It would not be quite fair to say that this year’s Glowalman Junior events across Wingham, Gloucester and Nabiac went off without a hitch but with 390 competitors, around 300 horses and 400 beasts it was always going to be a challenge.
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For more photos, see Fairfax photographer Carl Muxlow's gallery or Brooke Purvis' images at Huntwood Photography
“It ran pretty smoothly considering what we had. There were a few incidences but nothing too major, nothing catastrophic,” a relieved Kelvin Gregory, one of the event’s organisers, said.
“As soon as you mix horses and children together, something’s bound to happen, wherever you are.”
Despite four ‘precautionary’ ambulance call outs to Gloucester’s Glowalman events at the showground on Thursday, Kelvin said everything else went well. The child who broke their arm falling off a milk crate whilst climbing onto their horse suffered a minor fracture and the 16 year old girl airlifted to John Hunter Hospital on Thursday after being knocked out falling from her horse was back competing on the ring on Saturday in Nabiac.
“They would ride with a broken leg if they had to. They are very determined. They treat it like the Olympics,” Kelvin said admiringly.
Maximising safety, Kelvin said that because of the weather the ground was a tad ‘greasy’ on top, so they ploughed up the rings several times due to it ‘shifting’. As a result Gloucester’s round carried on well into the evening, finishing under floodlights around 9pm. Wingham and Nabiac ran smoothly with the final Glowalman presentations taking place in Nabiac on Saturday afternoon. All of Gloucester’s competitors emerged with a ribbon. Nine-year-old Travis Sansom took away the champion campdrafter title for the Under 11s, and cousins Chloe and Amy Shultz were proclaimed Reserve Champions for the Under 15s Barrel Race and Under 13s Ben Bar Aft respectively. Sisters Jodie and Samantha Harris won their categories with Jodie taking out the Under 17s in the Bonfield Bounce event and Samantha the Under 21s Barrel event and the reserve champion in the Flag event.
The four major trophies were also presented before the crowd. Merriwa’s Nick Cave won the Judith Dixon Perpetual Trophy, Sophie Maynes from Glen Innes won the Deborah Paterson Memorial Stockride Trophy and brothers Logan and Tyler Berkley from Inverell won the two Graham Wisemantel Memorial Shields for overall sporting and overall campdrafting champions.
“Those four are the top rungs of our champions,” Kelvin said.
The Interstate Campdraft Shield was won by Western Australia, “yet again”.
