Equestrian

Peter Hibberd. To be inducted into Racing Victoria’s jockey program is a dream for many aspiring jockeys. To win at your first race ride and join a very elite club, that is something else. Last Friday at the Donald racing centre all these dreams were realised when 25-year-old apprentice jockey Sarah Field won her first race at her first ride on the aptly-named Field Of Flutes.

Jessica Rea. Cambooya’s Dan O’Leary and his pony Nelkie were two of the stars of the Cooke O’Leary Cup, a polo competition hosted by the Downs Polo Club in Clifton last weekend.The champion off the track pony prize, sponsored by Edwards Saddleworld Toowoomba, was awarded to Nelkie, owned and played by O’Leary.

The Show Horse Council of Australasia’s NSW/ACT Youth Development and Championship Showcase was a brilliant idea, executed perfectly. Held at the Hawkesbury Showgrounds and designed be a youth development program as well as a qualifying event for the Grand National Show, it offered something for every young rider.

From Nobby to Westbrook and everywhere in between, locals ventured out west last Saturday for the first ever Pittsworth Pro Rodeo. The rodeo was a raging success, with more than 3,500 people through the gates and top class action as well as local juniors delighting an all-ages crowd.

When the show scene goes into hibernation over winter in the southern states, the Northern Territory springs into action. The NT has an active show horse community and several top-class shows are run during the dry season, including the Darwin Show Horse Club's State Show Horse and Riding Championships that has just been held at the Darwin Showgrounds.

Carl and Marcy Agnew have been  publicans  at the Dog n Bull Hotel in Bonalbo for almost a year ... No one told him about the Bonalbo Bonanza Campdraft tradition. The one where the horses come into the pub.

The dreams of four young Australian riders came true when they lined up to compete in the Global Amateur Tour held at Quintas Equestrian Centre near Puebla in Mexico ... It is a two-star FEI event that includes international riders on borrowed mounts and local riders on their own horses.

The Milang Horse Trials in South Australia provided competitors with a great weekend, even though the weather gods threw everything at them ... Horse trial classes were run from EA 95, where the winner in the senior section was Jayden Coates and Deltoi rising from fourth after dressage.

Watching the Let’s Rein Jackpot Show held at Elmore Equestrian Park recently I began to understand why one of the most decorated dressage riders of all time took up the discipline ... In reining, each pattern includes small slow circles, large fast circles, flying lead changes, roll backs over the hocks and 360 degree spins – all much the same movements as dressage, just with different names.

A farmer from New Zealand has won Australia’s most famous endurance ride, the Tom Quilty Gold Cup, completing the 160km course in the third fastest time in the event’s history. Ashley Cole, riding the nine-year-old Arabian stallion Tonki Dee Boo Novak, crossed the finish line at Stirling's Crossing, Imbil, Queensland, at the eight hour, 44 minute-mark, just a minute ahead of Catherine Bailey and Razorback Targaryen in second place.

The Bidgee Big Bash Jackpot was held for the second time recently, running at the Narrandera Rodeo Grounds. The event is run by the Team Roping Association and attracted competitors from all over NSW as well as South Australia and Victoria.

When we wrote about how crosses with the magnificent heavy horse breed the Clydesdale were the quiet achievers in the horse world last week, we were very quickly shown just how popular and much loved they are.

The last of the foal shows are done for the year, the royal show horses have a few more weeks rest before the earnest work begins and it’s the quietest time of the year for most horse people. It’s an opportunity to catch up on some reading by the fire while the wind blows cold, or while seated on a 12-hour plane flight – do we revisit some old favorites or go and find something new to read?

The Clydesdale horse is so often referred to in Australia as the “horse that built a nation” and it’s true. Australians have a great affection for the great horses of Scotland and the breed has graced the paddocks and show rings of Australia for more than 100 years ... They have crossed very well with other breeds and are very much the quiet achievers in the sport world.

Australian dressage riders Andrew Driffield, Sarah Sherwood and Sui Watts have won the team gold medal at the Virtus Global Games in Vichy, France. They followed their victory up the next day with two more gold medals and a silver in the individual competitions.

Now in its 11th year, the Scenic Rim Clydesdale Spectacular happens over the weekend of June 17 and 18 at Boonah. It is the richest Clydesdale Show in the Southern Hemisphere, where the grand champions of the breed are judged, the heritage of the breed is shared, and the history of the breed in Australia is toasted.

Mountain and Moorland ponies may be native to the British Isles but there is a healthy population growing in Australia. New promotional group Mountain and Moorland (M&M) Australia has taken on the job of raising awareness of the breeds in this country and recently combined with two other breed societies to run the Victorian Winter Fair at Tatura.

When we look at the Australian teams competing for us at the Olympics and world championships, older riders feature prominently. Fair enough, because with age comes experience, but times are changing and many other country’s Olympic teams are far younger than ours ... in all Olympic disciplines, there is beginning to be a changing of the guard.

It was a record year for Naracoorte Horse trials with 244 entries that saw riders from Victoria and Tasmania joining the South Australians. It’s the only event in the world that has run consecutively for 49 years on the same property with the same landowners and is a real favourite with young riders and young horses.

Autumn is the time of year that breeders start bringing in the foals born last season and assessing the development of those from the previous year. Foal shows provide an opportunity to not only give the youngsters some ring experience, but for the humans to meet up and have a natter as well.