Equestrian

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.

Tractors with GPS guidance are now used to run straight furrows in paddocks but in the past, great horses were guided by men with kind and gentle hands to create beautiful plots. This farming heritage is remembered and kept alive every year by ploughing events across the country but the most prestigious of them all is the Golden Plough Championship in NSW, which has been fiercely contested every year since it was first held in 1976.

With the world-famous Tom Quilty Ride only weeks away, the Stirling Endurance Classic in Queensland attracted 178 riders across 10 sections. Stirling’s Crossing Equestrian Complex opened its gates in early 2016 as Australia’s only privately owned, purpose-built endurance facility.

New Zealanders Melissa Galloway, riding her 2022 FEI World Championship horse Windermere J’Obei W, and Wendi Williamson on Don Vito MH dominated the top placings at the Sydney CDI dressage championships. Melissa, a top-class competitor at just 30, won all three elite level tests, finishing with a score of 76.330 per cent in the Freestyle.

Pony club committees come up with some great ideas and Barwon zone’s showjumping series is literally one of the best. The Barwon Equine Showjumping Tournament (BEST) series was started in 2012 by Portarlington, Drysdale Leopold and Barwon Valley Pony Clubs to encourage pony club riders to improve their show jumping skills.

It's easy to talk about the great success of the Adelaide Equestrian Festival and the record crowds of 37,000 at the finale of an amazing event ... Shane Rose has stood on top of the CCI5*podium three times at Adelaide, the first in 2004 then in 2015, but this time with Virgil it was so obviously special, with Shane having a very obvious love for a very brave and talented horse.

The Eagers Shield Polo Tournament got underway last weekend at the Clifton Recreation grounds. Local and visiting players took to the field in what was the first tournament of the Downs Polo Club 2023 calendar.

With big numbers in stud classes at this year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show, spectators had plenty to look at and could admire some of Australia’s finest livestock ... Champion stock horse hack Brandwood Orlando ridden by Cole Moxey with reserve champion Tahnee Sullivan’s Wundurra Impact and judge Sam Davidge ... The black stallion was not only Champion Stock Horse stallion but added the Champion Working ASH, Champion ASH Hack and the Most Versatile ASH Exhibit awards to his show collection.

Para dressage riders have their heads well and truly turned towards Paris next year. At the Dressage Spectacular at Boneo Park last weekend, both Dianne Barnes and Maddison Cooke gained the first of their necessary “minimum eligibility requirement” (MER) for a place on the team.

After completing his apprenticeship in the junior ranks by winning two titles in 2028 an 2019, Tooma-based horseman Travis Bandy has taken out the senior Stockman’s Challenge at this year’s Man From Snowy River Bush Festival. Travis is following in his father Scott’s footsteps, a five-time victor of the prestigious event.

Pony Club Australia congratulates its members selected to compete in the 2023 World Clubs Tournament in France in July 2023. This event is scheduled every year during the French National Championships ... It is one of the largest equestrian gatherings in the world ... Lalwa May was the only NT rider to compete in the last PCA Nationals in 2021 ..

A two-star eventing class has been run for the first time in Tasmania since 2015. It came about as a result of a successful campaign by some promising young event riders on the Victorian circuit in May/June last year, when several riders qualified at two-star level.

When you think of emergency services, the average person thinks of police, fire and ambulance, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. At least 20 organisations qualify for the title and make up those eligible to compete across 45 sporting disciplines at Police and Emergency Services Games held annually across Australia.

Lachie Allen is just four and his big sister Milla is six. When Mila led Lachie to a win on the little white pony Pixie at the recent Equestrian Festival at Warragul, there was hardly a dry eye in the house ... “On the day Milla kept saying how proud of Lachie she was and kept reminding him to sit straight like a soldier, point his toes to the stars and look up."

I haven't enjoyed a book more for ages. I am deep into Wild Ride, The story of the Australian Stock Saddle by Fiona Carruthers and have no hesitation in recommending that horse lovers or anyone interested in Australian history should go out and buy a copy today. Calling it magnificent doesn’t even come close.