SHE makes jokes about not getting Botox, prepared for the big day with a ''very late'' night and ''a few drinks'', and says she is 15 years older than any of her competitors in this year's Garryowen equestrienne event at the Royal Melbourne Show.
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She rode a $500 horse, from the East Gippsland mountains, instead of a thoroughbred costing tens of thousands of dollars, and she wore the same costume as when she first competed in the Garryowen back in 1981.
Not once did she mention ''key indicators'' or ''KPIs'' in her acceptance speech yesterday, but Sara Love, 47, clearly surpassed many performance benchmarks nevertheless. Mrs Love beat a field of 33 to win the most prestigious equestrienne event in Australia, known simply as ''The Garryowen''.
Yesterday's competition, her third attempt, couldn't have been more different to her first try nearly 30 years ago. Then, she was just 18 and on a horse that couldn't help but misbehave.
''It was disastrous, absolutely disastrous,'' she recalled. ''I think I'm the only person to ever pull the cane in the Garryowen, and gave him about four of the best and on we went.''
But the judges weren't impressed, giving her five out of 40 for ''manners and paces'' and five out of 50 for riding, landing her in last place.
Once out of her teens, Mrs Love concentrated on golf tournaments. On the fairways she climbed through the ranks, slashing her handicap to two and representing Victoria. But her lifelong love of horses couldn't be denied and she became serious about competing again a few years ago. At her second attempt at the Garryowen, last year, she got a sniff of the title when she came third.
This year she won on her gelding Tulloch Ard, a horse who came at a bargain price.
''Dad bought him when he was seven months old, in a paddock in the mountains in East Gippsland. And he saw him galloping across the paddock with his mother and offered the bloke five hundred bucks and there he is,'' she said, minutes after winning the title.
''Everyone said you'll never win the Garryowen on a Clydey cross. He's half Clydesdale, so this is one for the horse-drawn people.'' Tulloch Ard's father was a Clydesdale and his mother a thoroughbred mare.
''He's just a treasure,'' she said. ''He can be really naughty, but he's just gorgeous. Tulloch Ard, God love you. I can't believe that he's going to go down in the book, it's just amazing.''
Mrs Love and Tulloch Ard go ''in the book'' with style, recording a bumper score of 38 out of 40 for ''manners and paces'', 49 out of 50 for riding ability, and a total of 179 out of 200.
