Narrabri trio competes at Pony Club NSW events

Narrabri and District Pony Club trio Eliza Dampney and Kate and Hannah Partridge recently competed at Pony Club NSW’s State Formal Gymkhana Championships, representing Zone 5 Pony Club.

The championships, which were held at Denman in March this year, include the top 100 Pony Club riders who travel to represent their zones from all over NSW in age groups from eight-years to 25-years.

The Narrabri trio competed in three disciplines at the Formal Gymkhana, including show riding, sporting and show jumping.

Riders earn points for their placings, and the champion in each age group is the rider that achieves the highest overall point score.

Eliza and Kate narrowly missed out on being crowned reserve champion at the event after both placed third overall in their respective age groups.

Eliza and her horse Junefield Finarlee finished third in the overall point score in the 15-and-under-17-years age group. Eliza placed second in the state for the flag race, took out third in the riding class and pleasure hack class, and also placed third in the bending race and the three mug race.

Kate and her horse Nandeye Fame (Floss) placed third overall in the 13-and-under-15-years age group point score after finishing first in the state in the three mug race, placing second in the junior C-grade jump, finishing fourth in the barrel race and finishing fifth in the flag race and bareback.

Hannah and her horse Cactus placed seventh overall in the under-13 age group point score after she took out first in the state for the junior D-grade jump and finished fourth in the pleasure hack and flag race.

Eliza also lined up at the Pony Club NSW State Sporting, Campdrafting and Team Penning Championships, which were held at Coonamble from Saturday, April 9, to Monday, April 11.

That event also included an interstate team from Queensland.

The Sporting Championships is made up of seven sporting events.

Competitors achieve points for their placings in each age group for each event based on individual times, and the champion for each age group has the highest accumulated points.

The bending race, flag race and three mug race also have finals, where the fastest five competitors in each age group for each event race against each other.

Eliza and Junefield Finarlee were in fine form at the state event.

They won the bend race in the 15-and-under-17 age group with an impressive time of 11.86 seconds.

They went on to win the final, which saw them place first in the state in the 15-and-under-17 bend race.

Their other placings were fifth in the sporting figure of eight and eighth in both the flag race and the three mug race, and they finished ninth in the overall point score for the 15-and-under-17 years age group.

The club and the team thanked the hosts of each of the championships events for what were great weekends despite the wet conditions.