Chapter 10

Jaz McLeod was running around, busier than normal. She had a new rider arriving early this morning and she needed to get her and her horse settled in. This wasn't just any rider arriving. This was the most high profile athlete she had ever hosted. Jenna Malone was the reigning New Zealand National Champion and was coming off a Bronze medal in the 2020 Olympics. Moving to Wilgul was not a decision she had made lightly. Winning the Olympic Bronze medal had even further heightened her already extremely competitive nature. She wanted Gold in 2024 and she believed Jasmine McLeod was the coach who could help get her there.

Jaz had prepared one of the private cottages on Wilgul property for Jenna to live in while she was here for training. The stable was prepared and a stall was ready for her horse, Dallas.

Jenna was set to arrive around 9am. She had flown from Wellington to Adelaide two days ago and driven out to Fisher last night. Jaz had helped organize accomodations for Jenna and Dallas in Adelaide and Fisher, hoping to make the trip out as easy as possible on both of them. If one of her athletes won an Olympic Gold Medal, as a result of her coaching program, her reputation as a coach would be diamond status and her personal pride as a coach would be justified in all of the work she had done and decisions she had made.

Jaz walked into the stables to be sure that Dallas's stall was all ready to go and that the specifics Jenna had requested were in place. Jenna and Dallas would be arriving momentarily and Jaz wanted to make a great first impression. The relationship between athlete and coach is incredibly important, and Jaz wanted to start off on the right foot. While Jaz was inspecting the stall, Doug, one of the stable hands, approached her.

"Boss, do you have a minute? Matrix seems to be off his feed," he said.

"When did he last eat? Is he drinking?" asked Jaz.

Jaz walked several stalls down to look at Matrix. He was a beautiful horse. He belonged to Liam Hollins. Liam and Matrix had represented Australia in the 2020 Olympics. Now, they were at Wilgul training for the 2021 Australian and World championships. They were performing brilliantly and Jaz didn't want them to have any setbacks. A horse can go off feed for any number of reasons. Some of those reasons could be for very minor issues, but there were others that could indicate major concerns. Until she knew what was causing it, she was going to proceed with the utmost caution. It was time to call in a vet to get his professional opinion.

Jaz took out her phone and found the number in her phone.

"Nanjemup District Veterinary Services. Dr. Brewer speaking." Dave answered.

"Hey Dave. It's Jaz. We've got a horse who's been off feed for the last twelve hours. Can you or Ingrid come check him out asap?" she asked.

"Hey Jaz. I'm pulling into Drovers now to check on a new baby Alpaca. It shouldn't take very long. I'll head to you right after that."

"Great. Thanks. Just text when you pull in and I'll meet you at the stables."

"Jaz, which horse is it?"

"Matrix."

"Oh. I'll be there as soon as I can. It should be about an hour."

"Okay, see ya then."

Jaz figured she would head out and check on the water situation. They were in the middle of a drought, but even considering that, and the thirty to forty horses that were on her property at any given time, they were going through their reserves way too fast. It was becoming a very big problem very quickly. Ben had mentioned that they were seeing similar issues over at Killarney.

Jaz made herself a mental reminder to give Jodi or Tess a call this evening to see if Drovers was having the same type of issue. She assumed they were, as they were even further downstream than Wilgul.

As Jaz rode Annie out to the Wilgul dam, she saw the pool had dropped even more overnight. It didn't make sense. The water shouldn't be disappearing so quickly. She was going to be out of water in less than a week if things continued as they were. Trucking water in was very expensive. She charged a high rate for training athletes at Wilgul and, thus far, she had turned a profit, but the overhead was also extremely high. Trucking water in for any extended period could financially ruin her and Wilgul.

Jaz'z phone rang.

"I bet it's Jenna arriving!" Jaz muttered to herself.

She looked at her phone. It was actually Regan.

"Hey Sis, whats up? I'm expecting a very important call, so I may need to hang up suddenly." warned Jaz.

