John Fahey was born Thomas John Fahey on 27 August 1943 in Upper Lansdowne to Tom Fahey and Joyce Mitchell.
He started school in 1949 at Upper Lansdowne Primary School with his dad taking him to school on horseback.
There was a paddock made to put the horses in during school hours as a lot of the kids rode their horses to school back then. John has fond memories of the Balls in the hall. His farewell to the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964 was unforgettable with 450 people turning up.
John left Upper Lansdowne in 1978 to reside in Rainbow Flat. He then moved to Port Macquarie for 5 years. In 2005 he moved to Caboolture in Queensland.
Extract taken from Horse Deals Magazine August 2017:
“My dad Tom was a great horseman. He bred top campdrafters and novelty horses and we had a Radium bred horse, Master Luke, that was in the top 20 foundation sires of the Australian Stock Horse Society. Dad was my mentor and started me off at a very early age and taught me the basics. We had a small dairy farm at Upper Lansdowne. I used to ride to school every day and would often get in to trouble organizing races with the other kids. I started when I was 3 but when I was 4 or 5, I rode everywhere with dad. He used to deal in cattle and we would often gather a mob and drive them to the sales. Dad had other properties along with his dad and brothers and we would go muster there in pretty steep country, crossing rivers etc, and wherever dad went, I went along behind.”
John started competing when he was just three years old with a very gentle but very tall pony named Goldie. By the time he was four, John was mustering cattle across the river and at age 12 he was jumping at Brisbane Royal.
This natural talent led John to compete at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics (pictured below) and 1968 Mexico Olympic Games. On both occasions he partnered with the 15hh Australian stockhorse, Bonvale. It was at Tokyo where 21 year old John progressed to the jump-off for the bronze medal and his fourth position at these Games has stood as the Australian Games record for more than fifty years.
John has competed in 100 FEI World Cup Qualifiers. He also set an international record by winning the greatest number of World Cup Qualifiers on the one horse.
John won the Pacific League World Cup Series on three occasions as well as the Australian Showjumping Championships five times on five different horses. He has competed successfully in England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. He is not only an Olympic show jumper but also world champion at Camp Drafting. In addition, he excelled at racing, where he won races and trained winners in metropolitan racing.
In 2000, John received the Order of Australia Medal for Australian sporting achievement. In 2016 he was inducted into the Equestrian Australia Hall of Fame.
FAREWELL AT UPPER LANSDOWNE HALL 1964
Compiled by Gloria Crittenden – May 2024