Welcome to the Gisborne & District Adult Riding Club, Victoria
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About us
Gisborne is situated approximately 60km north of Melbourne along the Calder Highway in the Mount Macedon foothills. Gisborne & District Adult Riding Club is a club of about 60 members and was originally called the Couangalt Riding Club and was formed in 1991. Our aim is for horse riders to enjoy themselves and learn something along the way. We encourage members who want to go out and compete, and have had teams in all of the HRCAV Top Team Trophy events, often with riders who have not been out and about much before. All levels, breeds, steeds and genders welcome! Our rallies are usually on the second Saturday of the month and are held at the IR Robertson Reserve, Couangalt Road, Gisborne South. The grounds are well equipped with sand arenas, cross country course, club rooms, shedding and yards. We share the use of jumping equipment with the Gisborne Pony Club. The cross country course consists of a number of fences for levels 2, 3, 4 and 5. |
In the Winter months of July, August & September our rallies generally move indoors. In recent years we have enjoyed the great facilities at Jack's Run, Bolinda.
Rallies at the club grounds offer dressage, showjumping and cross country lessons and indoor winter rallies offer dressage and showjumping. We like to make our rallies social occasions which take the form of one hours lessons with groups of 2-3 riders with top shelf instructors. Lunch is usually available between 12pm and 2pm.
Rallies at the club grounds offer dressage, showjumping and cross country lessons and indoor winter rallies offer dressage and showjumping. We like to make our rallies social occasions which take the form of one hours lessons with groups of 2-3 riders with top shelf instructors. Lunch is usually available between 12pm and 2pm.
In addition we run extra clinics often in the lead up to TTT events such as Dressage Test Practise Days & Cross Country Clinics at a variety of different venues. Also a number of social events such our Winter Trivia Night & Christmas Trail Ride with Family BBQ.
Our club uniform colours are very appealing being navy blue, pale blue and white.
Our club uniform colours are very appealing being navy blue, pale blue and white.
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Updates - TTT Horse Trials
Gisborne member Natalia Bognar recently competed at the TTT Horse Trials with her new horse Blue at his first ever HT. They had such a great time, we got her to write about her experience. Well done Natalia from all of us :) Top Teams Horse Trials Recap Baby Blue was ready for his first horse trials outing and I wanted to ride at Wandin so off we trotted to TTT Horse Trials. It was Blue's third ever outing and first ever horse trials. Dressage started bright and early at 8:15 in the pea soup fog. Up against a lovely calibre of combinations and running late for warm up as we couldn't find the arenas, I could have been knocked over with a feather when later I checked the score board to find we were running 4th after scoring 68%. |
Natalia and Blue navigating the dressage arena in the pea soup fog.
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The Showjumping was next with the fog hanging on and seeming it would never lift, not that the horses seemed vaguely concerned that the jumps advanced on us from half an arena away. Not a spooky course but containing some tough lines including turn backs and two doubles, meant that although disappointed with two rails I was still pleased with Bluey's performance particularly over double next to the high rise grand stand seats. I think this dropped us to around 8-10th but my aim for the day was to see the finish lines.
Blue certainly has his mind on the job!
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Straight into the water in true eventer style
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After stumbling our way around the cross country course walk in the fog (and getting a bit lost) the sun did decided to show its face and reveal the course. I have to admit looking down the hill and across to the back paddock I was intimidated and questioned what on earth I was doing on a horse that will buddy up with a fence post and had only done four cross country sessions one of which had water! I shouldn't have thought twice about it. Although worried about his first go out the start box and heading away and out over the hill by himself, Bluey and I certainly had our big boy pants on as we trotted out. Taking it one jump at a time we settled and found our rhythm. All going smoother than I'd dreamed, we had a little shock by the sudden appearance of water but by taking tiny steps forward we made it in clear and the rest seemed to fly by.
Then the results were in... and I was in tears... four times... for a good reason! Having gone clear on cross country other than 4 time penalties around what had proved to be a very tough course (only two clear cc rounds in our section), we had placed 6th overall! Although having no idea of the achievement, Blue was still very keen on bringing home his bacon, a bag of Barastock! |
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Special announcement: As many of you will be aware, the clubrooms have been condemned after falling victim to termites. We are seeking voluntary contributions to help construct new clubrooms. Information about how assisting us is available on the membership page
Professional photographs kindly supplied by Jaydee Images