A poster of Esther Stace clearing 6’6” sidesaddle with the caption “Are You Brave Enough?” likely caused many riders to think, “No, I’m probably not.” But Susan Oakes had a very different reaction.
“I took that as a personal challenge,” said Oakes, who set out to break Stace’s unofficial 1915 record after seeing the poster and caption.
And Oakes did break the official sidesaddle high jump world record in 2012 when she cleared a triple bar set at 5’9” aboard Brandy And Red. But Oakes lost her record holding-standing earlier this year when Michaela Bowling jumped 6’3”.
So Oakes came back with mounts SIEC Atlas and SIEC Oberon and a mission. On Oct. 24, she cleared a 6’5” triple bar with Oberon and a 6’8” puissance wall with Atlas, making her the world record holder over both types of fences. Not bad for someone who only started show jumping 17 months ago and works full-time running a dental laboratory.