Contributed by RICKY LOOTEN

The Coonamble Campdraft and Challenge held their annual event over the weekend of the 24-27th of march.

The weather went as per usual for this event very wet and windy for the best part of 3 days. This didn’t dampen the spirits with competitors travelling from as far away as Winton in QLD to test their horsemanship skills against the best.

A massive thankyou to all sponsors from the major sponsor “Great Northern Tanks” right through to all our local sponsors. Anybody that has anything to do with organizing an event of this magnitude knows that without sponsors they simply don’t run.

One of the Main draw cards for the weekend was the $50,000 Novice campdraft, with just over 200 entries in this event over 2 rounds the competition was fierce and some impressive scores were marked.

1^st Hugh Miles – Two timing chic

2^nd Troy Palmer- Willinga Park Fabels Playboy

3^rd Emma O’Shea- Ubutey Haley

4^th Sam Knight- Soda Impressive Kate

5^th William Durkin- Super Girl

5^th Emma O’Shea- Berragoon Hush

7^th Ben McNaughton- Febe

8^th Travis Croser

Judges for the Novice event were Jason Simms and Jim Southeron. 

A special mention to one of our local competitors Paul Colwell who only missed out on a place by half a point, this was a massive effort considering the caliber of riders on show.

After a run-off in the final Hugh Miles took home the major prize in this event.

In the Challenge end of the arena the major Classic challenge was an exceptional showing of true horsemanship with the Mundubbera cowgirl Leah Reed and her horse “Southern Amego” taking out the win.

Leah Reed and Southern Amego winner of the Classic Challenge. IMAGE supplied.

The committee also held the Ron Wall Memorial colt starting event as the night time entertainment, whilst this was partially affected by the wet conditions the 3 competitors showed there grit and carried on breaking there horses in and put on a great spectacle for the crowd.

Winner of the Ron Wall Memorial colt starting event, Josh Knight (left) president Will Lambell (right). IMAGE SUPPLIED.

Another special mention to our local competitor in this event Nathan Burtenshaw for giving an awesome showing of himself and the skills he has learnt as a horse breaker.

Judges Leah Reed and Will Durkin were very impressed with all three competitors and came to the decision the Josh Knight was the standout winner in this event with a very professional approach to his work. 

The event was made possible by the generosity of the cattle donors over the weekend, Philip and Tanya Curr of “Trewilga”, Luke and Briony Giblin of “Erdavale”, Jim and Lou Head of “Nebea South”, David and Ange Thompson of “Nebea”. The cattle were of an exceptional standard and the sheer logistics of organizing the cattle in such trying conditions was a massive operation.

The committee is to be congratulated for a well run event in trying conditions and hopefully we can do it all again next year.