Jil Burton

Jil Bourton was accepted into the AERA Hall of Fame on 14 July 2023 on nomination by SAERA.

At the time of her nomination, Jil had achieved 25,103 kms with the promise that more was to come.

The nomination read:

“At the age of 68 in 2023 and enjoying her 40th year in the sport of endurance, Jil Bourton from South Australia is proud to look back on many personal achievements over that time culminating in 25,000 kilometres all time distance and earning her a place in the AERA Hall of Fame.

As a horse mad kid in the 60’s, she started riding with a local horse dealer / breaker and as time went by became involved in Pony Club – the closest one being a 25-mile round trip on horseback to attend each month.

“Riding distances to get to places was just a part of life back then and always enjoyable.”

As a mother of two, Jil came to endurance riding in the early 80’s and attempted her first Quilty in 1986 at Gawler, SA’s first. Failing to complete her first 160 km ride only gave her more resolve to try again when able.

At time of nomination Jil had 12 TQ completion buckles out of twenty tries – they don’t come easy – and she has mainly involved homebred and trained horses over the past 30 years.

Some of her stand out horses have won multiple 160 km Championships as well as many top five finishes over that distance.

A lot of commitment and determination, not to mention good horses, have aided in achieving such a lifetime distance in the sport even though the last two or three thousand certainly seemed to take forever – partly due to COVID.

Jil also became a passionate FEI competitor in the early 2000’s, supporting, helping organise and riding in three FEI events in South Australia, and travelling to both NSW and Victoria to compete in several others. She rode at the South African Championships as part of the Gold Medal winning Australian Team in 2009, backing up with a ride in the less successful team in 2010. Developing a taste for international riding, Jil also completed FEI rides in Namibia, New Zealand and France with her last event overseas being a National 90km ride in Thailand in 2019 where she was first to complete in the senior division – but National rides have no placing in Thailand, only FEI events.

Jil hopes to add more TQs and more distance to her record before age gets the better of her – sometime but not too soon, in the future.