Forbes Pony Club 2026 Charlie O’connor Showjump Day And Gymkhana

The Forbes Pony Club (FPC) has been running since 1965, with many successful riders starting their riding days at the club, Forbes has always been known as a com­petitive club that produces quality riders.

Last weekend was a huge weekend for the club. The Charlie O’Connor Showjump­ing event was held on Saturday 2 May and the FPC Gymkhana was held on 3 May.

The Charlie O’Connor Jumping event is a showjumping day held by Forbes Pony Club, where riders compete over jumps at different heights based on their skill lev­el. It’s one of the club’s main competitive events of the year.

A gymkhana is a fun equestrian event, run by local clubs, with each Club hosting one annual gymkhana in their hometown. Rid­ers of ages 3 – 25 take part in show events such as best rider, skilled based races, bar­rel races and games for beginners. Riders from clubs all over the central west came to Forbes to represent their club.

The Forbes Pony Club gymkhana fea­tures a very special event called the “John Stewart Memorial Barrel Race”. The riders with the five fastest barrel race times on the day compete in the finals for the title. Up for grabs was an embroidered prize rug spon­sored by Flemings Property Services. The 2026 winner was reigning champ Abi Bem­brick with a time of 19.748 seconds.

It was highly contested with the top three riders coming in just one point second apart, Mercadez Cartwright from Young Pony Club came in second with a time of 19.898 sec­onds closely followed by Forbes rider Jack White with a time of 20.637. The presenta­tion was supported by John Stewart’s Fam­ily, mother Lois Stewart and sister Kathy Welsh.

Caitlin Lewis of the FPC said, “Over­all the weekend was a huge success with many thanks to our hard working commit­tee, it takes a huge amount of behind the scenes work to get an event like this run­ning. We are grateful for anyone who gets in and helps out prior to or on the day. We had amazing Canteen ladies Jodi Bilsbrough and Leeanne Lewis who kept us fed all weekend.

“We also had three senior students from Red Bend Catholic College who came to help out, they were put to work helping score events, hand out ribbons and take or­ders in the canteen, they were an amazing help on the day.

“Our beginners ring was a hit which was evident by the many smiles from our little riders, this was made possible by Jenna Krakouer who organised and ran the be­ginners ring on the day, Jenna had 15 tiny riders and ponies to entertain, not an easy feat.”

If you want to be part of the FPC, they of­fer ‘Come Try’ memberships where a rider can attend a rally day with their horse to see if it is the right fit for them. See Forbes Pony Club on Facebook for more information.