TAMWORTH’S Australian Equine and Livestock Event Centre (AELEC) will host the 2016 World Youth Cup in two years’ time.
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That could include 15-20 international teams for the world junior equine championship.
That’s the huge and delightful news for the city and the Australian Quarter Horse Association which is conducting its 36th annual show, the Q14, in the AELEC this week.
For Pauline Stuart-Fox and Kim Johnson it’s a double equine whammy as they will be taking the Australian team to College Station, Texas for the 2014 World Youth Cup at the end of June.
Stuart-Fox is not only the team coach but the Moruya resident is also the current AQHA president.
“We leave June 29,” Stuart-Fox said yesterday.
“We’re there for the Fourth Of July and then compete after that.
“All the horses for the competing teams are borrowed over there.
“We all have a ride and get to pick them.
“We have two days to work out which horses suit the riders.”
She was the coach of the Australian team when it competed in Germany in the 2012 World Youth Cup.
“They did really well,” she said.
“The team didn’t win but some of the girls did really well individually and finished with individual medals.”
Johnson, who is an AQHA board member, has been the manager for the past two World Youth Cup tours.
“We did Oklahoma in 2010 and Germany in 2012,” she said.
“I love it. Both World Cups have been great.”
She started competing in 1973 and now looks to put something back into the sport which has given her so much enjoyment.
From Locksley (halfway between Seymour and Euroa in Victoria) she is delighted to be back at “this fantastic facility” again and remembers too well the former days of competing out at Moonbi.
She said the AELEC would be a brilliant venue for the 2016 World Youth Cup.
“It (World Youth Cup) was actually started by an Australian,” she said.
“Jack Cooper started it.
“It was his idea and he ran with it for a couple of years.
“The first one had three countries – Canada, the US and Australia.
“From there it’s now grown so big we have 20 teams from around the world competing.”
Stuart-Fox said at least 15 teams would be here for the 2016 World Youth Cup.
“It’s going to be huge.”
The Q14 has also attracted two “American” judges this week – Dolly Chayer and Jan Hoskin-Hay.
Chayer lives in Sperry, Oklahoma where she owns and runs Chayer Performance Horses with husband Rick.
Hoskin-Hay is Australian by birth.
She and husband Mike Hay reside in Pinnacle, North Carolina where they operate a start of the art equine reproductive facility and stallion station – Pilot Knob Quarter Horses.