Riding in Australia: An Interview with Christine Meunier, Equestrian and Author

 

Riding in Australia: An Interview with Christine Meunier, Equestrian and Author

By Gina McKnight

Archived from the July 2025 Issue of Florida Equine Athlete www.floridaequineathlete.com

Christine Meunier is a multifaceted equine writer whose passion for horses shines through her diverse collection of literary works. I first encountered Christine in an equine writers' Facebook group, where her dedication to storytelling and education stood out. Her books serve as a unique portal into the life of a horse enthusiast, blending her vast experience in equine care, riding, and teaching with fictional narratives that resonate with readers of all ages.

Christine's academic achievements include a Bachelor of Equine Science from Charles Sturt University, a testament to her commitment to understanding the intricacies of horse health and management. Originally hailing from Adelaide, South Australia, she now calls Wangaratta, Victoria, home, where she resides with her loving family. Her surroundings in this picturesque region no doubt serve as inspiration for her literary pursuits.

Through her writings, Christine not only entertains but educates, weaving factual and practical knowledge of equine care seamlessly into her stories. Her works cater to a wide audience, spanning middle-grade readers eager to learn about horses, young adults seeking relatable adventures, and adults drawn to her heartfelt Christian horse romances. Each narrative is crafted with care, aiming to share her deep-rooted passion for horses and the equestrian lifestyle.

Welcome, Christine!

GM: What inspired you to start writing books about horses, their care, and riding?

CM: I have always loved to write. Often, I would retell stories of working on a thoroughbred stud to my mother - she kept telling me to write them down! In time I listened; it took 10 years, but after that I had completed by debut novel Horse Country. This follows the lives of four young women and their horse career journey - based on a lot of my work experience, horse riding lessons, teaching horse riding at a lower level and work as a stud hand.

Much to my surprise, the first two books in my Free Rein series for middle grade readers only took two weeks to complete! These stories seemed to unfold as I put finger to keyboard and felt like they wrote themselves. Now there are 23 books in this series, and it has evolved to the main characters having gone from ten-year-olds to now being teenagers.

I love to teach about horses, so I try to provide factual, educational content into my fictional pieces. My writing now spans across many different horse themed books - a middle grade series, short stories for early grade readers, two young adult series and some Christian horse romances for adult readers.

GM: What were some of the key lessons you learned during your time working on thoroughbred studs, and how have they influenced your writing and teaching?

CM: I have gotten to see and do so much! I love the thoroughbred industry as you get exposure to hundreds of horses in a short time frame. These range from foals, to weanlings, yearlings, broodmares, and stallions. I have been blessed to handle some stallions - including for breeding - to prepare weanlings and yearlings for sale and see them make tens of thousands of dollars (I fell in love with a thoroughbred colt that sold for $13,000, which was the amount I had saved for a house deposit in my late twenties! I think the house was the wise investment, but I was sad to see him go!), to visit some of the largest thoroughbred properties in the Hunter Valley and over in Ireland and always, always to work with these beautiful animals.

Whilst I am thankful for all the experiences I have had in handling young horses, learning to wean foals and teach them to lead and preparing weanlings and yearlings for sale, my first love is always the mares and foals. I just love the breeding season and would happily do this all year long if permitted!

Attention to detail, working hard and a willingness to learn are some keys I have learned are important in this industry. I know I will never stop learning about horses! I try to teach about horses in every book that I write. And when teaching, I often use real anecdotes from work to emphasize a point about horse care.

In one of the first foals that I foaled down by myself; I was amazed to watch this newly born chestnut filly gets to her feet and start to wobble around. As I focused on her mother, I heard a splash! You can imagine my surprise when I realized that the newborn filly had fallen into the water trough! I raced into the yard and hauled her out of the trough in the very early hours of that morning. I was saturated and she was fine. I named her Shivers. I am not sure who was shivering more!

GM: How did your studies at the Irish National Stud shape your understanding of horse breeding and care?

CM: It cemented the realization that horses - wherever in the world they are - will always need feeding, caring for and picking up after! If you can do it in Australia, you can do it anywhere!

I particularly loved that I left Australia in the Southern Hemisphere, in time to do the breeding season in the Northern Hemisphere and came back home again in time to down the breeding season down south! That was 18 months of my favorite season in the stud industry.

