Orange Eventers get the jump on the competition with new local cross-country course

Orange Equestrian Club’s new cross-country training facility will be a boon for local eventers who no longer have to travel hours just to train for competition.

Cross-country is one of the three components of the equestrian sport of eventing, along with dressage and show-jumping. It sees horses run a course with a variety of fixed obstacles to navigate, testing the endurance and bravery of both horse and rider.

Until now the nearest cross-country facilities for local riders to train on were located at either Harden or the other side of Wellington.

But on Sunday, the Orange Equestrian Club officially launched a training facility of their own with 22 cross-country jumps installed on the grounds of the Towac Park Racecourse

“We've just bought 22 new cross-country jumps and so this is our first hit out,” Orange Equestrian Club President Bardi Mannix said.

“We were lucky enough to gain some great sponsors and Racing Orange, through Bree McMinn, has allowed us to set up our cross-country jumps out in the race club car park and utilise that area.”

Riders of all ages eagerly took to the course on Sunday and Bardi expects eventers from around the district will be making good use of the new facilities.

“Eventing's our passion… there are a lot of people that love this kind of thing in this area, as you can see by the numbers here,” Bardi said.

 “We've got people coming from Wallerawang, we've got people from Parkes and Forbes, and we’ve got people from the other side of Cowra. It's amazing how we draw people in!”

The Orange Equestrian Club has been growing, Bardi said. It now has more than 100 members, ranging from casual riders to active competitors.

“We normally run dressage and show jumping on our other days, and we have people come and just ride their horses around because some people don't want to do dressages or jump, they just want to ride with like-minded people,” she said.

“Orange is growing, equestrian wise. There's new people from the Hunter Valley, from Sydney, all those kinds of places. Their work is bringing them here and so there's more and more horsey people out in this area!”