I am working on a deal where I get to visit your continent the last week of June and the first week of July 2008. My daughter has been selected to a team of mounted games riders from the US coming over to compete in the New South Wales games circuit. They are going to the Hunter Valley region for a week and in the Sydney area for the second week including a competion on the Hartog orange grove property. I am trying to squeeze enough pennies to be able to tag along with the group and see the sights too. Maybe I could by you a drink or twelve....

Yo Dawgdad..

That would be great. Since I live in Sydney, I should be around the area at that time of the year.. As for Vince, lets see if he is willing to leave his warm-ish abode in the sunny Queensland (July in Australia is in Winter time), and travel 1000kms down south.

Call us up when the time is near so we could make arrangements. :)

Gelan.

Dawgdad...You lucky devil you...I think I'm going to be jealous...In fact, I know I am...

Yes we are a friendly lot over here.
I don't drink or smoke, though I may be able to assist with some local knowledge.
There is a permit you can get to shoot in NSW if you are a visitor from OS.
Will post if I find it again, not sure of the requirements.

Dawgdad wrote:

I am working on a deal where I get to visit your continent the last week of June and the first week of July 2008. My daughter has been selected to a team of mounted games riders from the US coming over to compete in the New South Wales games circuit. They are going to the Hunter Valley region for a week and in the Sydney area for the second week including a competion on the Hartog orange grove property. I am trying to squeeze enough pennies to be able to tag along with the group and see the sights too. Maybe I could by you a drink or twelve....

Dawgdad, it would be awesome to catch and pour a beer, or 47, into our faces mate. However, as Gelan says, I am in Brisbane which is about 110km North of Sydney. As an old mongrel pensioner it is a bit difficult for me to up digs and go for a bit of a drive like that, but rest assured I will be watching the posts and if I am around Sydney mid year next year you can count on me shouting a beer or 3. As tikkat3 says, we are a friendly lot, and as he also lives in that part of the world I feel certain that he would also be happy to meet up and share an ale with good friends.

As an aside....if you enjoy a nice red wine you will be in one of the best regions of Australia for it....the Hunter Valley. The wine makers in Pokolbin are second to none.

Cheers, Vince

OH!!! The bunch of you just SHUDDUP!!! Do I gotta listen to all this until June and then all the fun you have over(or down) there after you return...??

Actually, Dawgdad, I hope you pull this off...

By The Way...What riding sport is your daughter into...And wish her good luck and show the Aussies that we can ride too...

It is English mounted games. It is best described as relay races on horseback while performing various skills. Competition is in teams of two or four. Each rider will complete the skill and the team which gets its final rider across the line wins. No time is kept. The skills include dismounting to retrieve an object from the ground and vaulting back on the horse, picking and placing balls on 18" rubber cones, picking and placing 3' long flag sticks into cut off cones, picking up "litter" off of the ground with a stick and then placing the litter into a barrel at a run. popping balloons attached to a board on the ground with a 3' stick at a gallop.

You know Bushy, all the fun stuff you do every day on the trails. Try to bend over in the saddle and touch your horses hock!

mountedgames.org has links to pictures of some of the games being played.


Ponyclub also has information about mounted games.


They games were started in the UK a long time ago as skills for the cavalry riders. Perhaps you have seen "Return to Snowy River" where the cavalry are running a grid of skills when Jim Craig shows up on his mountain pony and shows them how to do it. They are big on the east coast of the US and growing in popularity in the Midwest.

My daughter tried out for the Pony Club International Games Exchange Team last year and was selected to compete against Pony Club Teams from UK Canada and Australia. When they do these exchanges, no one gets to use their own horse or even a horse they have ridden before. The teams trade horses during the competition so that each team gets the same number of races on the set of horses. The US won the competition in July in Lexington Kentucky. It was the first win for the US since 1994!

Her skills got her selected to compete this summer too. I know I am bragging but she is one of the best games riders in the US right now. She is an excellent rider in many disciplines outside of games and competes in eventing and show jumping as well. She is fearless and has glue on her seat as I have only seen her come off a horse one time in competition, right after it slammed into a fence!

I will try to get some pictures up to give you a flavor of how it works.

Dawgdad wrote:

Her skills got her selected to compete this summer too. I know I am bragging but she is one of the best games riders in the US right now.

Well Dawgdad, based on that --you better d*** well be bragging, she deserves to be bragged about! Congrats to your daughter and you! (specially her )

Jennifer and her POA Sam

POA??? Oh yeah. Congrats on the daughter Dawgdad.

You sure that is a Pony of America (POA)?? Seems a might big for a POA...

More games pictures

Nope - he has the brand and the papers. POA all the way.

OK three more then I'll quit I could post 100's of em. Thsn I'l start on my sons football pictures!

What, Dawgdad, 14 hands? That would make it a big POA. Good lookin' animal. though...I can tell your daughter hates horses...

He is just under 14 by a hair. One of the best horses I have ever owned. my little one rides him too and he does dressage and show jumps for her. He has the Moon blindness thing working against him like a lot of appy's and POA's get but I think I will keep this one until he draws his last breath with his head in my lap.

I just bought the Dawgma a new Morgan gelding. He's 15.1 and of the foundation look. Very solid and will go anywhere. As soon as I replace my Arab which passed a while ago I may have to load up and come your way for some trail riding. Do you have any good 15.2- 16 Foxtrotters down there?