Sam Williams: Building His Own Path

Australian Jumping

Above: Sam Williams and Bellatrix VP.

Sam Williams is a name that carries weight in Australian Jumping, but not because he has coasted on family reputation. Born into a family deeply embedded in the sport, with his father Paul a Grand Prix and World Cup competitor and coach, and his brother Matt one of Australia’s most celebrated international riders, Sam has quietly and deliberately carved out his own story. It is a story built on unlikely partnerships, hard-won confidence, and a fierce belief in doing things his own way.

Growing up in Tatura in Victoria, Sam was not the horse-mad kid you might expect. “I had very little passion for show jumping as a kid,” he admits. “I thoroughly enjoyed watching the big classes, watching the really good riders. But when it came to actually hopping on the horse, I didn’t have a huge amount of desire to do that.” While Matt was winning everything in sight, riding anything he could get on and collecting horses and owners from a young age, Sam was happy to let him. “He would say, I’ll ride your horse today, and I was just like, yeah, go ahead. I’m happy for you to do that.”

It was Matt’s departure to the UK full time that changed things. Left behind with a handful of horses, Sam started riding, and one of those horses made all the difference. “One of those horses was a horse called Isle of Rahn, who would be very well known. He was quite a cool Junior horse for me who took me from 90 centimetres all the way up to Grand Prix.” When Sam finished with Iran, the horse went on to start Jacob Wells’s Junior career, a fitting continuation for a horse that clearly had a gift for developing young riders. From there, a connection through owner David Quick led to Sam’s first World Cup horse, a thoroughbred called Noble Eros. “We got our first World Cup, I think I was 21, at Adelaide Royal,” he says. The ride was short-lived, with the horse moved on to a more experienced rider not long after, a moment Sam describes as leaving “a bad taste in your mouth” as a 21-year-old. But something better was already waiting.

High Rail Saltbush arrived around the same time Sam lost the ride on Noble Eros, and the two of them would go on to share one of the more remarkable stories in recent Australian World Cup history. Saltbush was not an easy horse. He was a wiry thoroughbred type, barely 16.1 hands with the smallest feet Sam had ever seen, prone to bucking on landing, difficult to keep weight on, and not always willing to leave the ground. “He came to me because he kept jumping everybody off,” Sam says. “He was an incredibly careful horse, but he was not super brave.” Despite all of that, at his best he was extraordinary. “When he was going from about a metre fifteen to a metre thirty, he jumped something like 30 clear rounds in a row. He didn’t even touch a rail in that time.”

In 2012, Sam made the call to take Saltbush to the Melbourne Royal World Cup, a decision that most people around him thought was bordering on reckless. “I think 99 percent of the people thought I was crazy. He was not put together like a showjumper.” Day one went better than anyone expected, with Saltbush finishing fourth and jumping with real confidence. Day two was the World Cup itself. Sam walked the course, warmed up, and felt something. “He is really jumping today. Let’s hope for a nice result.” What followed was a clear round in a class where every other top rider was dropping rails. Sam found himself last to go in the second round with the win there for the taking, provided he could jump clear. He got within two jumps of doing it before the horse had the last fence down. He won anyway, with three faults, in a class where the rest of the field had struggled to stay on four. “It kind of made it feel like it was not out of my reach,” he says. “And he later proved to me it was a bit of a fluke.” Sam laughs telling it, but the pride is obvious. The belief that he and Saltbush had built together on that day was real, and it stayed with him.

The horse that reignited Sam’s love of the sport entirely, though, was one he effectively stole from his now-wife Suzie. She had bought a five-year-old New Zealand bred horse called Commander, known around the stable as Peanut, and after Saltbush’s competitive flame started to fade, Sam found himself sitting on Peanut one day and feeling something spark. “He was a fiery little horse. I jumped him over a jump and he sort of went to nick off on me and I went, there’s something here.” Peanut taught Sam how to want to win again. “He really taught me how to win again and how to want it. The love for the sport came back.” Later, when Suzie was losing her own enthusiasm for the ring with a couple of horses that were not working for her, Sam handed Peanut’s reins over to her. “Within two weeks she was smiling, winning ribbons.” The horse eventually took Suzie all the way to 1.30 level. “We owe a lot to Peanut. He was a very special guy in our life.”

Today, the horse that has captured Sam’s heart and the attention of anyone who has seen her jump is Bellatrix VP, the chestnut mare owned by Suzie’s parents David and Bridget Willis. The story of how Bellatrix VP came to exist is a lovely one. For their 40th wedding anniversary, David decided to buy an embryo from Melissa Froesch at Glenara Park Stud, with Big Star as the Sire, because Bridget’s favourite rider in the world was Nick Skelton. “I’m incredibly lucky to have the ride on her,” Sam says. As a young horse, Bellatrix VP gave little indication of what was coming. “She was very dull and not very impressive. She was small, she just didn’t have a huge amount going for her.” Then, somewhere around five and a half heading into her six-year-old year, something shifted. “She just got competitive. She became ultra careful, super brave, super fast. Just everything that I wanted in a horse.”

