New Members

New Members

Club legend Ken Curnow was kept busy awarding members' badges at the first rally of 2012.

Hayley King




Toby White



Receiving her badge at the first rally from club legend Ken Curnow  was Mikaela McIndoe

Hayden Forrester



Mikaela McIndoe, Hayden Forrester, Hayley King, Toby White and Maddy Chant (unmounted) after receiving their membership badges.

A strong contingent of boys heralded the start of the 2012 pony club year.



New families at our first rally of the year: Hayley and Grace Sawyer, Libby, Alina andJasmine Saunders, Louie and Matilda Simpson, Hollee, Ellie, Connor and Kelton Arnold, Jaylie McCrae, Kat Mckinnon and Regan Beucannon.

Fantastic REsult at 2011 Zone Gymkhana

Congratulations to all WPC members for a fantastic result at the 2011 Zone 20 Gymkhana, held at Culcairn over the weekend of 11th and 12 of April 2011. 30 riders turned out for the event, making us the best represented club. The first challenge was the March Past, judged on club uniformity, grooming of horse and rider, maintaining march past dressings, and overall effort in concentrating on the job at hand. The competition was tough, but when the judges decision came in, Club RED came out on top, winning the prestigious HAROLD FREDRICK MARCH PAST SHIELD. This is the eleventh time Wirlinga has won this shield since it was introduced in 1981. Well done riders and parents on making the effort in preparing and presenting so well for the judges.  

Another Great Wirlinga Trail Ride

We started the trail ride on Sunday with 20 children and 10 riding Adults and incorporated a rally into the first day of the trail ride with this only being attended by an extra 3 riders. We split the children into teams of four with our older riders being team leaders. We named the teams which were the Shetlands, Clydesdales, Lipizzaners, Fjords and the Appaloosers the kids stayed in these teams when they were doing their daily chores of cleaning and serving etc.

The first days trail was led by Mr Curnow taking some of the trails and Views of Woomargama Station on. The first days ride is always a settler with horses very excited and some fancy foot work happening by our four legged friends and bold riding from our riders. The views around Woomargama Station were breath taking and the first day was enjoyed by all with riders looking forward to the second day out. -

Monday the crew was up nice and early, some earlier than others with a hiccup with some horses at 2:00am in the morning taking out the fence. Thank goodness for Andrew Kearney’s spare star pickets and Matt Lynch under the close supervision of Kylie Berg and Jacinta Carkeek managed to get it all fixed. Well done Crew! When the real morning arrived the kids were up doing their jobs and on their horses ready to ride out about 9:30am. This being the second day the horses were a lot more settled and moved along at a leisurely stroll. We rode through paddocks and up paths along creeks keeping watchful eyes for wombat holes and alike. Lots of Kangaroos and Wallabies were spotted with the horses not worrying about it too much at all. The crew met us for lunch and the children were pleased to see the food cart. It’s hungry and thirsty work, trail riding.
Tuesday morning went without incident and all the horses were where they were meant to be in the morning. Tuesday morning we rode around the main part of Woomargama Station past the home stead and through the sign posted paths. For lunch we rode back to the wool shed and in the afternoon the older children went out with the younger ones catching their breath at the wool shed. The afternoon with the older children was a great ride with the older children showing their skills of going through creeks and fair bit of hooning going on. It was great for the older children to pick up the speed and enjoy excelling without having to wait for the younger riders. But alas the younger riders were not forgotten with Mr C giving them one on one specialty treatment when we got back, in the stock yards without their bridles. All the riders enjoyed this and it was a great exercise to get the riders to be more independent of the reins.

