Tuesday, April 22nd started out tough - with an email from Ros Moffat telling us that her husband Charlie had died overnight - the jungle drums began to beat as the news went out and people all over Australia were on the phone sharing their memories of one of Australia's greatest characters in showjumping.

Charlie Moffat was a legend in his own lifetime - and now we have lost him we must never forget him.

In September 2002 I was given an audience with "himself" which was the first time we had sat together in a "formal interview" and the following article was written for the Victorian EFA News and I reproduce it here for several reasons. The article introduces Charlie to those too young to have known him - it reminds those who knew him of why he was such a legend - and it is the best obituary I can think of to write for a man who was my hero, my friend, my teacher, my pal - Charlie Moffat I loved you in life and I will never forget you - thankyou for being all things to me - I will love you always!

At 73 years of age Charlie is recognized as the oldest professional showjumping competitor in the world and he is still breaking, producing and competing the champions of tomorrow including the lovely Clydie X mare Kelso Lady Joycie, who has similar breeding the Mulga Bill.

I was privileged to spend an evening with Charlie and Ros Moffat delving into the illustrious past of Charlie. It was hard though to keep Charlie on the subject as interstingly Charlie prefers to talk of the future - he says he finds it more interesting than looking back over the past!

There is always a way, however to encourage Charlie to mention the past glories and that is by mentioning Mulga Bill's name - there is a bitter sweet sadness when Mulga Bill is mentioned these days. It was Charlie's hurt over being dropped from the Australian team list after his wonderful performance at the World Equestrian Games at The Hague that caused him to sell his "best friend and partner in crime" but he felt better about the fact that the buyer was a man he had known from his childhood, Stanny Van Paesschen. Mulga Bill had his moment though and he did go to Atlanta Olympics buit without Charlie - he was on the Belgian Team!

Charlie is a man of determination and he does not accept "no" easily! When he applied for permission and funding assistance from the EFA to travel to Europe in preparation for his (hopeful) selection to represent Australia in the Hague it was denied - on the grounds that he was "too old and the horse had no hope at the big competitions". He went anyway!!!

Charlie and Bill then went on to make it impossible for the Australian selectors to overlook him as they won and placed at the top shows in the world - Millstreet, Hickstead, Wembly and Aachen to mention but a few - and the selectors could not ignore his results and onto the team this pair went.

They were one of the most popular horse and rider combinations winning fans wherever this pair went - Charlie with his cheeky grin and Scottish accent, which few could actually understand, and by his side the "carthorse" with feet like dinner plates! The pair proved themselves worthy of the hard fought for place on the Aussie team when they finished 25th out of 90 starters - an outstanding achievement for Australia!

Their wonderful achievement was apparently not enough to gain a plane ticket home to Aus for "old Bill" ! (something I suspect the EFA might have learned a lesson from)

But the story of Charlie MOffat and Mulga Bill is well documented and well known - my questions were simple ones - how did this slightly eccentric Scot end up in Australia in the first place? Where did life begin and what led to the passion which burns as brightly at 73 years of age as it did for the five year old in Edinburgh when he desperately tried to get the Cavalry to "let him hop up on the horse with them" - a request which sadly was denied the little boy?

The year 1929 saw a baby born to Charles and May Moffat who already had a daughter - two more boys quickly followed this first son and life began in the 6th floor Council flat in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Charlie has mixed emptions regarding his childhood. There was the torture of the violin lessons (Charlie's father was a very artistic man who played the violin and painted lovely water colours while earning a living as a pastry cook and cake decorator) which more often than not saw young Charlie in tears but his "torture" was quickly overshadowed by his visits to the local stockyards where his riding career started aboard sheep and cattle - well that was all that was on offer!

While another of Charlie's favourite haunts was the local dairy where he was found in the stables and perhaps this is where Charlie's love of the Clydies began!

As a 16 year old lad in Edinburgh, Charlie was firmly entrenched as the leader of his local "gang of lads" and just to prove what a small world it really is, some 30 plus years later Charlie was teaching a married lady to ride n Australia and she mentioned that her Scottish husband was once in a "lad's gang led by one Charles Moffat" - and yes it was indeed our own Charlie!

In 1945, war ended and in 1946 (as soon as he was old enough) Charlie appluied to join the British Army and after completing basic training in Yorkshire he requested assigment with the famous "Royal Scots Greys" - the mounted regiment.

The Greys were stationed in Luneburg i nGermany as part of the peace keeping forces and during this time Charlie managed to wend his way into the position of Groom fro Colonel Douglas Stewart who was to become his first mentor - Charlie watched avidly as Colonel Stewart was trained in the art of dressage by the finest trainers in Germany - even then the Germans were the best and Colonel Stewart worked hard - but Charlie was working harder - soaking up all the information he could regarding riding horses. Charlie would quietly try everything he learned by watching while working the Colonels horses.

By 1948 Col. Stewart was one of Britain's leading equestrians and a member of the British Three Day Eventing team so to England they went - basing at Aldershot Barracks and there Charlie helped to prepare the Colonel's horse for the Olympic Games which were to be held in London.

After the Games, Charlie traveled extensively throughout Europe, Ireland, Canada and even Madison Square Gardens grooming for his mentor and idol, Colonel Stewart. As always Charlie used the opportunity to learn from the best trainers and riders in the world and of course he was also learing how to look after a top horse - a skill which would he would use many years later for himself!

