She finished eighth in novice, and fourteenth in elementary to finish just outside the top-10 overall.

Wall reflected on the struggles that Phoenix faced with the long travel, saying it had a big effect on their result.

“In a perfect world it could have gone better,” she said. “When I got home and reflected on it, he (Phoenix) was quite sore on the second day of competition.”

“It was his first time traveling interstate. I probably should have predicted he was going to be sore.”

Despite Phoenix’s shoulder injury, Wall said that he didn’t show any outwards signs of struggle.

“He didn’t seem stressed,” she said. “The reason he was very sore was because he was internalizing his stress.”

“He kept his calm; I wasn’t having to control a tight horse that was trying to go everywhere.”

Wall has been home for two weeks now, and said Phoenix had settled down since the long trip home.

"He’s so much happier now that he’s home,” she said.

“He was very willing to get on the float at the end of the competition.”

Wall now faces the challenge of juggling her riding with her HSC exams. She sat her first exam on Monday, October 16, and has a busy few weeks coming up.

“It’s difficult to juggle both competing and that thought in the back of your mind that exams are coming up,” she said.

“My time management was pretty good, it was just about learning to switch off one or the other.

“When I was studying, I had to force myself to top thinking about riding.”

And although Wall is facing some stress from her exams, it hasn’t stopped her riding in the mean time.

“If I’m really struggling with studying, I’ll go for a little ride around the farm or work on some really basic stuff in the arena,” she said.

“It wasn’t a bad thing to go to Queensland to compete, because it means I get to apply for a lot of special considerations at university.”