Fran Cleland
NT rider one step away from representing Australia
IF determination has anything to do with it, Darwin's Luke Purtill, whose mum says he has as much hardware in his body as “the bionic...
Horse news from around Australia and overseas
Fran Cleland
- 55 minutes ago
Performance pony group builds momentum one show at a time
IN THE 1950s through to the late ‘80s everyone had a great performance pony. They had their place on the travelling showjumpers trucks...
Fran Cleland
- 56 minutes ago
On their way - dressage team qualifies for Paris Olympics
FOR the first time since Sydney 2000 there is a strong feeling of optimism among dressage fans. The team at the World Championships at...
Angie Rickard
- 57 minutes ago
UK Postcard: Angie Rickard at the Summer Championships
Australian photographer at large ANGIE RICKARD takes us this week to the UK’s National Pony Society Summer Championship Show at the Three...
Fran Cleland
- 58 minutes ago
Rear-ended by a speeding truck but horses walk away
“WE WERE driving through a town towing a horse float with two horses on board on our way to a cancer charity horse ride when we were...
Fran Cleland
- 58 minutes ago
Berrigan Brumby sanctuary a bit off the beaten track
YOU might not expect to find Brumbies tucked away in the small country town of Berrigan, a farming community just north of the...
Rosalea Ryan
- 59 minutes ago
Working equitation thriving in countries of origin
Working equitation is rapidly gaining in popularity in Australia but has its roots in south-west Europe. Australian journalist ROSALEA...
Fran Cleland
- 59 minutes ago
Bits: Help needed to replace kids' jumps, Royal stabling chaos, overseas news ...
SYDNEY equestrienne Ginger Kennett, 19, has just completed her very first FEI World Championships at Herning in Denmark. Ginger vaulted...
Fran Cleland
- Aug 3
Stunning course and extra day of competition put Mildura on the map
MILDURA’s horse trials start a really busy run of events for keen riders after the long break. There are events listed every month right...
Fran Cleland
- Aug 3
NSW nurtures the young riders who are equine sport's future
EQUESTRIAN NSW held its Junior Show Horse Championships at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre last weekend. Specifically for...
Angie Rickard
- Aug 3
Postcard from the UK: Angie Rickard at 'Hickstead'
Aussie equine photographer at large Angie Rickard reports this week from the Royal International Horse Show at the Hickstead Equestrian...
Fran Cleland
- Aug 3
Wife nags tech-head husband and the horse world wins
IT’S marvellous what can happen when a horse-loving wife of a tech-head husband asks him to help her with keeping her equestrian records...
Fran Cleland
- Aug 3
Breed society state branch takes stock after 50 years
THE Victorian Stock Horse community has finally been able to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their state body. Like many organisations,...
Fran Cleland
- Aug 3
At -3 degrees, they don't call these shows winter woollies for nothing
THERE are times in Victoria’s deep winter that intending competitors no doubt question their sanity when they decide to get up out of a...
Fran Cleland
- Aug 3
Bits: Games in France, jumps stolen, Tassie awards and more
TEN Pony Club members have just represented Australia at the 2022 World Mounted Games Championships in France. The team comprised...
Fran Cleland and Angie Rickard
- Jul 27
Postcard from the UK - Angie Rickard at the Royal Welsh Show
GOING on holiday, people usually take a camera, but when equine photographer Angie Rickard goes away, the photos she sends home are not...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 27
Royal show competitors wow judges with can-do attitude and versatility
DARWIN’S Royal Show is like no other in Australia. While the southern state royals are traditionally framed around harvest time or...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 27
From Darwin to NZ and back, Miya brings her dream horse home
FOR a young woman, 21-year-old Miya Fleming is well travelled. Born and raised in Darwin she started riding when she was 11 and from the...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 27
He's got film-star looks but Zulu II is not just a pretty face
THE stand-out performer at the Australian Sports Pony Registry dressage event at Werribee Park last weekend was Nirrelle Somerville’s...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 27
Breeders unite to fight for greater recognition of Australian horses
A GROUP has been established to work towards better promotion of Australian and New Zealand-bred performance horses as a distinct...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 27
'Prez' a once-in-a-lifetime horse and he's still just six years old
WHEN Elizabeth Krog visited her friends Pat and Richard Ryan at their Warrawee stud near Lancefield in Victoria five years ago aged just...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 27
Horse bits: Para girls set off, new head of AERA and Donald ride to time ...
AUSTRALIA’S para dressage girls begin their journey to the FEI World Championships this weekend. Team members Di Barnes reports that the...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 19
People power wins the day after EA reverses para dressage team decision
EQUESTRIAN communities are always hopeful of publicity but it’s doubtful our para dressage riders would have liked the attention they...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 19
No shortage of Pony Club events or competitors as winter digs in
THERE’S an old expression “Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun”. Well, pony club kids are too smart to go out in that sort...