"That's okay. I was just calling to tell you that Dylan and I are officially coming! We will be there for Charlotte's birthday party on Saturday. We'll stay for the week. Jodi mentioned some sort of Demolition Derby or something that weekend as well, and that sounds fun. Are we all good to stay with you and Ben? I would very much like to get some Kelly time, but I can call Jodi or Stevie if things are too crazy there." said Regan.

"No, no, please come stay at Wilgul. It's yours too. Kelly will be thrilled to see her Aunt Regan and Uncle Dylan! When are you going to arrive? I'll make sure your room is all ready."

"We aren't totally sure. It will depend on how Dylan's court appearance goes on Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully, he can just give his testimony and be done at that. He just has to go over the evidence he collected at the scene, it shouldn't be a multi day thing. I'm hoping Thursday, but it might be Friday if things take too long in court." said Regan.

"Okay sounds great. I'll plan on Thursday, let me know if it changes. I'm so glad you're coming. I really miss you." said Jaz.

Jaz's phone beeped and she saw "Jenna Malone" flash across the screen.

"Regan, this is the call I was waiting for. I gotta take this. Love you! Bye Sis!"

"Bye Jaz, Good luck!"

Regan knew that this was a big moment for Jaz's coaching career. Regan couldn't believe everything Jaz had accomplished in the last eleven years since leaving Drovers. It was incredibly impressive. After joining the girls at Drovers Run in 2008, Jaz found something within herself and became more driven and confident. She rebuilt the relationship she had with her sisters, and having their love and support, Jaz had cleared her name of the doping scandal that cost her a place on the 2008 Olympic team, got new sponsorship, got her horse, Annie, back, and recommitted herself to elite equestrian competition and had left Drovers Run to train at an elite training facility in Western Australia in 2010. She won a bronze in eventing at the 2011 National Championships, and continued to improve. She won the Australian National Eventing Championship and Olympic Qualifiers in 2012 and was named to the Australian Olympic Equestrian team. She competed in the London 2012 Olympics for Team Australia, and she rode extremely well, but was edged out for a medal. She finished fourth overall in the individual Eventing competition. Her sisters had supported her every step of the way. Regan and Grace had gone to London and watched her compete as an Olympian. It was an unbelievable sister bonding experience and a memory they all still treasured dearly.

Even though she was still young, especially by equestrian standards, Jaz told Regan and Grace that she didn't have it in her to continue the intense training and the travel required of her sport. She had accomplished her goal of clearing her name of doping and of becoming an Olympian and competing at the highest level. The intense training required for that level of competition was draining and Jaz confided to her sisters she just didn't want to do it anymore. She had accomplished what she had set out to do. She had been forced out of the sport in 2008, but in 2012, she had left on her own terms. Jaz had confided to Regan that she just wanted to be settled somewhere and stay in one place and live her life, see her sisters, and hopefully find someone to share her life and start a family with. Even though she was only twenty-eight, she announced her retirement from equestrian competition at a press conference with her sisters at her side at the podium before leaving London. She had achieved her dream of clearing her name and being an Olympian and was content to stop competing.

All of Gungellan claimed her as their own. She was a McLeod after all. When she came back to Gungellan, they had a huge parade and celebration for her and added her name to the plaque of notable Gungellians outside of town hall. Regan was sometimes still amazed at the fact that her sister had worn the green and gold for team Australia. She had even gone with Jaz to the tattoo parlor and held her hand as Jaz got the five Olympic rings permanently inked on her left ankle before leaving for the London Games.

Regan knew that Jaz had built something at Wilgul that neither she nor Grace could have even imagined. She built a thriving business doing what she loved and was passionate about, and just getting to be a silent partner in it was an honor for Regan.

All of the McLeods knew they owed Tess a great deal of gratitude for figuring out the ownership situation of Drovers Run in a way that everyone felt good about.

