The 2017 Pony Club Combined State Championships held at Gravesend over the weekend were an outstanding success.
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More than 300 riders and visitors from all over NSW and QLD attended the championships, including a number of officials from Pony Club NSW who were impressed with the outstanding facilities and quality of the venue.
“They were really happy and impressed with the show that was put on,” Gravesend Pony Club president Dan van Velthuizen said. “They certainly indicated that we’d host another major event at state level in a few years.”
Zone 8 riders did exceptionally well across all three disciplines of sporting, camp drafting and team penning.
Gravesend Pony Club riders in particular had great success, with 14 of the 17 competitiors receiving ribbons.
A standout performer in the under 11 age group was William Barwick (riding Cherry) who finished third overall in NSW in the sporting division.
Other strong performers in this age group included William Boland, Os van Velthuizen, Molly Armstrong, Lola Barwick, Sam Doolin and Pip Schoupp who all claimed ribbons in their events.
In the under 13 age group, ribbons were awarded to Liliana Reardon, Molly Smith, Alexandra O’Brien, Emily Mills, Rose Malone, Rachel Makim and Matilda Barwick.
The under 15 age group was hotly contested with Zone 8 riders, Madeline Armtrong, Jacqueline Coombes, Bella Reardon, Chloe Makim and Amy Egan among the best in NSW.
Jessica Towns managed an eighth place in the bending race in the associate group.
Although there were a few falls in the flag event, Mr van Velthuizen put it down to moisture still in the ground from the recent rain, not the quality of the facilities, which he said were in perfect condition.
“You get that whenever you’re riding hard; turning horses at flat top speed, falls can happen,” he said. “We had quite a lot of rain on [the ground] and there was just a bit of moisture on the surface when we put the sand down.
“The people manning the event were really conscious of raking the sand in between each event and making sure the surface was acceptable. None of the officials at state level had an issue with it.”
Mr van Velthuizen would like to thank Johnstone Concrete for donating the sand to put over the arenas.
“The Gravesend Pony Club was incredibly proud to host such a prestigious event and has indicated its strong desire to host similar events in the future,” Mr van Velthuizen said. “The committee consists of many hard-working people who thoroughly enjoy continually working to provide horse sport events for their children.”
The event also brought considerable business to the area with hotels and motels in Gravesend and Warialda booked out during the event.