Born: Warrnambool, November 1, 1979.

Partner: Michael Wraight.

Parents: Derek and Andie.

Sibling: Heath.

Education: Merrivale Primary School before going to Brauer College Warrnambool.

Sporting highlight: being the strapper of Grandview Avenue when he won the listed Carlyon Stakes at Moonee Valley in 2020.

Tennielle, what made the effort of Grandview Avenue winning in Melbourne so special for you, to make it your sporting highlight?

Grandview Avenue is just a lovely horse. I've had a lot to do with him. I've ridden him in trackwork and strapped him in many of his wins.

He's trained by Warrnambool trainer Simon Ryan.

It was just wonderful to see the horse win the listed Carlyon Stakes for Simon and his owners.

How old were you when your involvement in racing started?

I think I was 12 years old when I got a pony.

I joined the Dennington Pony Club and competed against other young riders from other places around this area including Warrnambool, Heywood and Macarthur.

My first involvement in racing would have been when I was 16 years old.

We lived four doors away from local trainer Colin McDonald down at Merrivale, who had a small team of horses in work.

Colin gave me chance to ride trackwork and strap his horses. We used to go to the track at 5am each morning for trackwork and we would get back home at 8am.

I would rush around to catch the bus for school, and on plenty of occasions I would miss the bus.

Despite all the rushing around in the mornings, I knew I had been bitten by the horse bug.

I just loved working and being around horses.

Can you remember some of of the horses that were in Colin McDonald's stable back in that era?

Yes. There was Ian's Orphan, Decoding and Parlours.

They all won races in town at different times of their careers.

I'll never forget those early days riding trackwork at the racecourse or riding horses at Levys Beach.

It used to be amazing, working the horses at Levys.

Colin's older horses had feet or leg issues.

The low impact training at the beach did wonders for them.

Colin was big on walking the horses in the water.

We would do that for 30 minutes. I realised at a young age working the horses in the water and on the sand really helped their feet or leg issues.

Apart from strapping horses and riding work for Colin McDonald, what other trainers did you work for back then?

It's 25 years ago that I started riding trackwork at Warrnambool, so I might miss out on a couple.

But I can remember riding work for Jocka Baillie, Ken Elford and Paul Richards.

I moved to Melbourne for about two years in 2008 and 2009, where I worked for the late Russell Cameron.

It was a great experience working for Russell because he was a top trainer.

I moved back to Warrnambool and started riding trackwork for trainers like Peter Chow, Quinton Scott, Colin Chandler, Maureen Harry, Gary Lamb, Simon Ryan and I'm still riding work for Ken Elford.

I also had a stint working for Symon Wilde and Matthew Williams.

How many horses would you ride in trackwork a morning?

The most I've worked was 21, but it's now 12 horses. I'm usually in at the track by 4.30am each morning to start my day.

The training track closes at 10am, so you've got to have the horses worked by then.

I worked on a part-time basis at the old Saddlerack and Horseland in Lava Street for six years.

Tennielle, it's an amazing effort to have ridden trackwork for 25 years. How much longer can you keep on riding trackwork in Warrnambool?

It's all coming to an end. I've loved my time riding work, but it's nearly all over.

I notified the local trainers I was retiring on May 5, but I've changed that back to June 1.

There's a shortage of trackwork riders in Warrnambool and that's a common problem in the industry.

I've spoken to Georgia McGrath from Tasmania and she's indicated she'll move over here to ride trackwork.

My partner Michael and I have set up Tower Hill Lodge Equine Agistment and we've been very busy with that business.

How many acres are on the property at Tower Hill Lodge?

We've got 28 acres and there's 31 paddocks on the property. It's taken a lot of hard work and time to get things sorted out.

We're still making improvements and fine tuning our business model, but we're very pleased how it's going.

We've received wonderful support from local trainers who have sent horses to Tower Hill Lodge for a spell.

The spelling of horses is a big part of our business, but we're looking at introducing pre-training and rehabilitation for horses.

Michael is a well respected vet and we've decided it'll be great for our clients and their horses if we offer rehab at Tower Hill Lodge.

Michael is a very, very good at his work.

He's always casting an eye over the horses that are spelling at our property and he's a great sounding board to ask about different problems that a horse may have.

The pre-training would be a natural progression to what we are doing.

The components we'll offer will be spelling horses, pre-training and rehab.

We're confident with that mix, we'll offer a complete package for trainers and horse people.

There's always something to do when you have horses around you.

We have long days, but we're not complaining.

We have a couple of hours off in the middle of the day and then we're back into work until dark, seven days a week.

Tennielle, away from your love of racing, have you been involved in any other sports?

I used to do a lot of running when I attended Brauer College.

I competed in short distance races at inter-school level when I was at secondary school, but my love of horses took over.

I would not have it any other way.