Two Launceston students achieved high levels of success at the Australian Interschool Equestrian Championships held in Sydney last week.
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Scotch Oakburn's Ruby Hirst and Launceston Church Grammar's Charlotte Youngman both won stages of their respective events with 12-year-old Hirst taking home the champion primary show jumping rider at the event.
Held at Sydney International Equestrian Centre in Horsley Park, the venue that hosted the 2000 Olympics event, Hirst and her horse Butterscotch Brittle placed in the top three across all three of her events.
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Winning the championship by three points, the Scotch student also contributed to the Tasmanian primary school team, who finished third featuring Jock Johnson (Longford), Chloe Daun and Maya Stephens (both Hobart-based).
Becoming the fourth Hirst sibling after sisters, Alice, Emily and Bethany, to compete at the interschool championships, Ruby followed in Bethany's footsteps, with the now-16-year-old a reserve champion in combined training several years earlier.
Still competing at interschools in the highest level offered, Bethany finished 11th in competition.
The sibling duo are still in New South Wales taking part in the Pony Club Nationals throughout this week before returning to compete in their home-town event, the Westbury Show.
Earlier in the event, Youngman turned around her fortunes as the grade 11 student took out a round at the championships.
Defeating 17 of Australia and New Zealand's top school riders in the one-round stakes, Youngman and her horse, Miss Calamity Jane, were the quickest over the jumps and around the circuits with no faults involved - a feat only three riders in the division achieved.
Zooming around at a speed of 56.14 seconds, the Tasmanian representative edged out New South Wales competitors Alexandra Inglis and Jack Haynes who clocked times of 63.93 and 64.71 respectively.
It's certainly a mind game. Every day is a new day and jumping indoor is something we don't do in Tasmania.
- Genevieve Youngman
The outstanding result came off the back of a personal disappointment a day earlier in the 1.10-metre show jumping event as the pair knocked off four poles, something Youngman's mother Genevieve put down to the change in conditions.
"It's certainly a mind game. Every day is a new day and jumping indoor is something we don't do in Tasmania," she said.
"There's lights, music and a crowd which is fairly different to jumping out at Westbury. It's all very elite."
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