Upper Hunter competitors made their presence felt in the cutting show pen at Barraba on the weekend with the snafflebit prize money all coming back to the local region.
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Several non-pro cutting competitors made the trip to the north west to compete in the Peel Valley Cutting Club Barraba Show on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
It was the Rouchel duo of Simon Palmer and ‘Some Kinda Dream’ that took out top accolades in the snafflebit event on Saturday.
Palmer scored 74 points on the mare to win the event, however the thrills didn’t stop there as he also placed a close second on his other mare ‘Lectric Princess’ with 73 points.
Third place was taken out by Moonan Flat’s Murray Wilkinson on ‘A Mega Cat’ with 71.5 points, who with Palmer, have been training their horses hard for numerous events.
Palmer and Wilkinson also competed in the National Cutting Horse Association Snafflebit Futurity in March, where Palmer finished seventh overall out of more than 50 contestants.
Wilkinson also performed impressively only narrowly missing out on the final by just one point, after the two go rounds.
The local talent kept on shining with John Byrne taking out fourth place on ‘Jazzy Little Boon’ with 71 points, and fifth place being split between Camilla Rea on ‘Wombramurra Scatt’, Danielle Drayton on ‘One Spoilt Pepto’ and Sally McFarlane on ‘Rooster Rocks’, all with 70 points.
Palmer’s brother, Joe, also gained success placing equal fifth in the Rookie event on Sunday on ‘Helena Pickens’ with 70.5 points.
Local lady competitor Lynda MacCallum took out the Rookie event on ‘Broomfield Stylish Oak’ with 73 points.
Other locals to succeed included Matt Caban who placed equal fifth in the $15,000 Non-Pro on ‘EB’s Mainline’ with 70.5 points, Col Moore placed in the $15,000 Non-Pro on ‘Catsonita’ and Link Baumann placed second in the open event on ‘Peptos Stylish Player’.
In the youth event, Kaitlin Smith and ‘BR Fire Storm’ and Emma Moore and ‘Catsonita’ both placed.
Palmer, who is a horse breaker by trade and trains his own horses for the show pen, said he was really happy with the win and how the mare performed.
“We got a good draw and good cattle, and the mare did everything right,” he said.
“She is a good mare and she was just awesome on the day.
“She read her cows so well and just ran across there and shut down, she was just great.”
Competitors will take a break now until the next affiliate show in Scone in October, followed by another event in Armidale.