Tanya O'Connor puts Jindera horse-riding business Bits & Boots on market

"It was the best way you could ever grow up," she reflects.

But Tanya, who grew up on 100 acres on the outskirts of Temora, says she didn't start out mad keen on horses.

Somehow horses found her.

The youngest of five, Tanya recalls a childhood spent predominantly with her mum Elaine and younger siblings Kim and Troy.

Her dad Ronald Murray, who raised pigs and cattle, was away a lot in Albury where older sisters Lyn and Janet grew up.

For some reason the decision was made at some stage to get a horse and so it was that Mickey, a 13-hand high Welsh-cross taffy pony, arrived from Young horse sales.

"He was cute as cute but naughty as they come," Tanya recalls.

"Mickey hated men and hated storms.

"We soon learnt all about first aid when he went through the fence and sustained a huge gash on his shoulder."

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The three of them got on and fell off - a lot.

They had a bridle, but no saddle (eventually a "revoltingly hard army saddle" was procured from somewhere) and learnt to ride bareback.

The three of them shared the ride and went to pony club - the moment the gate towards home was opened Mickey would bolt off at a million miles an hour over roads, railway tracks and ignoring all signs.

"It's a wonder we survived," Tanya laughs.

Eventually there was a horse float and a trip to the Barmedman show.

"We didn't have jackets or ties, we had no idea what we were doing - we were like the Clampetts," she says.

"But Kim loved it, we went because or her."

There came a steady procession of horses - Spero ("another mongrel"), the "more appropriate" Silver and Gidget (Janet and Lyn's old horses), Tamoon, Cascade, Blue Boy ("highly educated but with no mouth") and then Lyn's old polocrosse horse Rajah.

"With all the sharing, the my turn, your turn, we finally got a Dodge truck and Mum and the three kids did the show circuit," Tanya says.

She was to find her niche in novelty events - the faster the better.

"Rajah was phenomenal; no one could beat me," Tanya recalls.

The ugly chestnut gelding, purchased at a sale in Ulladulla during the drought, was athletic and kind.

Tanya and Kim would do pairs in the show ring, but they'd always ensure Kim's horse was on the inside and "we were the ugly duckling on the outside".

Somehow their long-suffering mum scraped together money for show gear and trips away in the truck camping together.

Life and teenagers being what they are, Kim hit 16 and didn't want to ride anymore so Tanya took up hockey instead, playing at representative level.

Later her parents separated and Tanya moved to Albury, where she worked at Macquarie Textiles.

But wherever she went "horses drew me back" and good friend Min Hamdorf would re-introduce her to riding.

"I'd go out there on weekends; every chance I got, I was on a horse," Tanya recalls.

During this time she met the love of her life in Peter O'Connor and they married in 1999, shortly after her beloved mum Elaine was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease.

"We knew we didn't have a whole lot of time with Mum," Tanya says.

She cared for her mother until she passed away on March 3, 1999 - when she was 30 weeks pregnant with their son Josh.

Tanya says her mother's death was "a real turning point for me".

"Mum and I were always close and it killed me watching her die," she says.

It was also the catalyst for Tanya's resolve to "live life the way she taught me".

That inevitably involved horses.

"Those times being together and having fun with horses held such a part of my heart," she explains.

Lyn had purchased a place at Jindera; in a poignant coincidence their mum is buried on the adjoining boundary (at the local cemetery)

When the property next door came up for sale, Peter and Tanya didn't hesitate and Josh was six months' old when they moved in.

Their daughter Sophie arrived 21 months later and a few short years later, despite the fact neither child appeared interested, horses once again found their way back into Tanya's life.

A gorgeous little brown and white Pinto called Peaches was purchased and off to Jindera Pony Club they went - Sophie, 4, Josh, 6, and Peaches, 7.

Another steady procession of ponies would follow and many years camping away and making lifelong friends through pony club.

It wasn't long before Tanya started instructing with her main aim to make pony club fun for the kids.

Sophie stuck with riding until she was 14 - "she was an absolute natural rider" - but when her beloved thoroughbred eventer Colin broke down, that was the end of her riding career, Tanya reveals.

But it didn't stop the demand for Tanya's teaching skills and she recalls constantly being asked by desperate parents and grandparents if she could give pony rides or lessons.

In 2014, she "wondered" if she might be able to set up a business herself, offering beginner horse riding experiences and lessons.

On November 20, 2015, Bits & Boots was born with Katie Longley her first client.

Tanya started out with Black Beauty and Peaches - who she still has to this day.

"It was a slow burn," she says of the business which now includes 25 horses and is responsible for realising the riding dreams of hundreds of children in the region.

There are parties, school holiday camps, trail rides to town for ice-cream, pony club outings and all manner of fun horsey activities Tanya's dreamt up over the years.

The horses' wellbeing remains her "number one priority", closely followed by her passion for "my kids", who often become an integral part of the Bits & Boots family, volunteering their time to support Tanya and her long-time friend and fellow instructor Sarah Packe.

But after "eight amazing years", Tanya says it's time to enjoy semi-retirement with Peter and her grand-children.

It's the young people who've kept her going this long, she says, adding she's never received "so many crying emojis in all my life" at the news she's finishing up.

She's hoping to find someone with the same care and commitment to take up the reins of the business she built from scratch - and on the lasting legacy of her mother's love.

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