News

NEWS 17/06/2010

If you missed Kingston, there is another event at Ayr Hill, Berwick, Melway Map 131 H10, on the 5th December 2010.

There will be a full harness programme, plus a number of classes for the novice driver, horse and pony.

Once again the grounds are beautiful, with plenty of space for working your animals and lots of room for parking. It is quiet and a great opportunity
to come along and show a new pony without having to worry about noise from the usual 'things' at shows. Of course the programme caters for the experienced harness person too.

Incidently, both these events, Kingston and Ayr Hill are accepted as qualifications for Melbourne Royal.

A detailed programme will be available later in the year. Please do not hesitate to contact John on 03 5943 2578 or Marj on 03 5627 6171 for a
programme to be forwarded to you. We will also be uploading to the website once finalised.

Melbourne and Adelaide Royals are just around the corner.

Adelaide starts on the 3rd of September 2010 and goes to the 11th. The entries for Adelaide have closed and the harness judge will be
Mrs Di Strachan from NSW.

A number of our members have entered for Adelaide, so we wish them well and look forward to hearing all the news from SA.

Melbourne Royal entries close on the 18th of June and the show starts on the 18th September and finishes on the 28th. There is prize money
this year so that is a bonus.

The harness judge will be Mr Laurie Grimer from NSW. Once again some of our members will be competing. Good Luck to them.

As Winter starts to really bite, now is the time to take extra care of the older horse/pony. Make sure they are well fed and that they have access to shelter. A waterproof rug is always a good idea especially for the older animals. Teeth are most important and can easily be overlooked.
If teeth are not good, he will waste a lot of feed when he really needs as much as he can get - within reason!

We look forward to seeing new faces at our coming events and if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact John or Marj on the
above numbers.

UPDATES

Starting in January, Boyd Exell, the current world champion four in hand driver, held a clinic at Woodend on the weekend of the 30th and 31st.
Boyd is from Bega in NSW, but currently lives in the UK.
Each lesson was for 3/4 of an hour and he was fully booked for the 2 days. A couple of our members attended and found his instruction and down to earth manner extremely helpful.

On the 21st March, we held the Barastoc Championships at Kingston Showgrounds. Our entries were up on last years and the weather was good,
making it a great day of competitions. You can see some lovely photos of the day in our photos section.
The Supreme Champion went to Shepherds Hill Jasper owned by Evanne Chessan.
Champion Non-Hackney Pony was Navahar Fontaine owned by Marj Walter and Reserve Pony was Prickle Bush Blackberry owned by Tina Marshall.
It was pleasing to see competitors from South Australia. They were both in the winners circle on and off all day. Both competitors took home
broad ribbons, making their long trip well worthwhile.
Two of our judges, who came from NSW, were very impressed with the standard and presentation of the competitors.
It was good to see some new faces and what an opportunity to get a young horse/pony out. We are hoping to run another event at Kingston
again next year.