Peet is off to the major equestrian competition with her 14-year-old thoroughbred, Cotton Eye Joe, a former racehorse (Look Away) trained at Corowa by Rick Freyer.

“He’s a bit cheeky, he has a bit of an ego. And he has a diva side – a Beyoncé side, when I call him Josephine,” Peet said.

“He just kind of puffs his chest out like, ‘Is everyone looking at me?’”

It sounds like Joe will lap up the attention as much as Peet, 24, will enjoy the experience.

“It’s the pinnacle of our sport,” she said. “It’s something I’ve been wanting to do for about 12 years.”

Growing up with pony club, Peet soon found herself infatuated with the sport. 

“I went to Harden for a few lessons and had a go at eventing and I thought, I really like this – you get to gallop really fast around the countryside. This is really cool,” Peet said.

She later saw Olympian Heath Ryan on the cover of a magazine as the winner of the Adelaide four-star event. 

“I saw him on the front with a chestnut thoroughbred and I said, I want to go to Adelaide,” Peet said.

“It seems very surreal to be going. It’s only the two-star event but that is the ultimate dream, the four-star.”

Peet is now coached by Ryan and will spend time training at his base near Newcastle in the lead-up to the Adelaide International which starts on November 17. 

Dressage is on the Friday and showjumping on the Sunday, but Saturday’s cross country will be Cotton Eye Joe’s forte.

“Definitely cross country,” Peet said. “We like the other two phases but that’s where we feel most at home. He’s bred to run, not to sing and dance.”