By 2011, when Tess returned home to Drovers Run, after her divorce from Nick, the ownership situation of the property had gotten very complicated. Drovers Run meant a great deal to many people, all of whom were deserving. Stevie still had her original 10% share she had bought following Claire's death. Tess still had a 45% share but the final 45% was where things got confusing. It had been Jodi's, but when she was declared legally dead in the witness protection program, Regan and her sisters inherited Jodi's share with each of them having a 15% claim to Drovers, leaving five owners, but when Jodi was able to reassume her identity, no one knew exactly what to do. There was also the question of what to do when Charlotte came of age. They all agreed that Claire McLeod was the original woman of Drovers Run, and her legacy had to be honored with her daughter having a share in the ownership as well.

Regan recognized that each of the McLeod women had played an important role on Drovers Run and kept it going through difficult times. The only specific thing that Tess, Stevie, Grace, Regan, and Jaz could agree on was that Jodi needed to have a stake in Drovers again. She had lived there longer than any of them. It had been her home before anyone else's. The problem was how to split everything up. Should Regan, Grace and Jaz give their shares back to Jodi? They didn't want to do that, they loved Drovers Run. Should they split that 45% between the four of them with each having 11.33%? Should Tess be expected to give up some of her percentage to equal things out? Although all of the women loved each other and didn't want anyone to get hurt, they recognized the problem they had. Things could potentially get very messy and end up in a nasty legal battle. Regan hadn't wanted that, no one had wanted that. Drovers Run was what had brought them all together, and they certainly didn't want it tearing them back apart. Having so many owners to one property had proved to be problematic, but Tess had come up with a solution that actually made everyone feel good. Her solution was Wilgul, and an expansion to what Regan and her sisters and cousins liked to now call the Drovers Empire in Gungellan.

When Alex died, his half of Wilgul went back to Nick, as they had been previously arranged. Nick, in his complete rejection of Australia following Alex's death, decided he wanted no part of Gungellan and signed his share of Killarney over to his nephew, Xander, and all of Wilgul to Tess as part of the divorce settlement. Regan reckoned it was Nick's way of saying sorry for completely rejecting every part of the original plans he and Tess had made and for never bothering to come back and even meet his nephew Xander. Tess became the complete owner of Wilgul and was still the largest minority owner of Drovers Run. She explained to Regan and the rest of the McLeods that she needed her family near her after her heartbreak and divorce, and wanted to find a way to make it happen. She was terrified the ownership question would escalate and tear everyone apart like it had their fathers, Hugh and Jack, and Tess was willing to do almost anything to keep her family together. Regan was so happy they were all able to find a solution.

The idea Tess proposed to Regan and her sisters was this. No messy legal battle, and a fair deal for everyone. Jaz, Regan and Grace give up their 15% shares of Drovers each to Jodi. In exchange for their 15% shares of Drovers, they would each get 33% ownership of Wilgul. Hugh McLeod's daughters would have their own property to do whatever they wanted, it bordered Drovers Run and they could have it to pass on to their children. It was a blank canvas for them to create whatever legacy they want to create. Tess would keep the remaining 1% of Wilgul as a silent partner for more sentimental value than anything else.

Wilgul didn't hold the memories Drovers Run did for Regan, but it was more than double the percentage of ownership for a beautiful piece of land and they could be neighbors with their cousins. Regan also realized that it wasn't just Drovers Run that had brought her so much joy, it was the family connection that had come with Drovers Run that was so important. It was a generous offer that Tess really didn't have to make. Regan knew she and her sisters would likely lose the legal battle for Drovers Run since they only got their shares because Jodi was dead, and since Jodi was actually alive, it would likely revert back to her. That lawsuit would also likely destroy their family relationships in the process. No one wanted that to happen. They had only found each other a few years before. Drovers had brought them together. No one wanted it to tear them apart.

Regan and her sisters accepted Tess's offer, and took possession of Wilgul. Hugh's daughters were content with Wilgul, but a bit overwhelmed to be in it on their own.