On Tuesday night Mr C left us and headed back to town. Taking his Spot as our leader on Wednesday was Jo Dyke. Jo lives on Woomargama Station and kindly donated her time to come and ride with us. The Day however, weather wise did not look promising with all riders with their rain jackets and drizza bones either on or packed on their horse. And boy did we need them. We were only about an hour in and the showers started. However this did not dampen our spirits with Jo having worked out tracks for us to take and incorporating jumps around the circuit. Jo currently holds her preliminary NCAS instructors certificate and is going through the motions to get her level 1 certificate. So, Wirlinga riders were given some free jumping lessons with most of the children having a great time with the experience. As the morning wore on so did the worsening of the weather by lunch time the showers had turned into rain. We stopped at Jo’s for lunch with the lunch crew meeting us here fortunately we had shelter for the kids, in the horse stable of course. The rain by now had turned torrential with all of us very wet if not soaked so decided we would head straight for home which was still ½ an hour away. I have never ridden in rain like that before it was wet and it just kept coming I hadn’t even walked on the ground and my boots were slouching and I could feel the water leaking through my jacket and my clothes underneath getting saturated. This however did create some muddy moments for some of the kids being showered with mud from the horse in front of them and they just smiled through the mud and rain. I can tell you that we were all very pleased to reach home and the shower ran hot with the kids getting clean and warm again. The kids had a nice afternoon just hanging out and enjoying each others company. Wednesday night was party night and the Disco commenced with the nut bush and the Macarena being very popular. The kids limboed shuffled and partied until dinner time. They hadn’t finished and they all wanted to keep the party started, but Mother Nature had other ideas. One lightning strike, and a massive clap of thunder and no electricity. Out came the torches and the kids just got creative. With a Highland Dancing display, and spooky stories coming out of the closet.
The following morning unfortunately the weather was still not in our favour and the morning ride was called off. So there was a mini quiz in the kitchen and then cleaning up was on the agenda. At 10:00am there was a presentation with Chris the Manager of Woomargama and Jo coming down to the shearing shed. The older kids were set the task to write a thank you letter for both Chris and Jo and Miranda Lynch and Shanae Bohr-Howell did a lovely job of presenting it. There were also other presentation for the best team, The Best Slave and all kinds of other fun rewards. A BIG THANK YOU to Chris for allowing Wirlinga Pony Club onto the property it would not have been possible to have created these great child hood memories of “At Woomargama Station” without his help and we appreciate it.
I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time as Camp Mum and felt very privileged to have been looking after such great Children. After attending this trail ride and seeing the friendship and team work that this trail ride creates. I know why Wirlinga Pony is such a great club. Respect and understand is a very important part of a club and doing things like the trail ride puts you on a whole different level with the kids and I got to know them all just a little better and loved what I seen. They also have to step up and work as a team and be helped and help each other. I would like to say thank you to Kylie Berg who was camp cook again, Andrew Kearney the Cooks off sider and all the other great parents that pitched in and helped. Things like this don’t happen by themselves and take effort from the people involved. There is of course one more big thank you and that of course is to Mr Curnow. What can I say, What a Wirlinga Legend!!!!

2011 Zone Mounted Games Champs

Zone 20 Mounted games were held on Saturday 30th August, with Wirlinga fielding two full teams, as well as making up another composite team. Our senior team, Wirlinga Warriors went into the games as defending champions, and the second team, Wirlinga Whammers, had several of our up and coming champs. The competition started well with the Warriors winning the Stepping Stone race just ahead of the Black Range team. The Rope Race was a bit of a nightmare for the Warriors, as a pole was knocked over, and the team could only manage a 4th place. The Warriors bounced back to win 9 Ring, and Spillers Pole, putting them back in front, but were pipped at the post in both Tack Shop and Tyre race. With scores at the top running very close, the Whammers were putting in fantastic performances in difficult muddy conditions against many senior riders. The Warriors fought back with a great win in Hi Lo, but had a ball bounce out in the Ball and Bucket race to finish third. Once again scores were very close, with only two points separating first and second place. With only two events left to run, it could easily have gone either way. Warriors dis a great job winning Balloon race, and took the lead over the Upper Murray/Tumba combined team out to three points. Wirlinga had to finish strongly, and that they did, with a very close run second place to the UM/Tumba team in the 5 flag race. A fantastic effort by the Wirlinga Warriors to take out the Zone 20 Mounted Games championships for a third year running. The Whammers finished off very well with 7th place, and our extra riders did some great work in the combined teams. Well done to all competitors, you made us all very proud

The Day of  "The Travesty"
Perfect Synchronisity

The Day of  "The Travesty"
Setting the Benchmark