Participants have been blown away by the increase in the number of Off-The-Track thoroughbred horses at the recent Dayboro working cow horse club stockman's challenge.
In the space of a few months, the number of former and current racehorses competing from the first leg of the stockman's challenge series, that was held in late May, to the second one in July has doubled.
Sharryn Livingstone, a licenced thoroughbred trainer out of Deagon, is on the committee of the Dayboro working cow horse club and was pleased to see the big rise in thoroughbred horses taking part in the second leg of the challenge in the series.
“For the first round of the challenge, we only had the three thoroughbreds attend, which were my three horses,” Livingstone said.
“And, for this one, we ended with six thoroughbreds – I know that does not sound like a lot to many people but it really is a big thing to get that many more in a short space of time.
“We had five thoroughbreds in the encouragement class, which makes it a competition within a competition.
“People just love my horse “George” and they cannot believe that he is still racing while doing this other stuff as well and they are starting to have a better understanding of thoroughbred horses.
“Hopefully people start purchasing more thoroughbreds and using them as they are versatile at everything.”
While official results are yet to released, the former and current racehorses all finished midfield in the overall series.
Livingstone earlier this year stated how that two weeks of mustering had completely turned around the attitude and fortunes on the track of former problem child Heart Vandelay, who races and competes in Off-The-Track events regularly.
Heart Vandelay took part in the recent Dayboro working cow horse club stockman's challenge, alongside other OTT horses such as Lunar Zephyr, Brad the Lad and Enterprise Jack, among others.