Regan realized that the person who had the hardest time accepting the deal was Jodi. She had a hard time accepting her 45% share back from her sister and cousins. It was an incredibly generous thing Tess did, giving up an entire property to bring her sister back as equal owner of Drovers and keep the family from ripping itself apart to give her sister her home back. Regan had eventually convinced Jodi to accept the gift from her sister and she swore to live up to the generosity of Tess and vowed to protect Drovers forever. Tess has told Regan more than once that it was the best possible decision Tess could have made. She would have traded nearly anything to be close to her sister and cousins.

It also gave Regan, Grace and Jaz some major decisions to make. Hugh's daughters realized they weren't quite ready to run their own property. Grace had found that remaining in Gungellan around Marcus and Ingrid was very painful for her. She had always loved Marcus. She had stayed at Drovers for several months, trying to work through her feelings for him, and get over him, but found seeing him everyday was just too hard. She needed space away from him to get over him, so she left Drovers Run in 2009. Regan's heartbroke for her sister whenever she thought about how Grace had sacrificed her own relationship to put Marcus and Ingrid back together. Regan was so happy when Grace met Gavin, fell in love and moved to Perth to be with him. Grace had waited a long time for true love and Regan was so glad she had found it with Gavin. Regan thought her sister seemed happy, but was sad because Grace was the one with the farming experience, she was the one who could have run Wilgul as a cattle farm.

Regan had stayed on Drovers for a while after Xander's first birthday. She and her sisters had grown much closer in 2009 while they all stayed at Drovers together, but once Grace had gone back to the rodeo, and Jax went to train for the Olympics, she was feeling envious of her sisters following their passions. She had stayed on at Drovers with Stevie and Jodi and Matt for a while, but by early 2011, she realized it was her time to go again. She realized she needed to get back to her own passion, geology, and combine it with her new passion for conservation she had developed during her time on Drovers.

She wanted to work on changing mining practices to be more environmentally friendly and didn't want to try to run Wilgul on her own without her sisters. Instead, she took her dream job in Canberra with the Australian Federal Government. She had started as a junior level official in the Department of Mining and Petroleum's Environmental Impact Unit. They were the group incharge of enforcing regulations on new and existing mines designed to limit damage to the environment around the drilling sites. Although she felt the guidelines the mines had to follow were far too lenient, she was happy to at least be doing something positive for the environment. She was proud of the work she did and had worked her way up to become the deputy director of the entire unit. She loved Gungellan, and wanted to always own a piece of it, but she knew she couldn't live there full time, at least not until retirement.

With Regan and Grace both unavailable, that left Jaz to take over Wilgul. In 2011, when it became theirs, she was across the country training for the Olympics. She was not in the position to do anything with it at the time either, but Jaz had known what she wanted to do with it as soon as Tess had made the offer. Wilgul lay sleeping for a few years while Jaz was focused on her athletic career, but she never forgot that Drovers Run had helped her find her love and confidence in riding again. She owed Drovers Run so much. Without it, she would never have accomplished her dreams of being an Olympian or even clearing her name of horse doping. She wanted to do for others what Drovers had done for her. Jaz wanted to help other people achieve their dreams. She was proud to have reached the pinnacle of her sport, and while she didn't want to continue competing, she certainly didn't want to let go of equestrian sports. She had this huge, beautiful property available to her, with terrain that was very varied and excellent for cross country riding, and tons of space for showjumping rings, dressage rings, and room to build stables, and it was next to the place that that helped her find her love of riding again and her confidence as an elite athlete.

Jaz had decided Wilgul would be her post competition life before she even competed in the Olympics. She explained her plan to Regan, and Grace. Jaz wanted to use Wilgul to open an elite equestrian training center like the one she lived at in Western Australia leading up to the Olympics. As shared owners of the land, Regan and Grace would all get a percentage of any profits she made. They were all extremely supportive of the plan. It was the perfect use of Wilgul, and gave Jaz an opportunity to continue her passion for elite equestrian competition.

