Shannon Melton - Office Administrator/Trackwork Rider

If variety is the spice of life, young Matamata woman Shannon Melton has got just the right mix.

As a senior employee with one of New Zealand’s major training establishments, Te Akau Racing Stables, her working day begins with morning trackwork duties and is rounded off by running the office administration of the operation’s Matamata base.

In between those duties she also manages to fit in raceday and trial fixture attendance as well as dealing with the many logistical aspects of a stable that has close to 200 horses on its books.

Shannon’s multi-faceted role under the management of current premiership-leading trainer Mark Walker is as busy as its sounds, but she thrives on it. “I love the racing industry and working with all the people involved in it,” she says. “And then there’s all the stable clients. We train for celebrities and highly successful business-people right through to your normal person in the street, so you get to meet a huge variety of people, but they’re all really interesting.”

Having grown up in a racing family, there’s no great surprise that Shannon finds herself still fully immersed in the industry. She initially worked for her parents Dean and Jan-Marie, who trained a small racing team as well as breaking-in and pre-training, and then did a stint at Koshu Farm in Japan.

Soon after her return to New Zealand she began at Te Akau when it was under the management of Stephen Autridge. Teenage thoughts of becoming a jockey had come to nothing due to a combination of parental reluctance and increasing weight, but she was still able to make a worthwhile contribution as the trackwork rider and strapper of some of the operation’s leading gallopers.

Shannon has fond memories from those early days at Te Akau for such horses as Captain Moonlight and Singalong, while she has also proven a dab hand in educating some of the jumpers that have performed well from the stable.

When it comes to choosing one particular favourite from the many she has handled, it is the last horse she acted as permanent strapper to, 2003-04 Horse of the Year King’s Chapel.

“King was just the loveliest horse to do anything with,” she recalls with obvious affection. “He was a colt but you would never have known it the way he would do whatever you asked him to and just cruise around the place.”

By the time King’s Chapel retired to stud as a late four-year-old, Shannon had commenced her role in the Te Akau office. That also coincided with her beginning studies for her National Certificate in Equine – Stable Management, which included becoming fully computer literate and well versed in other clerical duties.

“The certificate course has been perfect for the various aspects of my job,” she says. “I think I’ve surprised myself with what I’m capable of doing now, especially thinking back to when I left school I had no qualifications.”

Shannon’s daily routine once she has dispensed with trackwork and other stable duties is largely made up of maintaining records on the movements of all stable members, making entries for races and trials, communicating with owners to keep them up to date on progress and likely race dates for their horses, and generally ensuring that other issues such as staffing, veterinary and farrier requirements are seen to.

“The phone hardly stops ringing and there’s always something going on,” she says. “Besides, being busy is a great way to get through the day. Every time we have a win it’s something that every one of us can be proud of and I’m happy to part of such a successful team.”