Meet the Team: Hannah Lowry and Sarah Elliott
While not new to Nevele R, having been an integral part of the foal watch team last season, both Hannah and Sarah have assumed key new roles for the Stud this year – Hannah as the Foaling Manager and Sarah as our Breeding Manager.
The pair share a lifelong passion for horses and have had interesting and varied careers in a range of equine and agricultural roles in New Zealand and abroad.
Hannah
Hannah (L) comes from a prominent Cambridge harness racing family, with her great-grandfather Cecil (Togo) Lee training over 100 winners in New Zealand and Australia, including the Cup Class pacer Oakhampton, while her great-aunt Beryl Lee was the first woman in New Zealand to be granted an Open Trainers Licence by the NZ Trotting Conference in 1971.
In addition to pony club and eventing, Hannah grew up working horses before school and at just 13 was employed to ride breakers, eventually being head hunted by a thoroughbred racing stable to help with schooling their steeplechasers and breaking in, until old enough to ride trackwork.
Hannah has had an enviable career in racing, having worked with a number of superstar gallopers and top trainers both locally and internationally.
Highlights for Hannah included working for Tony Portelli in Australia, where the dual Group 1 winner and now successful sire Rebel Dane was a favourite, as well as working for Te Akau Racing, where she worked with the likes of the two-time NZ Horse of the Year, and winner of an NZ record 14 Group 1’s, Melody Belle, 9-time Group 1 winner Avantage, cult horse Gingernuts (aka Jerry) and the 2020-21 NZ Horse of the Year Probabeel.
Through her time working in various roles in the thoroughbred industry Hannah gained a broad range of experience and skills in stud work (including foaling down mares), sales preparation, breaking in and rehabilitation.
In addition to her equine working life, Hannah also studied for a Bachelor of Science with this leading to a variety of primary industry roles in areas such as nutrient management, water treatment, fertiliser and dairy and stock feeds. She later completed a master’s degree in chemistry where her focus of study was developing a treatment for mastitis and lameness in dairy cows.
Hannah is looking forward to applying both her equine and scientific knowledge and experience to provide the best possible care of mares and foals.
Sarah
Like Hannah, the English born Sarah (R) grew up around horses, in picturesque Cornwall, getting her first pony (a Shetland that could have been straight out of a Thelwell cartoon due to its sole aim in life being to rid itself of its rider) at the age of four and spending her time over the following years riding out over the rugged landscape of Bodmin Moor.
Sarah’s working life has been split between horses and cows, with her primarily studying agriculture and working on dairy farms, and having horses for hacking out in her free time.
Her first paid equine job was a fairly unique one though, by New Zealand standards – driving a horse drawn bus with Clydesdales and Shire Horses in Devon in the UK.
Upon moving to New Zealand, Sarah first worked as a trackwork rider and strapper for the thoroughbred trainer Robert Priscott in Te Awamutu, with fond memories of working with a lovely race-winning chestnut gelding called Chevron Star, before moving into the dairy industry and becoming a sharemilker.
She worked as a sharemilker in the Waikato region for 20 years and during that time also returned to University and gained a Bachelor of Science with honours in Environmental Sciences and Microbiology.
Moving to the South Island in 2022, Sarah completed two seasons at the thoroughbred stud Clearview Park as a stud assistant working with the mares and stallions, and also handling young stock.
Sarah spent the last breeding season as part of Nevele R’s nightshift foal watch team before taking up the Breeding Manager role earlier this year.
Sarah, who has her Artificial Insemination certificate, is looking forward to working in collaboration with the vets this season to achieve as high as possible in-foal rates for our clients mares and to hopefully produce some future stars of the track.
The pair look forward to meeting both new and existing customers this season and to helping them achieve their breeding goals.
Both Hannah and Sarah will be at this weekend’s Canterbury Stallion Seminar, so please come and say hello to them and have a chat about the upcoming breeding season.