I got to experience a ‘red bag delivery’ whilst in Ireland. This is when the placenta prematurely separates from the mare’s uterus and the foal is delivered inside the afterbirth (which can lead to the foal suffocating). I was amazed by the foaling attendant who hadn’t seen one before but knew the signs to look out for. As the birthing wasn’t progressing and the mare’s waters hadn’t broken, she said she thought it was this particular issue - a red bag (placenta previa).

She put on a long-sleeved glove, felt inside, pierced the placenta and the mare’s waters broke! The foaling then progressed as it naturally should. I was amazed by how quickly this problem was rectified when if it wasn’t picked up, it could have meant the death of the foal by suffocation inside the placenta. Amazing! It also cemented for me, the importance of being vigilant and knowing all that you can before such situations occur. You cannot beat physical experience, but having read about what to look out for goes a long way, too!

GM: What was it like working at horse riding schools in Melbourne as both a stable hand and instructor?

CM: I really enjoyed the stable hand work, although the instructor work paid more. In the end, I concluded instructing wasn’t for me - some of my students were much more capable riders than me! It felt unusual to be teaching them when I knew the theory but wasn’t a very established rider. I enjoyed the opportunity but much prefer to be looking after the horses.

It was wonderful to learn about communicating riding theory to people that were on horses or ponies and then needing to execute it. It gave me confidence in expressing myself and ideas and built on my riding theory whilst teaching. It also helped me to consider how to approach a task differently, depending on the rider. I try to convey this when writing riding scenes in my books.

Some of the ponies at one riding school were cheekier and more difficult to deal with than the big Warmbloods. I still find it amusing that one pony Sunny - not because of his sunny disposition! - was more difficult for me to worm than the big Warmbloods and thoroughbreds. Ponies can have incredible attitude! Learning the different idiosyncrasies of different breeds or types helps me to build this into my stories whether focusing on thoroughbreds or ponies.

GM: Can you describe your experience riding endurance and trail horses on the Wild Coast of South Africa?

CM: Oh, I loved my time in South Africa. The horses were started under saddle through Monty Robert’s method of Join Up and I got to see two young mares started this way - fascinating! I rode every day - sometimes up to four different horses - and got to ride on trails, road rides and across beautiful beaches.

I was introduced to ticks on horses and found grooming them with these blood sucking creatures all over young horses’ coats an eye opener! I concluded that I wanted to honeymoon there if ever I married - I didn’t end up honeymooning there, but I was in love with the beauty of the Wild Coast.

I noted a vast difference between some white people - not all - and black farm hands. I was a naïve twenty or so year old who had their eyes opened to not everyone being treated the same. I really struggled with that aspect. I am working on a novel that has some different scenes from my time over in South Africa, but that one has yet to be finished! I was blessed to be able to use a photo of me on a grey gelding - Suave - on the Wild Coast in the book cover of my Christian Horse Romance, The Horse Missionary, and another horse from this trip on one of my Free Rein covers. I love being able to use my photos!

GM: How did you transition from being a stud hand to becoming a teacher in horse-related disciplines?

CM: I was approached about teaching Equine Studies. At first, I thought it a joke! This person had stumbled across my blog - Equus Education (https://equus-blog.com/blog) - and called to say they thought I should teach!

At that time, I was working as a stud hand - and loved it! - but was willing to talk with teens about horses and teach them about the breeding industry. I feel it was a God ordained situation.

It just so happened that the qualification I needed to gain to be able to teach, was being taught by the administration woman on the stud where I worked. She was teaching it half an hour away on the weekends I had off (I worked every other weekend), and I could do it with her in the very near future! It all fell into place beautifully.

Teaching has allowed me to use my love of writing and passion for website design, in developing online resources and delivering webinars weekly to students that want to gain a horse qualification as a part of their schooling. I love it! And I am testament to them all that horses can be a beautifully rewarding career.

Whilst teaching equine studies can be a full-time career, you also need to be industry current. I kept working with stud horses and then with racehorses whilst teaching, to ensure that I was staying current in the industry.

Now, as a mum of four young ones, it is also wonderful to be able to work part time, mostly from home and have weekends with family. It offers our family a wonderful lifestyle. I can continue to write in the evenings as motivation strikes. I find I don’t always have enough time to pursue all the ideas at once, but that’s more than okay.

GM: What are some key topics covered in the Certificate III in Agriculture (Horse Breeding) and the Diploma level courses you taught?

