Heath Rowbottom
EQUINE STUD & PERFORMANCE TEAM SUPERVISOR
With a life-long passion for the Arabian horse and driven by success,
Heath’s unwavering dedication to his craft brings out the best in everyone.
A renowned horse trainer in his own right, and with numerous accolades in the Show Performance circuit, Heath brings a wealth of knowledge, considerable experience and expertise to OSO as our Equine Stud & Performance Team Supervisor.
Originally from Victoria’s western district and growing up in Echuca on the Murray River, Heath was born into the horse world and soon developed a passion for all things horse-related; with this later becoming his driving force to seek out as many opportunities to develop and further his career as possible.
Having already achieved multiple Australian Champion and Reserve titles with some outstanding horses, together with 4 South East Queensland Young Stock of the year with 4 different horses over 5 years, Heath continues to demonstrate both his dedication and determination in his pursuit of excellence; and, whilst at the top of his field, he remains magnanimous, recognising that there is always room to improve, evolve and learn more.
After initially being called upon by Amanda to help with the presentation of SDA Silver Legend at the 2016 Australian Crabbet Convention in Melbourne, followed by various visits to OSO as a mentor and coach assisting with stallion, foal handling, and team workshops, we were delighted when Heath finally joined our OSO family on a fulltime basis in early 2019.
Heath’s role as Equine Stud Supervisor, sees him providing invaluable 2IC support to Amanda, with his focus being on the stud side of our business. This includes overseeing our breeding program, show training, horse sales, staff coaching on stud work, and in general, providing enormous support to the team across the board, to ensure we continue to achieve our goals.
With a passion for producing horses to achieve the highest level of success in their field, Heath is committed to fulfilling Linda and Amanda’s aspirations to continue breeding the most exceptional Arabian horses through our first-class breeding program, and further developing the diversity and versatility of the Arabian breed; also encompassing our derivative breeding program, which enables us to continue breeding some of the best derivative horses in Australia.
As Performance Team Supervisor (and 'Show Daddy'!), in less than a year since our Performance team was formed, Heath’s invaluable contribution to the team was already evident; with the new team bringing home some 40 titles at both State and National level including Champion Led and Ridden Purebred Mare; Supreme Youth Anglo; Champion Led Derivative Gelding; Champion Stockhorse; and numerous versatility awards that encompasses everything we aspire to.
Through all this, despite notable personal successes in the arena, Heath remains humble, constantly inspired by the diversity of the world around him, and enjoying learning to see life through the lens of our younger generation. It is obvious that Heath is immensely proud to be a part of the OSO family, fully embracing the opportunity to nurture and guide our younger OSO team members and generously passing on his knowledge and wisdom where he can.
Heath is the genuine article. Not only is he a great friend to us all, he is also a real asset to OSO in helping us continue to realise our ultimate goals.