Wirlinga Pony Club

Harrison puts in the hard yards

 

Harrison Berg is creating waves in the Victorian Endurance Riders Association distance pointscore for juniors this year, currently leading the rider who has owned the title since 2009.

He’s more than 100 points clear of Samantha Noble who has dominated the distance pointscore and the junior points rider categories for the past three years, stretching his lead with a third in the Coolamon 80km recently. Harrison, 14, competes every second weekend and these days he doesn’t get out of bed for events shorter than 80km.

He trains over 20km a day – rain, hail or shine – and it’s that sort of dedication that caught the eye of the prestigious Castlebar endurance team decision makers who made Harrison the only junior rider on their team earlier this year. Harrison rarely knows which horse he will be riding or what instructions he will have until he arrives at the event. Then he’s matched with his horse and given the time he is to ride to – sometimes  it will be a youngster that he has to bring along slowly, sometimes a more experienced horse that he can push along a bit more.

Wirlinga pony clubbers are used to seeing Harrison aboard Apache, his pocket dynamo but alas, Harrison started to outgrow her last year and succession plans had to be made.
So now he is also bringing along his new mount Azar, an Arab he bought from Sydney last year as part of his plan to compete in next year’s Quilty. He has to qualify by riding at least one 160km event but there’s plenty of time and between Azar and the team at Castlebar, Harrison has plenty of options.

Check out http://www.castlebarendurance.com/news.html to see Harrison in action on Castlebar Goblin.