Andrea Laws-King has been riding endurance since 1993 and has completed 11,857 successful competition kilometres in Australia. However, she has always had a passion for FEI Competition.
When her daughter Sasha Savage (nee Laws-King) was a little girl, Andrea competed at the World Championships in Kansas in 1996, and then in 1998 at the Pan American Championships in Oregon.
When Sasha was 10 years old she started to ride endurance. In those days she was able to compete as a Junior alongside her Mum, her rode FEI. Some of these rides were held in Canberra and even Windorah in outback Australia. It was not long before Sasha was old enough to compete in FEI competitions. She qualified for the 2003 Young Riders World Championships in Rome, in the year she turned 14, and was the only Australian rider.
When Sasha started to shine in her teens as a talented endurance rider, and was busy studying at school and university, Andrea took a step back from competitions. Andrea had great pleasure training horses and being Sasha’s groom at local and International competitions. Sasha was selected
to ride at the Young Riders World Championships in Bahrain in 2005 where she was a member of the Gold Medal winning team. In 2007 she rode in the Australian Young Riders Endurance team in Argentina.
Once a senior, Sasha was a successful competitor in the Australian team in 2014 to ride at the World Equestrian Games in Normandy, France and then again in Slovakia at the World Endurance Championships in 2016.
Obviously with a daughter who is an International rider, Andrea is no stranger to overseas competitions. On one overseas trip Sasha successfully completed 3 FEI 3 star rides in three successive weeks in South Africa, New Mexico, USA and Montquc, France in that order! It was not long before Sasha qualified as an Elite FEI endurance rider.
When Sasha was working hard as a Veterinary Surgeon, Andrea was still busy training horses for her, however Andrea made a point of maintaining her FEI qualifications. She made the long trip to Western Australia on one occasion with one of her horses, where she won the FEI 3 star 160km ride.
Andrea had been chosen to represent Australia in 2012 at the World Endurance Championships at Euston Park, England but alas an accident prevented her travelling.
In 2016, Andrea sent her home bred horse Heathfield’s Bin Sadaqa (Chip Chase Sadaqa x Shah Dara) to France to be trained for Sasha. Andrea’s yarning to ride in the beautiful English countryside sent her to Euston Park in 2019 for the 160km FEI 3 star ride on Heathfield’s Bin Sadaqa, which was their qualifying ride for the World Championships.
Andrea is the only Australian competing at the FEI Longines World Endurance Championships in Pisa, Italy on 22nd May, 2021.