Dale Webster
- Jul 19
Flash still helping children and one amazing woman to shine
BURIED in a paddock a few kilometres north of Bendigo is a pony called Flash. By the time Kristy Kemp, the fifth child in a line-up of...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 19
Endurance riders some of Australia's most successful athletes
A personal reflection on the quiet achievements of an often overlooked discipline THE Quilty Gold Cup will be returning to Victoria in...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 19
Shetlands show off their versatility at annual big day out
MAYBE they were once thought of as pit ponies, or stars of Thelwell cartoons, but the Shetland Pony breed also has one of the most...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 19
Award winners continue to give back to their disciplines
THE Victorian Young Rider of the Year awards began in 1987 as a means to give promising young riders in showjumping, eventing, dressage...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 19
Horse bits: warhorse memorial, actor to join Brumby vigil and selections ...
BILL the Bastard is getting to be more famous than Phar Lap. A bronze, life-size sculpture of Australia's greatest war horse was unveiled...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 13
Para dressage decision flies in face of the Olympic creed
THE Olympic Games creed says: “The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight; the essential thing is not to have won, but...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 13
Hard to beat a winter woolies show for a good day out
WINTER Woollies shows are marvellous little events that pop up just like mushrooms all around the country. They are identified by hairy...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 13
Kid from Tassie chases down a dream to take her pony to top 3DE
A SLIGHT 14 year-old-girl and a 14.3hh Riding Pony are not a pair you would expect to see sailing around the two-star cross country...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 13
'Small, encouraging and friendly' - what more could you ask for at an event?
THE Tatura Dressage Club has held its second competition as a standalone group. It is one of many horse clubs around the state that is...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 13
Development squad delivers some top dressage performances
THE Victorian Young Rider and Development Squad in dressage is one of the success stories in equestrian sport. Catering for dressage...
Dale Webster
- Jul 13
Japanese encephalitis and horses - the latest update
A WARNING to safeguard horses against mosquito-borne diseases may seem out of place in the depths of winter but unusually wet conditions...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 13
Briefs: 'Patto' lame, tragic fire, watch Quilty finish and an old foe returns
JOHN Patterson, known Australia-wide simply as Patto, is in hospital with a broken hip. The family of the much-loved former Clerk of the...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 6
Barbie's a pint-sized class clown whose most important job is 'best friend'
WHEN Stacie Robinson bought the little black and white Shetland Pony Lynvale Lodge Barbaro from the Vicary family she didn’t realise what...
Jo Arblaster
- Jul 6
A challenge worth getting out of your swag at 4.30am in the middle of winter for
IT’S not called endurance for nothing. Long hours in the saddle over testing terrain and in all weathers is challenging but tends to...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 6
Equitation - a hot new discipline testing riders with age-old skills
IT’S called by several names – working equitation, xtreme equitation, three-phase equitation – but they are all variations of a...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 6
Standardbred classes closing gap between racing and the show ring
MOST Standardbreds used to face an uncertain future at the end of their racing days, but how things have changed. The numbers of...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 6
Pentathlon equestrian is gone, will other events follow?
COMMENT IT LOOKS like the horse-riding element of the pentathlon is finished after the first test event of the new format without...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 6
Aachen sure knows how to put on a spectacular show
THE World Equestrian Festival at Aachen, Germany, does it so well. So much to see, so much to do at an event where the best in the world...
Fran Cleland
- Jul 6
Briefs: Interschools rained out, safety stirrup ban, new owner for saddlery and an apology ...
THE NSW Interschools event was cancelled two days into competition because the state was again experiencing flooding in several areas...
Fran Cleland
- Jun 29
Noisiest championships have to be the most fun you can have on four legs
THE much-loved head of the Pony Club Association, Kay Irving, is remembered by Victorian pony clubbers through the annual Pony Club...
Fran Cleland
- Jun 29
Innovative horse trials format gives every rider a chance of success
DENILIQUIN is a large town in the fertile southern Riverina region of south-central NSW. It lies on the Edward River (a branch of the...
Fran Cleland
- Jun 29
Determination gets winter woolies show over the line
THE Ovens Valley Classical Riders Club’s best laid plans for their Winter Woollies Show nearly didn’t happen. Not once but twice. Plans...
Fran Cleland
- Jun 29
'The garland man' is a pony club boy who rose to the heights
WINNING a ribbon at a show is always fun, but the biggest thrill of all is to take home one of David Calbert’s magnificent floral...
Fran Cleland
- Jun 29
Dressage was not always the popular sport it is now
DRESSAGE is a major equestrian sport in Australia, but it wasn’t always so. The first competition was held at Royal Melbourne Show in...
Fran Cleland
- Jun 29
When horse people go to the dogs ... literally
GO to any horse event and you will see dogs. Beady-eyed cattle dogs guarding trucks, Labradors sharing ice-creams with toddlers, Jack...
Fran Cleland
- Jun 29
Briefs: ladies lead the way, VERA Quilty shortlist out and a 60th anniversary
LET’S hear it for the girls. In showjumping, Lauren Balcomb and Verdini D' Houtveld Z took out the $140,000 1.50m grand prix at the CSI3*...