Not content with the knowledge he was gaining from experience, he wanted the more formal learning as well and attended many courses at vet colleges, farrier schools and riding centres - gaining knowledge all the time and in 1952 Charlie was put in charge of the Colonels horses which traveled on the very first flights to carry horses as they headed to Helsinki for the 1952 Olympic Games.

This was not a totally pleasant and happy memory as disaster nearly struck when Colonel Harry Llewellan's great and incredibly popular horse Foxhunter decided flying was not for him and proceeded to panic on take-off and demolished his flimsy crate.

The pilot ordered the horse be immediately put down but Charlie cried "well you may as well shoot us all then as living won't be an option if we arrive without Fixhunter!" Luckily for all concerned the horse was able to be pacified and the trip continued without further hitches and indeed the British team arrived home in a blaze of glory proudly boasting the Show Jumping Team Gold medal and the team (according to Charlie) consisted of three Clydie coss thoroughbreds and the Brits have been trying to win gold ever since!

Charlie was then reassigned and this time was sent to Tripoli in North Africa where he assisted in setting up the Army Stables and it was here that Charlie once again expanded his knowledge and experience by learning to play Polo on tough little Arabian horses which were brought from the Bedouins who seemed to appear myteriously out of the desert and with the deals done the horses would arrive at the Barracks even before the soldiers had found their way back.

But finally Charlie's army tenure was up and he was discharged, returning to Edinburgh. While working for a yard there he began to make a name for himself both with the women and also in One Day Eventing and Point to Point races and this led to him being offered the job of senior rider at a yard in the border town of Kelso.

The Scot was unbeatable in the eventing circuit as his dressage was so far ahead of the rest of the Brits thanks to the training he had observed and absorbed during his time in Germany watching the very besr teaching their craft.

Showing a trait which is still evident today, Charlie fast became a crowd favourite as he was courageous and fast on the cross country while being elegant and disciplined in the dressage arenas. Charlie competed at one of the first Badminton Three Day Events but it was at one of these majors that Charlie decided eventing was simply too destructive for quality horses, after one of his mounts, loosing concentration misjudged a fence ending up being destroyed after he broke his leg on course. Charlie decided this was not the sport for him!

It was now 1956 and CHarlie's heart was taken by a lovely young lass by the name of Nora and she ran a riding school herself and so they had much in common and it was not long before they were "stepping out together" and marriage quickly followed with Nora presenting Charlie with four children in quick succession.

It was at this time that Charlie re-acquainted himself with the Redford Army Barracks in Edinburgh which were now sitting empty with just the ghosts of days gone past echoing throughout the indoor arena - he applied for a lease on this unique facility and set up a riding school which soon saw the stables filled with ponies and horses to teach on and to compete on and it became one of the ost popular competition venues in Scotland.

Charlie was fast gaining a reputation of being able to work with difficult horses and he also managed to get them successfully into the competition arenas and throughout the my evening with Charlie and Ros they regaled me with many wonderful stories of rehabilitated horses that Charlie had success with.

Much as many of the showjumpers in Australia have had to "make do" with whatever horses they could get their hands on due to tight financial restrictions, Charlie did the same all those years ago on the other side of the world! He took in the untrainable, unworkable and difficult horses and managed to turn enough odf them into quality competition horses which were then sold to many of the top riders enabling him to remain solvent.

There were many wonderful stories but this one zstood out - a thoroughbred gelding owned by Horace Burch - the horse was difficult to mount or dismount due to the previous owners trying to break him by strapping sand bags across his back but unfortunately they slipped and frightened the horse and he associated the mount and dismount with the experience. After being asked to help, Charlie discovered the only way to mount the horse was in total darkness in the barn with the horse surrounded by hay bales and this worked perfectly but dismounting was still an issue and this too had to be accomplished in the darkened stable.

The horse was taken back to Redford Stables by Charlie and in time he began to compete this horse with great success and in fact the horse known as Goodwill went on to compete in Eventing at the Montreal Olympics with Princess Anne on board!

Charlie managed to keep himself busy with horses and a stint as a film double. The stunt involved Charlie having to fall off horses and was also a job which saw him dressed in a full suit of armour on horseback for a jousting scene at Craigmillar Castle.

would panic everytime he so much as smelled creosote. Charlie nurtured the horse back to health and began to campaign this talented little horse and noticed as time went on that if this horse was put into a wooden stable he would panic and frantically try to escape - after some time Charlie realised that it wasa the smell of the timber usedin the manufacture of the portable stables used at all shows and so he made sure he was never put into them. Bantam and Charlie made quite a name for themselves and Bantam was eventually sold to Irish interests expressly to compete in Nations Cups. When Bantam was sold Charlie went to great pains to explain the situation with the stabling and he then continued with his other horses but always kept a watchful eye for Bantam at competitions and in results and this particular day he was eagerly watching the television coverage of Hickstead as Bantam was listed to start - but he never fronted for the class!

Charlie made some phone calls only to discover the horse has been put in a wooden stable and become so distressed that he kicked the stable to pieces and broke his leg in the process. Charlie was heartbroken - but it added to Charlie's belief that horses "never forget"!