Campdrafting is one of the biggest equestrian sports in the New England and local Glen Innes riders reaped the rewards when the pinnacle event on the calendar made its way to town.
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The Australian Bushmen's Campdraft and Rodeo Association brought their National Championship Campdraft and Rodeo to Glen on the weekend and it was the locals who found themselves among the winners.
Committee secretary Fiona Meyer took the champion honours in the ladies draft, Mollie Cave won the junior draft while Tom Matthewson claimed the juvenile category.
Campdraft committee president John Matthewson said it was a huge event with hotly contested competition and an exciting rodeo on Saturday night.
“It has been a massive program and heaps of competitors,” he said.
“I think we had around 1500 runs in our first round plus finals so we have done about 1700 competitive runs – we used about 2000 cattle.
“It was very successful, we had competitors from as far away as Wodonga in Victoria up to Casino, people from Warren, Coonamble, we had competitors from Dubbo, Gin Gin in Queensland and we had some judges from Chinchilla.
“We ran a junior rodeo and an open rodeo, of which was huge.
“I would estimate we could have had 400-500 people here [Saturday] night at the rodeo.
“It was probably the biggest weekend we have every run here and been rather successful so financially it should be a good result for the showground.”
It’s no surprise a host of local riders ended up in the prizemoney with the region blessed with a huge amount of campdrafting events week-in, week-out throughout the warmer part of the year.
While many other competitors spend hours and hours on the road, New Englanders are lucky enough to have competitions right on their doorstep.
“If you like campdrafting, the New England area is a pretty good place to be positioned really,” Matthewson said.
“Our main secretary Fiona Meyer won the ladies draft, my son Tom won the juvenile draft, Mollie Cave won the junior draft.
“Out of six or seven programmed events Glen Innes people won three and plenty of local people finalled and placed.
“If you’re going to campdraft, this is the place to do it.”
Winners:
Open- Kell Constable on Tassas Little Destiny
Encouragement Draft- Andrew Kelly on Hush
Signature Floats Shoot Out- Troy Palmer on Jabell Shekera Spin
Celtic Cup Open for Open- Townsend Curtin
Ladies draft- Fiona Meyer
Maiden Draft- Peter Grills on Lipstick.
Juvenile Campdraft- Tom Matthewson
Novice- Cal Gibson on Reflection
Junior Draft - Mollie Cave