The REA Wagga Wagga Horse Trials held their biggest event to date in Narrandera last weekend.

The competition boasted 268 starters on the day from all over Australia including Albany (WA), Mornington Peninsula (Vic), the Central Coast, Sydney and locals from throughout the region.

Organiser Hunter Doughty of Wagga Wagga, said it was great to see people travel so far to take part in the event.

“It was probably the best and definitely the biggest event we’ve had,” Doughty said.

“I recived an email this morning from some people whom we didn’t realise had travelled from Yamba who had come to an event two years and had decided to travel down again because of how good it was. They said, this one was even better.

“We also had some fairly high profile riders come up from Melbourne who had never been here either and they were saying they would certainly be back again next year, which is always good feedback to hear.”

With 268 entrants, it made for a weekend of great competition during the dressage and show jumping competition on Saturday followed by cross country on the Sunday.

There were eleven different classes competitors could enter into and five different courses for each to ride.

In the Jenquine CCN1*-S, Magic Margot Tae ridden by Teegan Ashby came in first with a second in dressage, first in Cross Country and a Show Jumping time of 89.00.

Sahara Heat ridden by Evie Kamevaar claimed first place in the Jenquine CCN2*-S despite a seventh place in dressage as she came first in cross country and had a show jumping time of 97.00.

Eleanor Miller and her horse Kaloona Beattie Bow came first in the Junee Prime Lamb 95-A (EvA 95-A) with a fifth in dressage, first in cross country and a showjumping time of 85.00.

Isabel Widdison also had an impressive weekend with her horse Weemala Zodiac as they placed second in dressage, first in cross country and a time of 83.00 for show jumping (EvA65-B).

Other first place winners included Talulah Grant riding Lyrical Firecracker (EvA50), Natalie Blundell riding Quality Kraken (EvA95-B), Fern Dredge on Pteridium Aquilinium (EvA80-A), Tania Harding riding The Rookie (EvA80-B) and Amanda Kennett on Carwyn Argyle (EvA65-A).

For the juniors, Sasha Toepfer came in first with her horse Dancing Searra (EvA65-J) and Zoe Willis also came in first with her horse Black Boots (EvA80-Junior).

“All in all, it was a successful and well enjoyed weekend for those who gather for the trials with only the show jumping surface causing a slight issue,” said Doughty.

“We did discover that it was a lot of work on the day because the actual show jumping surface fell apart because of the amount of traffic and the bigger horses,” he said.

“That was important for us to learn because we had intended to go up a grade and jump even better fences next year but if we can’t get our show jumping surface worked out, it will be a limiting factor.

“Its an expensive operation to do for anyone but hopefully the local ouncil can help us apply for some grants and give us some local knowledge on managing that sandy soil.”

Doughty also hopes that the event continues to pique the interest of people in the region to take up equestrian sports as many of the Australian medallists originated from regional and rural areas.

“Hopefully we’ve got a few more Australian representatives that will grow out of this,” he said.

“We’ve certainly got a long history of helping Australian representatives develop”¦ lots of them started around country areas like us.”  

This article appeared in the  Narrandera Argus, 17 August 2023.