CM: Students start with a focus on understanding horse behavior and handling horses safely. They then move onto horse health and care, stable routines, feeding horses and nutrition, aspects of breeding the horse and broodmare care, birth of foals, artificial insemination and live cover, conformation of horses, anatomy, and physiology. They learn a little bit of everything! At Certificate III level it’s information they’ll need to look after horses and report issues to their manager. At Diploma level, it’s about managing people as well as the horses and making decisions as a manager. Many can do the certificate III and have it count towards their VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) and a part of their final year grades. Others use it as a door to get into higher education like a Bachelor of Equine Science or Veterinary Science.

GM: Can you share more about your blog, Equus Education, and its focus on horse careers around the world?

CM: When I was sixteen-years-old, I wanted to study horses as a part of my Victorian Certificate of Education. My careers teacher didn’t want me to. I was told horses were a phase that all girls went through and I’d get over it when I discovered boys!

I was not impressed with this advice - neither was my mother! She promptly advised my teacher to let me do it or they would move me to another school. I did Horse Studies, loved it and was their top student. That encouraged me to start a blog about different horse careers. I wanted to outline different possible careers with horses - there are over 170 listed currently! - and show that horses are indeed a viable interest and career choice.

I explore different horse focused or horse related career options. They may be hands on with horses or about horses but focusing on other skills - e.g. graphic design or writing about horses. Different posts look at education relating to horses from short courses, qualifications as a part of your schooling or even degrees after. If people have a passion for horses, I want them to know it can also be an income earner. It doesn’t have to be a hobby or something that their ‘real job’ helps to pay for.

An added aspect to the blog is also horse book reviews. I am often approached by authors to read and review a book - or two! - of theirs. It is always wonderful to receive a new horse book to read and learn about a new horse book author. I love this focus of the blog, too.

GM: How do you balance your time between teaching horse courses, writing books, and creating educational resources about horses?

CM: I have a set working week - four days a week I teach about horses and develop resources in regard to that particular job. So, it’s easy to keep that in schedule. The evenings are for me, though! Once the kids are settled, I will often boot up the laptop and work on the latest horse story or educational resource. These are two different things, but I set goals and aim to complete a set number of resources and progress a novel each month.

I will typically focus on finishing a task and then doing a bit more of a longer task, e.g. complete a smaller educational resource for publishing and then move onto writing a chapter of the current book I am working on. But I will at times have more than one book being written at once!

I have to remind myself some evenings to complete a shorter task and then go back to a longer task - for example, right now I am editing a book that is finished and due for release. I set the goal of proofing 1-2 chapters each night, but have been enjoying re-reading through it so much, I’ve delayed working on an educational digital resource. Tonight, I made myself finish the digital resource and then focus on these questions at the expense of editing the book further. I enjoy the editing aspect immensely, so I know I will continue to prioritize it tomorrow night.

GM: What advice would you give to aspiring authors who want to write about horses and the equine industry?

CM: There are always horse fans looking for a new book - or author - to discover. I think the biggest thing for horse books is that they are correct. It’s a real frustration for many horse enthusiasts when they read information that isn’t correct or is highly unlikely. Even if a book is fiction, the horse information should be spot on.

So, write what you know and what you’re passionate about! And don’t be afraid to research a topic before writing about it. I remember cringing when one book talked of a horse’s knee on its back leg! This is incorrect anatomy for horses, and it takes away from the credibility of a story when a simple statement is incorrect factually.

In my Free Rein book Ride and Tie, I reached out to the Ride and Tie Association to have them read my book and make sure I was portraying the sport in a correct manner. When I write about stud horses and breeding, I am able to use my decades of experience to write on this topic.

When it comes to adding my faith into my books, I try to double check particular verses and even had one lovely reader correct me on an aspect I had listed incorrectly in one book - I edited that book and republished it with the correct information as soon as I could!

My Christian Horse Romances are more a passion of mine - I’ve written novels I would like to read as a horse obsessed, Christian woman! If you want to write, the best thing you can do is start writing! You can always edit and adjust things once the book is complete and find a following after this. Generating content in an enjoyable story is the key - then you can work on your grammar, double check facts and ensure the story doesn’t have any gaps or flaws.

Connect with Christine…

Facebook: Equus Education

AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

Instagram: christinemeunierauthor

linktr.ee/christinemeunierauthor