Owen Matthews

Owen ‘Doc’ Matthews’ dressage displays set to music captured the imagination of thousands of Royal Melbourne Show visitors in the decade between 1965 and 1975. Together, Doc and his horse, Aintree Boy, wowed crowds with their extraordinary display of precision and elegance that exemplified how deep the understanding between humans and horses can be.

Born in inner-city Melbourne in 1923, Doc had a rough start in life. He grew up in an orphanage in Geelong and was captured by the Japanese in Singapore during World War 2. Doc was a tough character, however, and survived these experiences.

Doc had no childhood experience of attending the Royal Melbourne Show, but he learnt to ride as a teenager whilst working on a farm in Beeac in Victoria’s Western District. It was here that his passion for riding was brought to life. He joined the mounted police in time to be part of the mounted escort for the 1954 visit of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh. Doc was still in the police force when he acquired his horse, Aintree Boy, whose previous owner found him uncontrollable. ‘So he gave me the horse and I brought him home, and within about three months he was going along lovely. All he wanted was a bit of thought.’

Doc had an extraordinary rapport with the horse and together they started to work on their famous dressage demonstration. The combination of precision riding and music proved a thrilling and, at times, emotional performance. The music started, the spotlights came on and Doc, immaculate in top hat and tails, would enter the main arena on Aintree Boy. Here they would work through a remarkable routine of dressage manoeuvres to popular songs such as Born Free, Love is Blue, La Mer and What a Wonderful World. Frank Sinatra’s My Way provided the dramatic finale, the song’s sentiment echoing Doc’s own feelings about how he had lived his own life.

Aintree Boy always held a very special place in Doc’s heart long after the horse had gone: ‘…when we got it right he was beautiful, and the crowds loved it. Aintree Boy, I'll never forget him’.

Apart from his renown with the musical dressage demonstration, Doc was also a winner of the Gentleman Rider competition. Doc passed away in 2013.