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Postcards from the Saddle: North Queensland - Melda & Chloe McBeath

Published on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 in Postcards from the saddle

North Queenslanders, Melda and daughter Choe McBeath of Moondarga Pony Club, recently travelled from Kelso near Townsville to Yeppoon to compete in Dressage at the 2012 PCAQ State Dressage, Combined Training and Horse Trials with Edward, a Riding Pony  x Thoroughbred...

The trip started off very wet!!  We spent a few days in Bowen having lessons with Pamela Schuler, then headed off to Yeppoon -  a good eight hours drive. We got there all okay.  We got our campsite set up to find out the power was limited and we couldn’t use our heaters!!

Now I know it’s not cold for you southerners but us folk from NQ really feel the cold - and boy was it cold!  The Horsezone jacket came in very handy and I was told by everyone how easy I was to spot in the distinctive red coat!

 Day one of competition was freezing and Chloe and Ed were on early. Both were shivering while waiting their turn to go in.  Chloe and I watched in awe as all these beautiful big horses went past us in the warm up area. We hoped they weren’t going into our ring, but of course they were!!  Out of 32 riders in the Novice group we were hoping to get in the top 20 , being our first time in Novice and we had seen what we were up against.  We were satisfied when we saw that we’d  got 15th .

Later that afternoon Choe did her second test and we were shocked and absolutely thrilled to see that she came  2nd .  I was so surprised that I made my friend come and check the results in case I had read it wrong!!  I ran all the way back to the float to tell a surprised Chloe who had to quickly change into her full uniform for the presentations.   I was very proud of both of them.  One judge wrote that "it was an absolute pleasure to watch, they have such huge potential"

The next day and another test.  We drew the terrible sand arena -  Ed doesn’t like the thick sand too much.  I don’t think he moves as well as he does across the grass.  Anyway, they did their best and came away with 10th place, so again we were very happy. 

Overall they came in at 9th place, a great achievement for them both.  They are both little champs.  Chloe and Edward led our zone in the mounted parade and they both looked pleased with themselves.

Cheers

Melda and Chloe

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