Fran Cleland, The Regional

Spring is in the air and with the Olympic dressage watched and rewatched, inspiration has flourished. New, young horses and ponies are out and about in the dressage arenas all around the country. Boneo Park’s August competition held over two days had it all.

Phoebe Roche has been chosen as part of the eight-person team to compete at the 2024 Virtus Open European Equestrian Championships in the UK ... It's been a long road for Phoebe and her mother, Shaneen ... Shaneen sold her car and organised sausage sizzles and garage sales meaning Phoebe will be able to compete.

The dressage world is bubbling with excitement with the Olympic Games just weeks away and the final CPEDI qualifier in Australia begins this weekend at the Hawkesbury Dressage Festival at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre. Once this is done, the selectors and EA high performance people will get their heads together to choose the teams.

The 2024 Adelaide Equestrian Festival has again lived up to the hype, with record-breaking crowds and some of the finest displays of horsemanship in the country on show ... David Middleton had an event to remember, winning the International CCI5* on his homebred WEC In The Money after winning the event at Gawler 24 years ago.

While the big, elite events like Dressage and Jumping with the Stars and the Sydney Royal Easter Show were in full swing, the youngsters who could possibly feature in those events in the future were planning an assault on the Victorian State Mounted Games Championships.

The Sydney Royal Easter Show’s breed classes have again provided a highlight for spectators as the best of the best go under the judges’ eyes.

If ever a pony club could lay a claim to having produced famous riders, it’s Emu Creek. Four former members of the Victorian Western District club — Wayne, Barry and Clarke Roycroft and Phillipa Glennen — have become Olympians ... Pony club parents don’t seem to mind travelling, and the event drew competitors from across the state.

Mackenzie Walch, 18, has only been riding seriously since 2014 but the talented young eventer has just represented her country for the first time ... With eventing as her first love, she rose through the ranks and is now part of a group of young Tasmanian riders who find it necessary each year to compete on the mainland to get strong competition experience.

The Gypsy Cob is one of the “new” breeds being seen in Australian show rings in recent years. Their history is based in the Romani culture. As their work horses and living with the Romani families, they developed a strong work ethic and equitable temperament. They were so cherished by their owners that the saying was that “gypsy gold does not clink and glitter, it gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark”.

Welsh ponies seem to bloom in March, with NSW leading the way, followed by the Victorian show later in the month. The 2024 NSW All Welsh Show was held at the Hawkesbury Showground, Clarendon, which is just west of Sydney before the Blue Mountains.