Strapp, who has been helping Jack strengthen his position and adjust to the bigger tracks.

Winning the Stal Tops Young Rider Series in 2023 and 2024 gave Jack a taste of the European system and confirmed what he already suspected about where he wants this sport to take him.

“I went over and had a look at some young horses earlier this year and the year before, I spent five weeks working at Stal Tops which was obviously an amazing experience. I’d never seen anything like that before. It’s a very different sport over there.”

Jack’s current team includes several horses from Tulara Warmbloods, and his friendship with the late Mark Fraser and with Anna Fraser has clearly shaped how he thinks about horses.

“I think the Tularas are genuinely tough,” he said. “You go to a show and there’s a wet, underwater grass arena, all the Tularas jump well. I think they’re just tough, good, careful horses, at least mine are anyway. They never give in. I find they’ve just got that extra bit of something. I think it’s because of how they’ve been brought up. Mark was all for a very natural system with them.”

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Jack’s team as a whole reflects both ambition at the top level and a strong base of young horses coming through.

Asked what the sport has taught him so far, Jack paused.

“That’s a tough question actually,” he admitted. “I think it’s to not get too upset at the lows. It’s easy to have a bad day and then the next day you can go out and do something really good. I think it’s to not get too upset at the lows, but then when you have success, never take it for granted and always enjoy it, because it’s never easy to win a big class or do something like that.”

With school now finished, Jack is clear on what comes next.

“Next year I’m really looking forward to hopefully having two horses that will jump in the World Cups,” he said. “Cornets Prinzess and Calisco, I think we’ll both have next year at World Cup, which I’m really looking forward to. Get some points in the league hopefully. And then I really want to keep bringing through the young horses. I haven’t really done a lot with them. I did two four year olds at Jumping with the Stars earlier in the year and then they haven’t been ridden since. So I’m looking forward to getting those ones out because they’re really nice bred horses. I’m just looking forward to feeling like I can actually put all my effort into riding and not having to worry about Year 12.”

He does also plan to study alongside his riding.

“I’m planning to do something at university, something basic,” he said. “I want to do horses alongside that and see how it goes. I do want to have something behind me, I think.”

Longer term, the goal is very clear.

“My goal is to win a medal at the Olympics,” he said. “I don’t really just want to go to the Olympics. I want to go there and do really well. It’s probably my goal because it’s never been done before. I suppose I want to put myself in a position where I can be really competitive overseas and not just go there for fun, but actually go there and have a crack. I think that’s where I want to be.”

Europe is very much part of that picture.

“I definitely can see myself basing over there,” he said. “I don’t think it’ll be easy, obviously leaving home. Europe is very different. But I think the sport is just so amazing over there. It’s a whole different game. So if I do get an opportunity to go over, definitely I’ll take it up and I’ll just give it a crack.”

In between World Cup plans, university, young horses and a very big dream, Jack Barker is still enjoying the ride. And for those watching, it feels like his story is only just getting started.

You can listen to the full podcast, available now on:
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3XrAHtR
Spotify: https://bit.ly/3M19H23
Apple Podcasts: https://bit.ly/49OBwV1

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