Joanna Tucker, Yorke Peninsula Country Times

Maitland 16-year-old equestrian Kate Mahar represented Australia on the world stage last month.

She placed 12th from a field of 16 at the 2024 Youth World Reining Cup in Avare, Brazil.

Winner was Thea Maschalani from Germany.

Ms Mahar was Australia’s only representative, and said her favourite moments were making connections with other young riders in the competition lead-in.

“It was a big responsibility, but the pressure to do well wasn’t too bad,” she said.

“By the time the show came around, it became more about the connections with other riders than the actual competition.”

Riders drew names out of a hat to determine which horses (provided by Brazilian ranches) they would ride; Ms Mahar said she was not lucky with her selection.

The riders then had four days before the competition to become familiar with their mounts.

“It was a lot of trial and elimination to try and work out what worked,” Ms Mahar said.

The sport involved a lot of body control and elegance, she said.

“In a lot of other riding disciplines, there’s not a lot of connection but with reining it’s about being connected with your horse and making it look pretty, but without pulling on your horse’s face.

“It’s more about working together as a team, which I really enjoy.”

Ms Mahar said, because the sport isn’t widespread in Australia, she had a Queensland-based coach, Scott Burnett.

“Because he lives on the other side of the country, we have a system at home which is kind of like Zoom.

“Once a week we do an hour lesson, and we’ve done that for the past three years.”

Ms Mahar said she hoped to go to college (university) in the United States through the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association, which provided equestrian competition for college students.

“Hopefully I can get into a program over there and join an athletics team and do reining through that.

“They do all kinds of riding, and they compete every two weeks, school versus school.

“It’s huge over there.”

This article appeared in Yorke Peninsula Country Times, 3 September 2024.