2019 |
Tom Quilty Preview
The hope of every endurance rider is to win a Tom Quilty Buckle; the dream is to win the Tom Quilty Gold Cup
In July this year over 350 riders will converge on the small country town of Imbil, located in the beautiful Mary Valley on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, to tackle one of the southern hemisphere’s largest National Endurance Championships, the Tom Quilty Gold Cup.
T
he anticipation and excitement will be palpable at midnight on July 12 with both riders and their horses eager to take on the 160-kilometre challenge of Australia’s most prestigious endurance ride. The ride is steeped in history and those who have completed it will never forget the exhilaration when they cross
the line. So much so, that many will return year after year to take on the challenge, irrespective of where in Australia the event is hosted. This year riders will travel from across the land and as far afield as South America, Scotland and South Africa to attempt to complete the ride with a tagline that says it all: To complete is to win.
So where did it all begin? This truly iconic Australian event was established in 1966 by Erica and R.M. Williams who loved long distance riding and their Arabian horses. At the time R.M. was the editor of Hoofs and Horns, a pioneer horse magazine which reported widely on the Tevis Cup, an annual endurance event held in the Sierra high country in the United States of America. It had been 11 years since Tevis Cup ride organiser Wendell Robie had set out to prove that a modern-day horse could
Above: The beautiful Mary Valley on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast will play host to the 2019 Tom Quilty Gold Cup. Photo: Sarah Sullivan Photography.
AHN
April 2019