Topic: Passion & Purpose

An introduction to Candy

Candida Baker's first job at 18 was understudying Judi Dench. "I wanted to be a famous actress," she says, "and now I'm just grateful I never had to go on for Judi!"

A theatre trip with the Royal Shakespeare Company brought her to Australia when she was 20, and two years later she emigrated to Australia. Upon arriving she covered the Sydney Car Rally event for the London Times. This became the start of a long career as a writer and journalist, a career that's been combined with a deep and abiding love for horses. "I remember the first time I sat on a horse when I was 18 months olds I cried for hours when they took me off," she recalls.

That passion also gave her grand adventures: working for a showjumper in France, riding her way around the world and finding herself drawn into the world of horse rescue. 40 years later Candy, The Horse Listener, has rescued hundreds of horses and now runs an equine charity, Equus Alliance. Over the years she has also become an equine therapist with expertise in dealing with trauma (in humans and horses). She and her husband moved – with Candy's herd of five mares – to Invergowrie in April 2025 from the Northern Rivers where she'd lived for 21 years

As a journalist Candy was editor of The Weekend Australian Magazine for six years, and writes and reviews regularly for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Her books include two novels, Women and Horses and The Hidden, a book of short stories, The Powerful Owl, the seminal non-fiction series, Yacker, Australian Writers Talk About Their Work and a memoir, The Heart of a Horse, published in 2021. Her third novel, Light and Shadow, will be published in November 2025.