The Battle On The Bidgee will be back at Gundagai Showgrounds from 10-12 October, where Australia’s best men and women will compete in a Stockmans Challenge.
This year’s Battle On The Bidgee event is set to be another great weekend for the whole family. The event showcases Australia’s best women and men as they compete in a three-day Stockmans Challenge.
The event, which has been running for more than 10 years, is back from 10-12 October at Gundagai Showgrounds, kicking off at 6.30 am on Friday 10 October.
This year’s event will run very similarly to last year’s event, but with more challenge entries and a few other small changes. “We have taken more challenge entries this year than we’ve ever taken, so we’ve got a little over 140 challenge contenders, which is an extra 10,” said Shane Piper, President of the Battle on the Bidgee.
“We’ve also added a maiden campdraft to our campdraft program, so we will have close to 400 campdraft runs this year as well, so maiden and open running over Saturday and Sunday however all our preliminary events are still the same which includes bareback obstacles, stock handling, pack horse, whip crack, cross country, dry work pattern, and horseshoeing is all still the same as previous years,” Shane said.
On Friday, there will be a mini challenge for the under-8-year-olds, for the kids in the pony club and other younger kids. There will also be poddy rides and steer rides on Friday evening.
“A new edition for the year will be mini bull bucking, and we’ll also have our invitational open bull ride, both on Friday and Saturday night over two rounds,” said Shane.
Sunday will be full finals, including the campdraft and Striplings, wild horse catches, and poley buck jumps.
Attendees can also expect more market stalls this year, such as saddlery and clothing, and with plenty of food stalls and bars across the weekend. There will also be live music and cocktail bars on Friday and Saturday night.
For the little ones, there will be free face painting and a jumping castle across the weekend.
“ARIAT and All Things Country are our major sponsors again for the year, but this year we’ve also had Riverina Ford and Tyrepower come on in quite a big way,” Shane said.
“We can’t thank our sponsors enough, new and old, and this year we want to give a special mention to our cattle donors. It has been really hard to source cattle this year due to the dry season and drought we went through, so it is a big, big thank you to our cattle donors because this year it is a real big ask,” Shane said.
“This year’s cattle donors are Billy and Shauna Graham from Bongongo Angus, The Purcell Family from Braeburn Pastoral, James Fallon at Cleveland and Glen and Chloe Coleman.”
– Emily Flint
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