Coonabarabran Pony Club held its first rally for months on Sunday, 6 July, with overwhelming support from its members.

Like most sports, pony club and equestrian sports have been on hold for many months due to COVID-19 restrictions, meaning Coonabarabran Pony Club was unable to hold its monthly rallies or hold local competitions.

However, with some careful planning from the committee and social distancing requirements in place, the local Pony Club kicked back into gear over the weekend.

Coonabarabran Pony Club president, Paul Chapman said Sunday’s rally was strongly supported by members, with 35 riders in attendance.

“Members were all extremely keen to ride, and so enthusiastic to be out on their ponies,” Mr Chapman said.

“With COVID-19 restrictions commencing immediately after the Coonabarabran Show in March, no local horse events have been held since, so a rally was the ideal first outing for our members.

“The task of organising the rally required some careful planning by the committee, with good hygiene and social distancing being introduced, as well as COVID plans and declarations from those attending.

“For the first time, we also had senior riders participating in our rally. Generally, pony club is for Junior (under 17) and Associate Riders (17-25), but recent changes to State Pony Club rules has allowed older riders to participate. This is relatively new for us, and a positive change that our committee was keen to embrace.”

Mr Chapman said that through having a variety of instructors on the weekend, they were able to offer tuition to members in the disciplines of dressage, eventing (cross country), flat work, showjumping, sporting and horsemanship.

“We are very lucky to have knowledgeable older volunteer riders in our local community that are willing to offer their time to teach our younger riders the ropes."