Regan knew there was another reason for Jaz returning to Gungellan. Ben was still there. Jaz hadn't forgotten him and their time together. Regan remembered seeing Jaz start falling for him for the first time, before she left to focus on her athletics. Jaz was totally smitten with him, and Regan knew, even though they had broken up when she left to train, Jaz hadn't gotten over him by the time she retired from competition. Jaz had confessed that part of the reason Wilgul was her plan was because Ben still lived next door at Killarney.

What Regan found most impressive was that Jaz had followed her heart and became one of the preeminent equestrian coaches in Australia. She used her success in the Olympics and her reputation in the sport and her vast network of contacts within eventing to gain the investors she needed to make the massive renovations the property would need.

On Wilgul, she built top of the line stables to house forty horses, accommodations for ten to fifteen athletes and several other coaches to live and work on the property. She added a state of the art gym, facilities for physio treatments, sports medicine and anything an elite athlete training for the Olympics would need. She also added a pool, a hot tub, and a sauna for the athletes to relax in after tough days of training. It was an intense athletic training regiment, but her athletes had everything they needed to reach their highest levels in the sport. Regan recognized that Jaz had built something incredible for all of them on Wilgul.

Regan knew Jaz could never have done that on Drovers Run, even if Tess, Stevie and Jodi hadn't been there. Drovers Run was meant to be a working cattle farm, anything else would not have been giving it the respect its history and tradition deserved. Regan and Grace would never have approved of clearing the land of the livestock. Wilgul on the other hand, had been a blank canvas for them. Regan knew Jaz considered the deal Tess gave her a Godsend. She got to build something new, something that was 100% her. Something she was incredibly proud of. The construction finished in 2014, and she welcomed her first athletes that fall. She employed four other equestrian coaches, two stable hands, a physical therapist, an athletic trainer, a strength and conditioning coach, a farrier, and a chef. She built a world class training facility from the ground up while managing to maintain respect for the incredible physical beauty of the land.

Jaz turned out to be an even better coach than she was a rider. McLeod Elite Equestrian Training Center or MEETC, was very successful and brought a new prestige to the area.. One of her riders had made the 2016 Australian Olympic team and two more had made the 2020 squad for Tokyo. McLeod's was starting to attract international riders as well, with members of the New Zealand and South African national teams attending as well. Jaz had reached every goal she could have possibly dreamed of professionally, and she was only thirty-six years old. Plenty of riders older than her were still competing, including some of the riders she coached, but Jasmine had no regrets, and Regan was so happy for her sister.

What made Regan most happy was that Jaz's personal dreams were coming together well. When she moved back to Gungellan, Jaz still loved Ben, even while she was far away training for the Olympics, she still missed him. She had tearfully confessed it one night over drinks in London when her events were over and she was out with her sisters. She said they had never told each other they loved each other, but that Jaz did love him, but she knew she had to go away to accomplish her dream, so she didn't tell him before, but she hadn't stopped thinking about him. He had let her go, he didn't put up a fight or ask her to stay. She was glad he didn't fight for her because if he had asked her to, she might have stayed and given up her dream of the Olympics, because she loved him, but if she had stayed, she wouldn't have what she had now.

When she moved back, Regan saw that she and Ben sort of circled each other for a while. They didn't just jump back into a relationship, as neither of them were sure how the other felt and both were afraid that the other person didn't feel the same way. It had been over two years without seeing or speaking with each other. Finally, about three months in, some alcohol was involved and they spent the night staying up talking and watching the sun rise over Wilgul. Ben finally kissed her and made love to her, right there in the meadow, but never actually said he loved her. Regan remembered talking to Jaz on the phone the day after that it had happened. Jaz was so happy it was finally happening with Ben, and she was gushing over him. Jaz finally told him she loved him a month after that, and Ben told her he had loved her from the moment they first got together, but that he knew she was destined to do something great and he didn't want to get in the way of that. He didn't want to hold her back, but only to help her move forward towards her goals. Regan thought it was one of the most romantic things she had heard because it was so sincere and supportive of her sister.