Kilcoy Show - Huge Entries and Fun For All!

Jenny Searle of Kilcoy bassed company, Searles Garden Products, sponsors of the Supreme Champion Pony, Galloway or Hack of the Show, with the winners Chloe Wilson riding Conway Park Shine

The small town of Kilcoy Queensland and surrounding areas were affected by the floods of January 2011, the showground was completely flooded; arenas and racetrack surfacing destroyed; and infrastructure badly damaged.

Fortunately all of that was just a bad memory on 15 - 16 April when the colour and excitement of Kilcoy Show put life back into the old grounds.  The show celebrated Kilcoy's 90th show over 100 years and was a huge success across all sections, with record numbers attending and exhibiting.

Horsezone were proud to be one of the sponsors of this wonderful show and Jo Johnson attended, thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to get out there amongst horses and people from so many different breeds and disciplines.

The horse events were extremely well attended, which was a joy to see especially as many people in the horse community were the worst hit by the floods.  On Friday, Local Day, there were over 25 ponies in the Local Maiden Pony Hack alone!  The children had a pupil free day at school and took advantage of a day off and the glorious weather, to come out in force on their well turned out ponies.  Judges Gail Iskra and Leonie Walsh were very impressed with the standard of the ponies and riders and the effort they had put into their turnout for the show.

Friday also hosted the Kilcoy Show Dressage and there were once again plenty of entries across all classes - over 80 horses - it was certainly a pleasure to watch the Dressage horses performing their tests on the green, green grass of Kilcoy!

Saturday dawned not quite so blissful in the weather department, however, that didn't stop huge numbers attending in most horse events again. The only let down were the heavy horse and harness classes, where numbers were low, which was a shame as the show was hoping to feature the horses that helped open up the Kilcoy area over 100 years ago.

Fortunately the rain managed to hold off, with only a few sprinkles throughout the day and a wonderful day of showing was once again enjoyed by all!

It was definitely a very enjoyable and successful day for the ponies, with large numbers featuring in all classes once again.  Then the ponies led the field when  Supreme Led Exhibit was won by the lovely Riding Pony Rathowen Ruby Red (pictured left), owned and shown by Kelly Bond.  This beautiful pony, bred by Dalveen and Ian Gregory of Rathowen Stud in Sydney, has had considerable success recently, winning Supreme Riding Pony and Champion Part Welsh Pony at Toowoomba Royal Show.

The ponies continued to literally reign supreme when the elegant and pretty moving little chestnut, Conway Park Shine, owned and ridden by Chloe Wilson of Logan Village, was sashed as Supreme Champion Pony, Galloway or Hack of the Show.

There were plenty of colour breed events and the Pinto classes in particular were very well attended, presenting a classy line up of quality horses in all shapes and sizes, for judge Billy Maundrell.

An an extensive program was provided for the Miniatures with everything from led classes through to trail, showjumping and six bar, which kept judge Vicky Gough extremely busy throughout the day.

Show Hunters were also well represented and when their Championship class turned out to be the last class of the show, the Champion Georgia Fairweather riding Smithfields Dante, along with the Reserve Champion, thundered around the ring in a stirring lap of honour, showing a great turn of speed!

A full program for Donkeys was also featured at the show and there was good attendance from these charming little guys and their devoted owners, with plenty of classes including led, junior handler, working and trail provided for them to show their talents.

The showjumping ring also was very popular with really good numbers in all events, meaning the jumping was still going strong into the late afternoon, providing plenty of excitement for competitors and spectators alike.

Overall the Kilcoy Show Society are thrilled with the fantastic numbers in the horse events and it was wonderful to see so many people out just having a wonderful time with their horses.  One young lady, Hayley Jaenke from Gatton (pictured right) riding Missy, was totally excited about winning the Pleasure Galloway, grinning from ear to ear, saying, "This is the first time I've ever competed at a show! It's so much fun and everyone has been friendly - I've done five classes already and definitely want to do more shows!"

And that folks, is what it's all about!

CLICK HERE to view the photos from Local Day and HERE for photos from Saturday, more are being uploaded now!

If you'd love a horse of your own to show, CLICK HERE to view the many great horses listed for sale on Horsezone.