A purpose built obstacle course at the Boorowa Showground will host carriage drivers from throughout Australia for a festival of carriage driving between April 9 and 20.
NSW Carriage Driving Society State secretary John Tonkiss described Boorowa as the perfect venue for the titles, praising Boorowa residents and business along with Hilltops Council for their hospitality.
Advertisement
The championships, hosted by Ellmore Driving Club, will be held as part of the festival between April 15 and 17.
"Basically, we have a lot of members who live south of Sydney, originally carriage driving in NSW started at Ellmore just up the road, about 40kms from Young at the Dwyer family property so there is a linkage to keep it in that area," Mr Tonkiss said.
"We had an event there at this time last year for five or six days, it was very very successful, well run, everyone enjoyed it, the town is just great.
"You've got probably one of the best facilities in the state when it comes to showgrounds. I have been to a lot of showgrounds and it is very good.
"It suits what we do, also we can go out on the roads, there are some good dirt roads heading outside of town.
"And the council has been very accommodating and the police are very good to us.
"All of those things make it enjoyable. We are in a bureaucratic world, and sometimes to do what you enjoy can be made excessively hard.
"We are this year running a celebration as it is our 50th year of the Australian Carriage Driving Society and about 44 for the state."
As part of the celebrations Mr Tonkiss said the society is running a combined drive which is a three day event which will see a marathon, dressage and cones competition.
"We're also running an endurance over three days which will see competitors do a 30km drive each day, timed to give us the winner.
"We've also got the state dressage championships," Mr Tonkiss said.
The grounds will open to competitors on Saturday, April 9 with the first event a pleasure drive the following day.
Junior driving action will take centre stage on Monday, April 11 with the running of the 2022 Robert Allport Memorial Mini Enduro held over three days.
On Thursday, April 14 the 2022 NSW Driven Dressage Championships will be hosted by the Bungendore Carriage Driving Club.
Ellmore Harness Club will host the 2022 NSW Carriage Driving Enduro Championships plus Level 4 Carriage Driving Enduro (dressage) on Friday, April 14.
This will be followed by the marathon titles on Saturday, April 16 and cones title on Sunday, April 17.
A show driving and park drive event will be held on Monday, April 18 with the festival concluding on Tuesday, April 19 with a pleasure drive.
Advertisement
While numbers aren't what organiser hoped for due to a combination of COVID and fuel costs Mr Tonkiss said Boorowa will still play host to competitors from throughout NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.
"Boorowa is very lucky to have an excellent facility and a great town, that's the main reason we are coming," Mr Tonkiss said.
"We used to run these events in the Southern Highlands but it has grown to the point where we can't hold them there anymore.
"Boorowa still has a close connection to rural properties," he said.
What do you think?
Send a letter to the editor by filling out the online form below.
Advertisement
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content:
- Bookmark boorowanewsonline.com.au
- Follow us on Facebook
