MUSCLE AND MANICURE: The Eurobodalla is about to get its own dedicated hacking show, for horses both fit and fabulous. Juanita Carr, left, and Victoria Carter are pictured with chestnut thoroughbred and registered stock horse, Rockleigh Silk, or Slinky to her friends.
IF you’ve got an eye for detail and an equine friend who combines gym with bling, you are in with a chance at the Eurobodalla’s new hack show.
The Eurobodalla Hack and Stockhorse Show will be held on November 17, after the demise more than a decade ago of the shire’s original all breeds show.
Incurable “showie” Juanita Carr has sweet-talked top judge Mark Tarrant down from Sydney for the Moruya Showground event, to work alongside the top-performing Danielle Govier and a Canberra breeder.
Ms Carr cheerfully admits to being “chicken-hearted”.
“I would prefer to show off my horse than go out there showjumping and get hurt,” the Moruya horsewoman, who has been showing for 40 years, said.
“We don’t bounce anymore.”
However, no-one should mistake the show circuit for a soft option, with champions combining muscle, manners and a mirror-like finish.
“It is presentation,” Ms Carr warned. “It is showing off your horse and all the work you have put in to the max. They have to be quiet, disciplined and well mannered. And we love getting dressed up, I just love fluffy things in my life, and having magnificent horses to show off.”
Fluffy? No, not horses, but all the bright and shiny gear that goes with them into the ring.
Moruya breeder Jan Carter has tried on three occasions over 50 years to give up her hacking habit.
“I have sold my gear three times, but as soon as I go to a horse show … a show person is addicted for life.”
Just ask her youngest daughter Victoria, bundled into the car with her three siblings from a baby to camp at shows.
“I loved it,” the teacher said.
“A Moruya show will make it easier for those of us who are trying to balance work and this hobby which is so time-consuming, but so rewarding. We don’t have to travel over one of the mountains or go to Sydney.”
Ms Carter said a show horse was “your best mate”.
“You see them every day, you spend so much contact hours with them. They are an animal who is unpredictable, and when you see the results you get from your training and hard work, it is really rewarding.”
Her mother says showing, at the top level, is like professional dancing: beautiful to the observer, with much sweat and discipline behind the scenes.
“I think of them as the ballerinas of the horse genre,” Mrs Carter said. “They are the beautiful ones, they are done up to the nines, they are trained to the max and they perform a neat and precise workout, required by the judge. They have to be well behaved, very well educated.
“It requires, tremendous discipline, not in a harsh way, but in a regular way. You can’t just ride very Wednesday and forget about it.”
Handlers too have to scrub up.
“You can’t send a horse out looking magnificent, if the person looks scruffy,” she said.
The 10-member committee plans to hold the show annually as a qualifier for larger events, such as the royals.
The show is open to all breeds and includes led and ridden events. For details phone Jan Carter on 4474 2517.
