Camp Draft Weekend

Morning at Croydon Ranch from our bedroom porch

Teenie the mouse hunting Jack Russell

As I lay awake at 6AM this morning even though our boss is away for the next two days for some cattle sales, I open up our bedroom doors to our favourite spot on the porch to watch the sun rise. One can not describe the serenity at Croydon Ranch at this time of the day. The cattle and horses roam the yard just in front of me grazing on some breakfast that has been refreshed by the morning dew. Sounds of bird calls (which I still don't know the names of) echo all around me and there is no sound of anything else... Except maybe Teenie romping through the grass in search of her first mouse of the day.



Yes, at times there are some amazing features the un-civilized and isolated life can bring you.
Then next two days Trev and I are on our own to take care of the ranch while Brendan is away making some cattle deals. The weekend will bring a new venture for us, as Brendan has invited me and Trev to stop by Wallumbilla for a camp draft. Camp drafts are something Brendan attends almost weekly where he enters various competitions in hopes to bring home some coin from his and his horses stellar attempts to achieve high ranking success.

Campdrafting, (according to wikipedia and from my recolection) is a unique and very popular Australian sport involving a horse and rider working cattle. The riding style is like that of Western riding and the event is somewhat related to the American events such as cutting, working cow horse, team penning, and ranch sorting.

In the competition, a rider on horseback must "cut out" one beast from the mob of cattle in the yard or "camp" and block and turn that beast at least two or three times to prove to the judge that they have the beast under control; then take it out of the yard and through a course around pegs involving right and left hand turns in a figure eight, before guiding it through two pegs known as "the gate". The outside course must be completed in less than 40 seconds. Events for juniors 8 years and under 13 years have one sound beast in the camp. In other events it is recommended that there shall be a minimum of six head of sound stock in the camp at any time.

Up to a total of 100 points are scored by horse and rider: "Cut out" is worth a total of 26 points; horse work up to a further 70 points; and 4 points for the course. Most disqualifications (signalled by a crack of the judge's stockwhip) occur when a competitor loses his beast more than twice on the camp; losing control of the beast in the arena or running a beast onto the arena fence. A “tail turn” executed by a horse in the opposite direction of the beast's line of travel also incurs disqualification at any stage of the draft.

The sport requires consummate skill and horsemanship, and the skill in selecting a beast from the mob that will run well, but is not too fast for that particular horse. Great prestige is bestowed on the winning horse and rider of the competition.

Brendan on Hope (his winning horse that weekend)

After the weekend had come to an end, Brendan ended up bringing home a 2nd place prize riding a horse I ride quite often, Hope, with his run that Trev and I managed to catch when we stopped by for the afternoon on Saturday. His score was a 94/100 which is obviously very good.

Anyway, back to Croydon...