As the son of Western District soldier settlers, a young Barry Roycroft had little inkling of the heights he was to reach in the equestrian world.
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However, a drive to do well and a sage piece of advice that he carried through life ensured success would never be far away.
“We were always encouraged to do whatever we did to the best of our ability, my mother, in particular, said if you are successful at whatever you’re doing the rewards will come,” Mr Roycroft said.
“I never actually aimed to get to an Olympic Games, I aimed to be successful, knowing full well that if I was successful the likelihood of being in an Australian team was heavily in my favour.”
The three-time Olympian and World Equestrian Games bronze medalist, who has represented Australia in both showjumping and eventing at the highest level, has since gone on to make his mark as a coach, judge and administrator.
Its for his lifetime commitment to equestrian sport that Mr Roycroft is today honoured with induction into the Order of Australia.
It is an accolade the 71 year old said he was surprised to receive. But after more than five decades as a major figure in equestrian sport, Mr Roycroft, from Camperdown, is no stranger to accolades.
Part of the Roycroft equestrian dynasty, Mr Roycroft’s career with horses began at a young age, riding to school each day. He later specialised in showjumping, competing in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The next year was spent in the UK honing his craft and riding at major competitions.
Mr Roycroft was selected for the Munich Olympics, but injury to another horse meant the Australian team never took part.
“Four years later I was chosen to go to Montreal so I spent six months riding in America and then on into the Montreal games, came home from there and because my family had started to arrive I stopped following the showjump circuit,” Mr Roycroft said.
A switch to eventing, where his father Bill and brother Wayne had already found success, meant Mr Roycroft was selected for the 1988 Seoul games. He had already shown his ability in his adopted discipline with a bronze medal at the 1986 World Equestrian Games.
“I was equally fond of both (showjumping and eventing) all event horses had to showjump so it was no burden to carry the fact that I’d been a showjump rider for a number of years,” he said.
“I represented my country for the last time in eventing in the Asia Pacific Games we had at Werribee in 1996.”
After retiring as a competitor, Mr Roycroft turned his hand to coaching, judging and administration.
He has been an elite coach since 1983 and an international judge since 1985, judging at events across the country and around the world. He served on the Victorian equestrian federation branch for more than 30 years and is still a member of the eventing sub-committee, which he chaired for about three decades.
Mr Roycroft has been a consultant to the Japanese Equestrian Federation since 2001 and coached the Japanese eventing team for the last three Asian games. He also helped initiate a cultural exchange program of young riders from Australia and Japan that has been running for 15 years.
But it’s perhaps the establishment of Camperdown’s Lakes and Craters International Three Day Event in 1978 that Mr Roycroft is most proud.
“The event came about because the progress association wanted something that would bring outside visitors to Camperdown,” he said.
“Now we’ve got to the stage where we run two international events a year and we always have international judges. The people that are still around that were on those initial committees they would be so pleased at what it has done for the town.”
Mr Roycroft is philosophical about the thrill and heartbreak that comes with equestrian sport.
“It’s a bit like with my coaching stuff, I always say to my students, ‘always set yourself achievable goals’. As an example of that, when I had a new horse I set the initial goal of jumping a clear round showjumping, or to be able to ride a round circle… That made everything that little bit more enjoyable because you were sort of ticking the boxes all the time, not saying ‘all right I’m going to win a gold medal’, and how disappointed would I be, because I never won a gold medal.
“When you’re riding a horse, it’s only yourself, the horse and the task that’s in front of you and if someone else does it better than you so be it.”
