AQHA Magazine May / June 2019 AQHA MayJune2019_WEBSITE

2019 ARBC Show Photos - Tania Hobbs and Elizabeth Hobbs-Daly ARBC Founders Errol and Gita Thomas This year’s 5th Annual Australian Reining Breeders Classic (ARBC) Show saw a record number of horse and rider combinations compete across five disciplines, Reining, Stockman’s Challenge, Campdraft, Working Cowhorse and Western Dressage. This year’s show ran for a full week from 20th to 27th April at the Dalby Equestrian Centre. The camaraderie between all disciplines has seen great friendships born from an event that began to showcase these great disciplines. To see riders from different disciplines in the open pen learning from each other is just one of the wonderful outcomes from this show. “The Fun Show” is a tag it gained a few years back and by all accounts everyone that attends is contributing to the overall great atmosphere and great sportsmanship, so thank you to everyone that once again showcased these great attributes at the ARBC, we all just love it. This year ARBC Event Organisers were proud to an- nounce 2019 Payouts to all competitors saw a total of just over $100,000 in Cash Prizes presented across all disciplines Plus Prizes valued at over $25,000 including a handcrafted Dan Kingsley Trophy Saddle, Champion- ship Buckles and two Silver handcrafted Rick Meredith bridles, not to mention Ariat Bags, Garlands, Product and Voucher prizes from our valued sponsors and much more given out over the week long show. This is one of the big- gest payouts over $125,000 in cash and prizes the ARBC has seen since its inception in 2015. The ARBC Reining Events saw cash payouts totalling $46,225 and the ARBC Stockman’s Challenge/Campdraft/ Working Cowhorse events payouts totalling $53,900. This is the biggest prize pool to date for the 5th annual ARBC Show. ARBC Event owners and coordinators, Errol and Gita Thomas were overwhelmed with the support shown for their event with over 65 Sponsors and 16 Trade Stand holders at this year’s show. They welcomed over 2000 people to the show over the weeklong event, bringing the spotlight to not only the town of Dalby but each discipline on a global platform. Livestreaming the across the world, the feedback and contact both during and after the show has been of accolades and expressions of interest coming from both competitors and sponsors, both in Australia and Overseas. To name a few of our major sponsors; Dan Kingsley Custom Saddlery for his handcrafted reining saddle for the ARBC OPEN Derby Champion and Championship ARBC Buckles, Thomas Arena Products, Xtreme Genes, Dalby General Steel, Simplicity Coatings, Rural Weekly, Marrison Hydraulics, Backhouse Training Stables, Mark Jackson Electrical, Chesterfield, Simplicity, Total Steel, Rural Weekly, Ariat, Mr Ian Francis, The Baker Fami- ly, Slide Apparel, Nathan Wilson Training Stables, Bec Laurie for the stunning garlands, Stance Global, timber trophy handcrafted by Mr Ron Fisher and Mr Rick Mere- dith for the beautifully crafted Silver Show Bridles. Overall show entries were up by over 30% on last year’s numbers with over 950 entries accepted across all dis- ciplines. The feedback from both competitors, spectators and sponsors across the board was that this show is growing so much each year, it’s fast becoming the Pre- mier Show of the year to attend. This year we saw competitors’ stream in from all states of Australia and New Zealand, all travelling great dis- tances as much for the beautiful prizes on offer at the ARBC as the prizemoney put forward. Each year we are seeing not only competitors and sponsors grow, yet big- ger crowds visiting the event to watch the all the action. 34 • The Australian Quarter Horse Magazine • May • June• 2019

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