High Scoring Runs Provide Plenty of Excitement at QRHA State Show

The QRHA State Show was held 15-19 August at QSEC and there were plenty of classes for competitors and heaps of action to keep Reining fans on their toes!

Judges for the show were Ollie Griffith (USA) and Pam Stokes (VIC) who were impressed with the Queensland weather and quality of horses on show.

Horsezone was a major sponsor of the event and supported many classes including Beginner Rider, Green Horse, Green Rider, Senior Horse and Junior Horse. Our main sponsored classes were the Horsezone Open Derby/Intermediate Open Derby. The Horsezone Open Derby was won by the gorgeous stallion, Shiney and Nu, ridden by Warren Backhouse with a score of 150, while the Horsezone Intermediate Open Derby was taken out by Scott Burnett and De Termination on 142.

The JPM Machinery Open, which was held in front of a good crowd on Saturday night, was won by the very impressive Whizz Peppy, whose huge stops helped him earn a big score of 151.5. The USA judge, Ollie Griffith scored him a 76.5, which is equal to the highest score ever in Australia. The pattern (Pattern 10) has four stops, which means a horse like Whizz Peppy, who is an exceptional stopping horse, has even more chance of scoring highly. This impressive horse, owned by Kalnins Quarter Horses, is one of the leading reining money earners in Australia. He hadn't been shown since Equitana 2011 and literally came out of the paddock to compete in this one run at the State Show, to try and qualify for Equitana 2012, which he has now done. Second place in the JPM Machinery Open, with a score of 150 went to the lovely mare, Ruf Lil Renee (pictured), ridden by Warren Backhouse.

QRHA Committee member, Leanne Bartlett, was very happy with how the show went. "The weather Gods looked down and smiled on us and we had plenty of sunshine, which helped make a great event. We had competitors from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria in attendance and everybody had a great time. The show had a friendly atmosphere and all competitors and back up crews were very supportive of each other, helping out behind the scenes and yelling for each other during their runs. Overall the arena surface was good, it started out a little wet after the rodeo on the weekend but got better as the week went on. Overall everyone was happy with the venue."

"Our judges said that it was a good quality show with some great runs. There were quite a lot of good scores across all classes, not just the higher level events, which impressed the judges."

"In addition to the obvious highlights of the high scoring runs by Whizz Peppy, Ruf Lil Renee and Shiney and Nu, just to mention a few, there were plenty of exciting moments for other competitors. One example is Brendan Manz, from Logan Village, who competed in the Non-pro Futurity on his three year old, which he had trained himself. He decided to ride one handed and pick up the pace to try for a higher score. This paid off when he scored 142.5 overall, with a score of 71.5 under one judge, and was awarded the reserve state championship. Previous to this event Brendan had never run a 70 so he was beyond excited to do so well, especially as he had done all the work himself and hadn't had his horse with a trainer. There were plenty of incidents like this, personal bests and other achievements, which helped make the show special for everyone."

Congratulations to all the winners and placegetters at the QRHA State Show!

Stay tuned for full results soon.

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Story: Jo Johnson  Photo: Amelia Leeman