Poseidon Moon

12,397 kilometres and still going strong Poseidon Moon and Frances Overheu - a true endurance partnership

Poseidon Moon was accepted into the AERA Hall of Fame on 8 October 2023 on nomination by  WAERA. 

Born on a full moon in Oct 2000 he was an ugly, gangly, misshapen little foal - all head and legs - but  the family loved him to bits. His mother, Bella, had done a bit of dressage in the past but was now just  ridden as a bush hack around the farm. She was a lovely, gentle and placid horse and it was a joint  family decision to have a foal by her. So, being an endurance rider, Frances sent her off to Silmaril  Chand - one of WA’s best Arabian endurance stallions. 

Poseidon Moon (aka Homer) spent the first 4 years of his life running free and in his fifth year, he was  broken in and started his endurance career.  

Fifteen years later, in 2020, he and Frances attained their final goal and retired gracefully from the  sport. He had achieved a total point score of over 1,000 points. This made him the AERA Top Points  Horse of all time, not just in Western Australia, but over all of Australia, across all State and weight  divisions. He retired at 1005.75 points. He may never be beaten. 

In a sport where the partnership between horse and rider is of the upmost importance, Poseidon Moon  and Frances shared a special partnership. No one else ever rode him. Frances (71 years old) began  her career in Endurance in 1995, clocking up over 16,000kms. 

Of the 137 rides Poseidon Moon entered, he completed 127 of them. Of the 127 he won 84 of them  and placed in all but 14. He clocked up 73 best conditioned awards.  

Frances says he was a tough, stoic (with a capital ‘S’) little horse with an ‘A’ for attitude. On any ride,  he got on with the business of endurance but acted like a tourist sometimes - stopping dead in his  tracks to take in a particularly interesting view or if he smelt water nearby. And getting on with the  business of endurance meant sometimes galloping flat tack up the occasional steep hill in a very un endurance like fashion! 

Over the years he became competitive, and so wore a red ribbon. Right from the start Frances allowed  him to be curious and was never big on being over disciplining. This may well have made him the  horse he became. 

He became a well-seasoned horse, with an absurdly low heart rate (Frances didn’t even own a heart  rate monitor) and he was so relaxed in the vet ring he was known to fall asleep! 

It is fortunate that he was well-seasoned because when riding him at home his ‘A’ for attitude came to  the fore and the ‘S’ for stoic changed to ‘S’ for stubborn. In fact, sometimes if he was in the mood he  just stopped and walked backwards and there was nothing Frances could do. (At moments like that she realised she might just be paying the price for his lack of disciplining!). Because he lived in a 4,000- acre paddock, when it was time for a feed Frances would jump into the car and go to find him. As part  of his ‘training’ regime she would turn the car around and call him, driving at 40kph back to the yards,  Poseidon Moon and his companion racing her there. 

Frances always insisted that she was not particularly competitive but what do you do when your horse  goes like the wind and is competitive! She loved endurance because it’s a sport where you don’t have  to compete, only complete, and setting your own goals is what it’s all about.  

Frances often wonders if his success stemmed from the fact that his microchip number ends in 747! Or  maybe his toughness can be attributed to the fact that he lives in a 4,000 acre bush paddock and has  never even seen a stable! It could be his lack of disciplining. It could be his breeding. Or maybe it’s  just pure and utter luck. Whatever it is, he is truly a living legend - and still going strong!