‘Strength through Adversity’

Akeen Pony Club member who loved to compete in the speed events, Kristy Banks loved anything and everything to do with horses! She was absolutely fascinated by them and knew exactly how she wanted her life to roll out. Her father, Graham Banks, had been a good jockey in his younger days, and later become a successful racehorse trainer, basing out of Toowoomba then, but now at Oakey. A young Kristy dreamed of being a jockey herself, just like her Dad, and while at Pony Club, she could fulfil her desires to race and to win, and Barrel Racing happened to be one of her favourite events!

‘I’ve been around horses all my life,’ Kristy begins. ‘My parents took me around to many big Pony Club events and competitions in Queensland and NSW. But I knew that becoming a jockey was the career I wanted. I finished school at 14yo, and in 1996, at 15yo, I began a 4 year apprenticeship with my Dad’s training stables. Being a taller jockey, I did