Equitana 2012 was held this past weekend at the Melbourne Showgrounds. Like a pin to a magnet, I just can never seem to stay away, and once again I made the trek to Melbourne for three out of the four days to soak up the plethora of horsey exhibits, education and entertainment.

The shopping was good, and I managed to find myself quite a few pony bargains. There were lots of demonstrations and plenty to see.

Some of the highlights for me were that I got to see in action my favourite games pony, Jess, now known as The Wench, ridden by the very skilled Andrew Rodaughan, who bought Jess from me around five years ago and has taken her to new heights in state and national mounted games competitions. She is Jaspa’s mum, a clever, agile, and, it has to be said, sometimes cranky and opinionated little mare who will always hold a place in my heart.

Another highlight was sitting in on a session where I could hear words of wisdom about jumping from Mary King, 2012 Olympic eventing silver medallist from the United Kingdom.

I spent some time hanging out with lovely couple Kate and Steve Pilchard from www.globetrotting.com.au
They offer the most amazing adventure horseback holidays around the world. Last year I went with them to Africa, and in a few weeks I’ll be heading off with them again to Chile and Argentina. I suspect I’ll be starting to plan the next one as soon as I return. Maybe Namibia…or Mongolia…so many places in the world to see and enjoy. And what better way to do it than from the back of a horse?

But back to Melbourne and Equitana. The absolute highlight for me was the Way of the Horse, a competition where three trainers get to show off their skills by starting a young unhandled horse over three days. They are judged on their methods and results, and the audience gets to see great trainers at work and hopefully learn lots about good horsemanship. My favourite competitor was Ken Faulkner from Australian Natural Horsemanship. He had chosen to work with a chestnut Australian Stockhorse named Ginko, and the wonderfully kind, easy relaxed way he handled this young horse proved to be a winning formula. How lucky was Gingko and his future owner for him to have been given such a solid start to his lifelong training.

So now it’s all over, and won’t be back in Melbourne again until 2014. No doubt by then I’ll be lining up for yet another ticket to see and do it all again.