Ten-year-old Jorja Power from Walcha was the highest aggregate point scorer at the Australian Interschool Equestrian championships last month.
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She was a member of the NSW team of 64 riders who competed across a range of disciplines including showing, show jumping, combined training, dressage and eventing.
A total of 368 riders from all states and territories took part in the Australian championships which were held at the Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre in Melbourne on September 3.
At the closing ceremony Jorja was awarded the prestigious Australian Pony Stud Book Best Performed Pony, based on the highest aggregate individual points across all disciplines and all ages. Her prize was a custom inscribed woollen rug, while the three reserve champions received saddlecloths, feed and vouchers.
During the first two days of competition Jorja took part in the combined training and show horse disciplines. After the dressage element of the combined training, Jorja was in fifth position, but a clear round in the jumping phase saw her move up into fourth place.
She was fourth in the show horse for the in-hand phase, backing up on Wednesday to capture a second.
This outstanding result, placing in all three phases led to Jorja being named reserve champion competitor for the overall Show Hunter Horse Championship.
In the preliminary dressage competition the scores from two ridden tests gave Jorja an overall fifth, which included rarely seen scores of nine out of 10 for some elements.
The novice dressage on the final day of competition was of an extremely high level for primary aged riders. Jorja was seventh in one of the most tightly contested competitions of the championships.
During the award presentations, Jorja was named one of the four highest point scoring riders for NSW in both the show horse and dressage, with the NSW team the reserve champions for these disciplines.
Jorja was the highest point scoring rider for the entire NSW team, aged between eight and 18 years.
She earned the honour of representing NSW at the Australian Championships in show horse, combined training and dressage after she had top two finishes in each of these three events at the state championships held in Sydney in June this year.
Jorja’s results were a remarkable achievement considering this was only her fourth competition with her horse Namoi Valley Christoph.