Equestrian

The Australian Dressage Championships at Boneo Park had so many highlights it’s hard to know where to start. With the Olympic Games looming it was great to see scores over the 70 per cent mark, which has been a sticking point for so long.

Quill. Who said Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky? It certainly wasn’t for Donald’s Annual P & A Show, which opened its gates on Friday for two days of fun for the whole family ... Of particular interest, and new to the Donald Show was Stewart Bryant’s literally cracking performance.

The Harcourt Pony Club in Central Victoria is not one of the biggest in the state but certainly one of the most innovative and thoughtful. It realises that in addition to teaching children the basics of how to ride and look after their horse, pony club also needs to challenge young minds and be fun.

The Ranch Horse Association of Australia’s first Versatility Ranch Show at Benalla was a success for competitors and enjoyable for spectators ... In ranch riding, riders ran a combination of patterns one and eight, with modified walk/trot patterns for the green rider and equestrians with disabilities (EWD) classes.

Many know Dianne Barnes as the successful para dressage rider, but there is so much more to the story. With the Paris Olympics less than a year away, Dianne and her mount Sorena are on a path to compete on the para dressage team, but this is just the latest chapter in a varied and successful riding career.

The Royal Melbourne show has drawn to close after 10 days of competition distinguished by some excellent judging across the Horses in Action program. Without exception, the judges were knowledgeable and fair and placings were well deserved.

The red dust at Barellan is a long way from the sparkling water of a pool but former Olympic swimming champion Shane Gould was taking a keen interest in the sound of a single furrow plough slicing through the clay at the Barellan Good Old Days Festival at the weekend ... She was a keen spectator at the single furrow ploughing completion on Sunday at Barellan, drawing heavy horse and bullock teams.

Call me old fashioned, but I miss the old days when breed day opened Royal Melbourne show, with eight rings around the big arena. The giant Clydesdales were the pride of the show and led every parade, with the supreme champion at the front ... This year, just 35 of Australia’s favourite heavy horses were on show when once there would have been hundreds.

The fact that an El Nino has finally been declared might seem a distant problem to many horse people. While the natural weather pattern originating in the Pacific Ocean does not necessarily lead to drought, parts of the country such as Gippsland and in NSW near Dubbo have been experiencing very dry conditions for some time.

Fine weather, perfect surface and capacity fields combined with good organisation made for Geelong Showjumping Club’s two-day Spring Classic a top-class event.

Wentworth Agricultural Show has a long and decorated history. The town, located in the far south west of NSW at the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers, has run its show since 1885 with a charter “to promote the breed and quality of stock”.

The Pony Club Victoria’s Ride to Time final held at Moonee Valley was a huge thrill for the 20 young riders who qualified in trials across the state. They got to gallop on the hallowed turf where the world-famous Cox Plate is run and rubbed shoulders with the elite jockeys Greg Childs and Michelle Payne.

Rossanne Mason is not only a horse lover but an astute business woman as well. She was one of the first to see the expanding interest in dressage ponies and with her own Riding Pony stallion Penmain Posh and the imported Dutch Riding Pony stallion Triple Trees Prince Perfect bred a number of high-quality ponies performing in Australia and New Zealand.

It's easy to go to a big horse event and admire the beauty and talent of the horses, the elegant riders, the enormous size of the fences jumped, but what people should really be looking at and applauding are the volunteers who have made it all possible. These events don’t just happen and unfortunately it is getting harder each year to find the people who are willing to put the time in behind the scenes to ensure the sport we love to participate in and watch continues.

The Interschools Show Jumping series was started in Victoria in 2008 to promote the sport in the school community over courses designed by professionals at safe, purpose-built venues. In 2023, the series celebrated its 15th year with more than 200 schools represented at the three shows.

Bullockies from around Australia will compete for the prestigious Teamsters Trophy while goats in harness will vie for the inaugural Little Teamsters Trophy at the 2023 Good Old Days Festival at Barellan in southern NSW on September 30 - October 1. The festival is the nation’s largest gathering of draught animals working in harness as they did on Australian farms over a century ago.

Fans of the Thoroughbred would have been excited to see more than 200 ex-racehorses competing at the Friends of Werribee Park Horse Trials at all levels last weekend ... The great popularity of horse trials shows that it’s not only the high flyers looking for sporting glory who participate.

Quill. It would appear that in my enthusiasm for everything equine, I'm gathering a collection of Coffeys! There is often mention in my regular race reports of thoroughbred trainer Austy Coffey, and his son, Harry, a successful jockey, both based in Swan Hill, but regularly attending the Donald and District Race Club meetings ... This time my equine adventures led me a little closer to home, with a visit to one of the local Coffey horsemen, Ted, who took me for a tour of Birchip like I’ve never had before.

When a stud’s open day attracts a crowd big enough to rival a rock concert, you know it’s going to be great. The attention to detail at Future Farms’ open day and sale on Saturday was perfect, as you would expect from internationally successful trainers Kate and Doyle Dertell and their children Kody and Jessica.

The Carriage Driving Ashes – a collaboration between the UK and Australia, with identical competitions held over identical courses in NSW and Wales – has been won by Australia, with five wins to Britain’s three. The event was the brainchild of British driver Julia Liles, who said “sometimes you just have to go a bit maverick to see what happens”.