Australians Having A Blast At Horse Show

By Robert Thomas

There may be only four of them and they have literally travelled halfway around the world but four equestrians from Australia are having a blast at the Working Equitation Canada Camp and Competition 2024 on now until Sunday at the Moose Jaw Exhibition Grounds.

The event featured clinics or a camp to develop skills with the last three days devoted to competition.

The four are part of an international contingent of over 130 riders - including competitors from the Netherlands and the United States - who have joined riders from across Canada at the event.

Linda Shore from Toowoomba (population 100,000) in southeast Queensland - who “volunteered” to act as the spokesperson for the group - said the event and Moose Jaw are an adventure she couldn’t pass up.

“I came just for the heck of it,” Shore said, adding “I ride a lot of different horses at home and having the chance to come over here, jump on a strange horse, gear it up and do the level I can (is worth it).”

Australian Contingent (from left to right) Karry Bryant from Victoria, Linda Shore from Southeast Queensland, Nicola Saunders from from Southeast Queensland and Christine Staats from Victoria

Shore is not new to the sport as she competes in the masters class and was Australia’s national champion in 2022.

She is competing at nationals this year in order to qualify for the world championships in Spain in 2026.

“This is an opportunity to come to a strange country, get on a strange horse, ride for a couple of days and take it into a test,” she said.

Although the four are from Australia and involved in the same sport they had not met each other until they came to Moose Jaw literally half a world away.

Shore and Nicole Saunders came together and Karry Bryant and Christine Staats are travelling together and the two groups met each other at the event.

Although it may not be optimum riding a strange horse Shore said riding it for five days prior to the competition helps to learn the horse.

“Yeah it’s hard and it’s not so hard…it’s a great challenge.”

Shore said she spent about $5,000 to make the trip. The trip with layovers took about 23 hours. She and Saunders came largely for the event and are heading home Monday morning.

Bryant and Staats came a week early and toured Canada and following the event will be touring Canada for an additional week before going home.

When they arrived last Saturday they camped out at the hotel and then went on a walkabout to downtown Moose Jaw for an ice cream cone and checked out Crescent Park.

“The park in the middle of town was beautiful,” she said about Crescent Park and when asked about her impressions about the hot button topic of crime in Crescent Park Shore said they saw none.

“The closer we got to the middle of town there was definitely a few more layabouts and a few more rough looking people but in general the townspeople were really friendly. It’s been so lovely,” she said.

Shore said she had no concerns about perceived crimes saying “no (I’m not concerned) we’re used to kicking around crocodiles and snakes all of the time.”

“The Canadians are so friendly. You’re just like Aussies (you’re so friendly).”

The friendliness and hospitality has extended to the show where on Tuesday night the held a “Stall Crawl”. At a stall crawl all of the competitors went through the barns socializing and meeting each other.

“It’s been a great adventure. I’d seriously consider doing it again.”

“It’s been a really good experience. When I saw the add come around in January I said yeah I’m doing that,” Shore said.

About the facilities Shore said they are pleased with the facilities at the Exhibition Grounds especially the air conditioned Golden Mile Arena.

When it was pointed out the Golden Mile Arena wasn’t air conditioned she clarified that in Australia many horse arenas are open to the elements.

Other differences are ranches in Australia are typically called stations and are often hundreds of thousands of acres if not a million acres of owned land.

Horse and riders are used for rounding up cattle but so are helicopters on such large stations.

In Canada ranches are typically not even 100,000 acres and many larger ones on more arid land are mostly leased land with ranchers owning the land where the water is.

Coming to flatlands of Saskatchewan is not a big deal.

“You think this is flat I’ve done clinics where you can see the curvature of the earth. It’s that flat,” she said.

Shore said the weather we are have in Canada right now is similar to the weather in Australia.

The temperature can, in some areas drop below freezing, but they never get snow.

“There are a lot of nice things in Canada but the minus 30 (degrees) and 40 (degrees) you can keep that,” she said.