2018 Colt Starting Competition
This year we are excited to be adding a new event to the Coonamble Challenge & Campdraft program.With a Colt Starting Competition.
In this competition 3 of the best colt starters in the country will compete to get a young almost unhandled horse started under saddle. In just 3 short, 2 hour, sessions over 3 days.
In this competition 3 of the best colt starters in the country will compete to get a young almost unhandled horse started under saddle. In just 3 short, 2 hour, sessions over 3 days.
The Rules
General Rules
Judging
The event will be judged on the approach the competitors took to training the horse and how easy/hard it was to follow their program.
While credit will be given for how far a competitor progresses with the horse, equal weight will be given to how well a competitor is able to communicate why and how they trained their horse the way they did.
- Safety to the horse will always apply at all times.
- Safety to the Contestant will always apply at all times.
- Any abuse of the horse being started will not be tolerated. Any trainer abusing or harming a horse will be disqualified.
- A dolly horse maybe used.
- Sessions will be 2 hrs long and trainers must take at least 20minutes of breaks within the session. Breaks can be of any duration as long as the total of break time adds up to 20 minutes in total. During the break the trainer must completely stop working the horse and preferably leave the pen.
- Trainers must be able explain to the judges/spectators how they approached the training of the horse and why any action they took was necessary.They will be given the opportunity at times throughout each session to explain what and why they are doing certain things and their basic program for starting young horses.
Judging
The event will be judged on the approach the competitors took to training the horse and how easy/hard it was to follow their program.
While credit will be given for how far a competitor progresses with the horse, equal weight will be given to how well a competitor is able to communicate why and how they trained their horse the way they did.
The Horses
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Terry and Christine Hall have kindly donated 3 geldings by the great Hazelwood Conman out of some of their best campdraft mares to be started in the competition. They have all had only limited handling, so that they can be transported safely and not hurt themselves. At the conclusion of the event on Sunday morning the geldings will be auctioned, so if your a challenge or campdraft competitor this will be a great opportunity to get into arguably the best bloodline in Australia today. The Dams of the geldings are
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The Competitors
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Mat Broome Mat is the owner and operator of Voller Park Breaking & Training, which is based on the Hunters Mid North Coast of New South Wales. Mat is a natural talent when it comes to working with horses and has been lucky enough to have worked in many different disciplines and mentors within the equestrian world. He finds that having the opportunity to train a variety of horses helps him to continually improve and expand his training techniques. Whilst his business caters for starting horse for all disciplines, his personal interest is in Reining and Australian Stock Horses. Mat feels that having worked with a wide array of horses and people helps him to better prepare his ‘breakers’ for the life they have ahead of them. “Understanding Through Feel and Respect” |
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Leah Reed After finishing grade 10, Leah started working for Ken May. With such a good opportunity Leah jumped at it. Leah’s involvement at Treadstone training was colt starting. Ken taught Leah that there was a different way to work with a horse, not just a physical way but a mental way too. Ken and Leah also travelled across Australia doing clinics and competing in campdrafts, cuttings and stockman challenges. Leah watched Ken ride many great horses and was fortunate enough to ride some of Kens horses. The feel of those horses has set Leah on the journey to get that same feel on her own horses. In 2013 Ken was invited to the first Horseman reunion, in California. Leah assisted Ken, starting two colts over six days and with that experience it could only be described as amazing .After spending roughly five years with Ken and Anita, Leah returned home and started to provide her own colt starting and horse training services to the public. She now trains and starts horses every day with the assistance of Brynie Roth and Gina Hamilton. These girls are very valuable to our Training stables, along with her mum Sandie. |
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Ron Wall
Ron competes at both Campdrafts and Challenges, where he has had some success. For the last 10 years Ron has conducted clinics across Queensland, The Northern Territory and the top end of Western Australia. Ron does 6 day breaking in and 2 - 3 days Horsemanship and Campdrafting clinics. Ron breaks in 80 -100 horses a year. Ron and his family live at Cecil Plains, Queensland where they breed and train their own horses and from where Ron travels to do his clinics.Ron won twice the CLONCURRY STOCKMAN’S CHALLENGE in 1997 riding Powlathanga Cotton and in 1999 riding Soda Precious. 2012 and 2013 Ron was invited to compete in The Horsemen's Re-Union at the Paso Robles in the USA. And in 2014 was invited back to The Horsemen's Re-Union at the Paso Robles in the USA but due to drought he did not go. In 2014 he competed in The Unique Horseman Professional Colt Starting Challenge that he won. |
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The Judges
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Mat Holz
Mat was born at a very young age. Not long after he started competing in Stock Horse, Campdrafting and Sporting events. While he mostly competes in Campdrafting these days he does keep his hand with challenges and the ASH Nationals competitions. Mat has also competed in the Cloncurry Stockmans Challenge 2014 & 2015, finalling both times. Some of his other achievements include: 1st and 2nd in West Wyalong Landmark Challenge 2017. 1st Landmark Classic 2015 1st & 2nd Landmark Open 2016 Gippsland Campdrafting Champion Rider 3 times Mat has won 3 ASH National Futurities, 5 National Maturities and 4 Open Challenges |
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Rob Leach
Rob has acquired a vast range of experience in the equine industry since his first full-time job for a well-known thoroughbred breaker at age 15. In his early twenties, Rob went on to have a thriving colt-starting business based in the Northern Territory (Australia), where he started many of the station horses for some of the larger pastoral companies such as Consolidated and Heytesbury Beef, before heading to the United States for seven years where he was able to train with and compete against some of the most respected horsemen in the world. Rob has also had a successful competitive career both here and abroad, winning and making the finals at multiple reined cow horse aged events, including a World Championship at the NRCHA Snafflebit Futurity. Now based in Tamworth, Rob operates as Rob Leach Equine and specialises in training and showing cutting, campdraft and challenge horses, along with conducting horsemanship and cow horse clinics. |
