THE wellbeing of humans and horses was paramount in ensuring the success of this year’s VAS Ltd Apiam Saddle Horse Championships held in extremely hot weather over the weekend of January 4 and 5 at the Bendigo Showgrounds.
The championship's aim was to celebrate the Victorian 2024 agricultural show season and reward those who competed and supported the many agricultural shows statewide.
It consisted of five featured state finals at the championships - Good Hands, Alabar Hero Series, Off The Track Led Open, Led Show Hunter, Ridden Open and Ridden Show Hunter Series.
According to VAS executive officer Rod Bowles the temperature was checked at various intervals throughout the day on the BOM (Bureau of Metrology) weather website in consideration of the hot weather policy in place for the annual event.
“The show started at 8am with the top on Saturday at 4pm being 35 degrees at the completion of the last event,” said Mr Bowles.
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“Sunday was again an 8am start with an overcast day keeping the temperature down with a slight breeze for a good part of the day.
“When the sun came out about 1pm it got hotter and most of the events were completed by 2pm with the state final of the OTT (Off the Track) to be finished at 3pm when it was getting towards 37 degrees, but the humidity was low,” he said.
“By about 4.30pm when everyone had left it got hotter to reach the forecasted 40 degrees.
“It is always a challenge hot weather, but the venue has significant shade trees, wash down bays, water points and the stewards were offering riders bottles of water and the option to ride without jackets,” said Mr Bowles.
In addition, judges selected to do scaled down work-outs to reduce stress on horses and riders, he said.
With these precautions in place, the championships fielded good entries across most of the program.
“Overall, we had 1344 individual entries, with 371 horses.
“There was a great line up of standardbreds in the HERO final and the OTT classes attracted great entries,” Mr Bowles said.
He added some people chose not to come due to the predicted heat and some horses with injuries prior to the show had to be withdrawn.
A new event in the program this year was race day fashions for the standardbreds which was well supported according to Mr Bowles.
“There were lots of horses out to their first show in the debutante sections, just starting their show career, along with recently retired race horses getting into life after racing,” he said.
Mr Bowles was pleased to see lots of previous riders, breeders with the next generation coming through, and lots of mums with children on ponies in the leading rein classes.
The participation of riders and horses from across the state are vital to maintain the championships as a prestige event.
“The championships are critical to our country shows as the shows are the qualifying platform for horse and riders each year.
“Each competitor has to achieve a level of qualifications to attend the championships and at royal show level, so the country shows are an important part of the annual calendar,” said Mr Bowles.
“VAS is very fortunate to have a great number of volunteers that come to Bendigo for the weekend and provide their time making the event such a success.
“Next year presents a new challenge for VAS as the Bendigo Showgrounds will be going through a major upgrade of the arena during the time our show is held, and the committee will be looking at options available,” said Mr Bowles.
Bendigo has been the home of the championships since 2009 and sponsorship from the local city council and Apiam Animal Health have been vital to the success of the event.
