About Olivia Hamood

Olivia Hamood

Olivia was in the saddle from the tender age of 3. Olivia has had huge showjumping success already behind her and the sky her only limit for the future, is yet to show any sign of getting off a horse!

Olivia started her riding career in the hack arena and had wins and placing in championships and Royal Shows however her passion was always for show jumping. Olivia made her show jumping debut at the ripe old age of 9 and since then has never looked back.

Her first major success as a show jumping rider was on her 12th birthday where she won the Junior Grand Prix at the Brisbane Ekka in 2004. Olivia is the youngest ever to win this event as you had to be 12 years of age to compete. She won this on her mother's previous world cup horse Torchbearer. In 2006, Olivia won the Prestigious Elysian Fields Junior Grand Prix on the same horse.

In 2008, Olivia was runner-up Australian Junior Champion and also represented Australia in her first team competing in Korea at a CSIJ competition. The following year Olivia represented Australia in the Sydney Youth Olympic Festival where her team took out the silver medal. That same year at Olivia's first ever Sydney Royal Show, she was awarded the Helen Rose Memorial for most successful Girl Rider, where she also won the Junior Grand Prix aboard the very popular and successful horse Bucks Bunny.

After a hugely successful 2009, including winning the Young Rider Championship at the Toowoomba and Caboolture World Cup Shows, Olivia was ranked number 1 in Australia for the National Young Rider Selection Series. This resulted in Olivia's inclusion in the National Youth Development Squad for 2009 / 2010.

In 2010, Olivia was part of the very successful Glen Haven Team which produced the horses for the first ever Youth Olympic Games.

In 2011, Olivia placed 9th in her first World Cup Qualifier at SIEC in Sydney. Later that year, Olivia placed 4th in the Brisbane Ekka World Cup. She also finished 6th in the Copabella Classic Grand Prix in Sydney. Olivia also won the Young Rider Grand Prix at the Dubbo Australian Championships on GH Eternal Flame and finished 7th in the Australian Senior Titles on Nero GHP.

In 2012, Olivia was invited to train and ride with Ludo Philippaerts in Belgium where she was lucky enough to attend the Tuscan Tour in Arezzo Italy. She rode in the 6 and the 7 year old events and the Silver Tour where she placed 5 times.

After spending 3 months training with Ludo, Olivia returned home to compete her own team of horses where she had an impressive win on her beautiful imported mare GH Eternal Flame in the State Qld Senior Title and following later in the year with a runner-up title at the Australian Championships, held in Weribee VIC.

In October 2012, Olivia returned to Europe with GH Eternal Flame and Carado GHP to ride and train with Philippaerts, where she was based in Europe for 12 months.

Olivia is now home and putting her time into her show jumping team and business here at Glen Haven Park.

Olivia Hamood riding GHP Eternal Flame
Photo: KG Photography

Olivia Hamood riding GHP Eternal Flame
Photo: KG Photography