Horses Inspire Artists - Snowy River Showjumping Festival

Photo: Teleah Jensen on Cleo and Lily Adams on Riley took time out of the showjumping festival on Tuesday evening to greet guests attending the inaugural 'Everything Equine' Art Exhibition (photo & story: www.coomaexpress.com.au)

 

As previously reported on Horsezone, the fourth annual Snowy Mountains Showjumping Festival commenced on Tuesday and will run through until Sunday, with plenty of events and entertainment for everyone.

 

According to the Cooma Express, hundreds of horse riding enthusiasts from across Australia descended upon Cooma for the event with up to 900 people making Cooma Showground their home for the festival, which is poised to be the biggest organisers have seen.

 

This year’s event has grown and expanded into wider parts of the community with the Raglan Gallery and Cultural Centre launching its inaugural 'Everything Equine' exhibition of more than 80 artworks on Tuesday night to coincide with the festival.

 

Festival organiser Tim Dreverman said the exhibition showed how much the festival had grown over the years and hoped it would continue to expand in the future. “We want to try to make the festival encompass the whole town. The gallery is an amazing backdrop and I can only see it growing,” Mr Dreverman said.

 

Visitors and competitors in the festival began arriving in town on the weekend in preparation for the first day of the festival on Tuesday, which marked the beginning of more than 3,000 rounds of showjumping events across six days.

 

Event organiser Tim Dreverman said the event had reached capacity this year and he was thrilled with the turnout.  “We have 470 horses competing in 3,200 rounds of showjumping over six days. This is also the first year we have run dressage and Hack events and we have 32 competitors in dressage and an unknown amount of people taking part in Hack classes.  Showjumping is the foundation but this year we have expanded to allow more people to be involved,” he said.

 

Competitors have travelled from as far at Perth, Gippsland, Moree, the Central Coast as well as the ACT and all parts of the Monaro.

 

Exhibition judges Linda Martin, of Sydney and trick horse trainer Heath Harris, of Mount White, have attended the festival since its inception four years ago. They said they keep coming back due to the high quality nature of the event.  “The festival is a great asset to the community. What Tim has developed is becoming another industry for the Cooma district. It is getting bigger and bigger every year,” Mr Harris said.

 

Stay tuned to Horsezone next week for a results and a full report on events.