Upper Horton saw a stunningly successful junior draft and rodeo in conjunction with a regular campdrafting competition last weekend, organised and run by the Upper Horton Rodeo Committee.
There were 95 entrants in the junior rodeo competition and 100 junior campdrafters in the 8 years and under 13 years and the 13 years to 17 years competition. There were 980 first round runs with the finals on top of this, meaning there were over 1000 runs in the junior competition. The normal campdrafting program followed the juniors on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday.
The weather was brilliant, particularly on the first two days of competition which saw beautiful, mild days and nights that were not too cold. Competitors came from Coonamble, Gulargambone, Singleton, Dungog, Copmanhurst (near Grafton), as well as plenty of local competitors.
According to Peter Kelly, Secretary of the Rodeo Committee, the weekend was supposed to be a “little one”. The major campdrafting and rodeo event is usually held at New Year and this year’s meet will be bigger than usual, being the Australian Bushman and Campdraft Association Campdrafting Championships which will run for four days over New Year.
Mr Kelly said that the weekend was a great success “thanks to the generous support of the cattle producers in our district and the wonderful lot of volunteers helping in the yards and in the canteen. Our thanks also go to Sutcliff’s Transport who cart all the cattle.”
Some of the winners over the weekend were Molly Lebrocq from Upper Horton, who won the 13 – 17 years draft; Peter Cookson from Dirranbandi won the Maiden and Jack Gallagher from Bundarra won the Novice.
“It was a very big weekend for a very little village!” Mr Kelly concluded.