The 2025 Australian Futurity Championship at Aus Champs at Boneo Park was the moment Bellatrix VP (‘Cindy’ or ‘Spot’ at home) announced herself to anyone who had not yet been paying attention. Sam went into the three-day competition with a clear plan. Day one was about settling her in and finishing top ten without drawing on her reserves. Day two, a seeded two-phase in Ring One, was where he wanted to make a statement, and they did, taking a couple of seconds off the leader while leaving something in reserve. By Sunday, with wet ground underfoot and the jump-off drawn, Sam and Suzie sat down together to map out their strategy. He watched the fast horses go, assessed what he needed, and then produced a round that was a touch quicker than everyone else. “Everything just came up exactly how we wanted,” he says. “She just ate it up.” Bridget was there in the crowd watching it all unfold. “She was a nervous wreck, as was Suzie. And luckily for me, I don’t get very nervous. I was just going out there to do a job.”

What makes Cindy exceptional in Sam’s eyes is not just her talent but her mentality. She knows when a class matters. She reads the energy in the warmup and rises to meet it. She eats and drinks through travel, handles all ground conditions without concern, and has even taught herself, after one eventful swabbing experience, to urinate the moment her saddle comes off. “It’s like she listens to you,” Sam says, laughing. “One day I’m going to get swabbed again, so I’m going to have to wee.” He carries her swabbing saddle to every show now, just in case. “She just does everything right, how you’d want a horse to. And it’s like she listens to you and she’s like, yep, well you said that once, so I’m going to do it all the time.” He pauses. “I would have to say she’s the best horse that I’ve ever sat on. I think she’ll probably be the best horse I ever do sit on. And I think she’s one of the best horses in the country, and what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning for her.”

Above: Sam Williams and Bellatrix VP.

Alongside Bellatrix VP, Sam is currently also looking after Cavalli Park Kiara, a sensitive and careful mare purchased from Paul and Michelle Brent, who is owned by Suzie and has been through an extraordinarily difficult journey. Kiara has had two ovarian tumours removed, losing both ovaries in the process, which means she can no longer be bred from naturally. The couple have one frozen embryo secured through IVF, a small piece of hope they are holding onto. Through all of it, Sue Middleton from Caliera Performance Horses has played a key role in Kiara’s rehabilitation, travelling from Sydney once a month to work on the horses. “She’s been giving us quite a hand with her,” Sam says. Kiara has come back in what Sam describes as the best form of her career, winning her first 1.50 Grand Prix at The Elms at Sale just weeks ago. “One of my proudest moments is probably winning that Grand Prix at Sale the other week. Just seeing how happy that made Suzie was a memory that I’ll cherish forever. The horse has been through so much, and Suzie’s done 95 percent of the career. I’ve just stepped on for this last little bit and I’m reaping all the rewards.” He is clearly not bothered that the ride will go back to Suzie soon. He says he will miss the mare, but he cannot wait to watch from the sidelines.

Sam and Suzie are also expecting their first child in April, which has temporarily simplified the question of who rides which horse. There is no formal system for dividing the rides at Volpaia Park, their property in Victoria. They have different styles, different strengths, and different approaches, but they share similar taste in horses. “We really like sharp horses. We like them to pull us to the fence and be super careful and super brave.” Suzie brings a particular gift for getting nervous riders comfortable and smiling in the ring. Sam describes himself as more of a fine tuner, someone who can identify a small adjustment that takes a rider from outside the ribbons to winning. Together, they are building something they genuinely believe in.

The business side of life at Volpaiai Park is supported by Sam’s other trade, the horse truck manufacturing business he learned from his father and has been running for some years. “My dad used to tinker around and do repairs on trucks. When I’d finished school, I decided to give it a go.” Having reliable income from that work means the horses can be done properly. The arena is stocked with Horizon Show Jumps equipment so the training environment mirrors what they will face at competition. Bruno Delgrange saddles have come on board as a sponsor. And Sue Middleton’s monthly visits keep the horses sound and performing at their best. “Without help you can’t do it,” Sam says simply. “Very much a team sport on both sides.”

When the conversation turns to the broader health of Australian Jumping, Sam is thoughtful and genuine. He believes the sport is in a reasonably good place but is candid about what needs to happen next. “Somehow we’ve got to get outside money into the sport. We’re just taking money from the sport and putting it back into the sport, but not actually getting it from outside.” He points to the corporate team events as a positive sign, but knows they are not a weekly solution. He also raises something that does not always come up in these conversations: pace. Sam is a firm believer that riding on pace is one of the most trainable and most overlooked advantages in Australia. “A time fault for me is almost a non-negotiable. That’s my fault. If I have a time fault, that’s on me, it’s not on the horse.” He trains his horses to ride at 400 metres per minute so that by the time a big class comes around, the pace is already built in. “You go to America and Europe, the jump-offs are so fast. Us at our fastest in Australia, we’re not even in the top ten. It’s a different sport there.” He sees it as something Australian riders can control and improve, and something that gives a genuine edge in the jump-off when it counts.

Sam Williams is not someone who set out to be the loudest name in the room. He came to the sport slowly, found his confidence through a series of horses that suited him and believed in him, and has built something quietly impressive in his own corner of Victoria. With Bellatrix VP only seven years old, a new baby on the way, and Suzie counting down the weeks until she is back in the saddle, there is clearly a great deal more to come.

Hear from Sam directly on Episode 40 of All Clear:
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