Photo: courtesy of Bright Stars Modelling.

Well, they’re not the words that 15 year-old Stacey Bentley would use, nevertheless, she is the best young Paint Horse rider in the country, and this striking young woman will soon leave for Fort Worth, Texas to prove her own worth as one of the best riders of the Paint Horse in the world. Stacey spoke to Hinterland Times editor, Michael Berry about this rarely known, but growing sport.

“Competition is like a western type of show with the emphasis on what they call Western Pleasure”, says Stacey. “You wear what the cowboys wear – leather stock curved saddles with shiny silver ornaments. The aim is that the
horse goes around in a relaxed manner with you being as relaxed as you can too, but having full control. The horse goes around on a long rein; they have to look willing. There’s a bit of an art to it.

Photo: courtesy of Agile Photographics.

“You ride around the outside of the arena, the judge will stand in the middle and they will call out to walk or to jog or lope which is a form of cantering but slower. They judge on how well trained the horse is, how well you ride yourself with position and leg aids.”

Paint Horse riding has become the second biggest show horse event in the US. The special quarter horse and thoroughbred  breed has striking white patches ‘painted’ over its body and the genuine  Paint Horse rider looks like a cut-out from Wild Bill Hikock’s Wild West Show.

When you see her all dressed up Stacey Bentley wears her wide cowgirl hat, silver belt buckle, wide chaps with frills down the leg, wrangler jeans, high boots and rhinestone covered shirt. A good paint horse rider must also learn equitation – a form of etiquette in the saddle. You have to look prim and
proper, relaxed but not sloppy.

Stacey is raising money for her airfares and expenses to Fort Worth in June when she will be in a team of four under eighteen year-olds.

Photo: courtesy of Francene Neuendorf.

“When we get there we literally draw a horse out of a hat”, says Stacey. You only have about 40 minutes with the horse before your event. So, you’ve got to be able to ride any horse, adapt and do your best. You might get a horse
that has been trained completely differently to what you’re used to, so there’s a bit of luck and some strategy to it to be the best rider that you can be.

“They also have a team relay on foot where you run from station to station having to piece together a bridle, then to another and say, put together a map of the world. Then there’s knowledge of the horse competition, a teams
parade with a set theme. Then they add up all the results. Last year Australia got fourth.”

Stacey was born into a horse-riding family. Their Kunda horse stud in Peachester has its own ring and stables and Stacey trains and rides her own paint horse called Odette. Stacey’s grandmother and mother have both been
champion riders and their trophies from decades past literally line the entire lounge / dining room of the grandparents’ home.

“My mum rides, trains and breaks paint horses, so I was kind of born into it”, says Stacey matter of factly. I started competing when I was 12. I have been to the state and national championships every year since then. In the last two years I have got high point junior youth (14 and under). At the state show I got high point junior for two years and high point youth overall (18 and under).”

Is there a secret to Stacey’s winning form? “Well, you see some people riding around who have such plain, scrunched up expressions. I enjoy myself and the bond that I have between me and my horse, Odette.”

“Presentation is the key”, adds Stacey. “I make sure all my tack and clothes are clean and I am fit well. And I pay attention to things like hair, make-up, clothes, etc. If you come into the arena on a dirty horse, with a bad outfit you will not place; the judge won’t even give you a second look.”

Stacey, who is a Year 11 student at Beerwah State High, is also doing a retail traineeship. She rides 4-5 days a week and when she leaves school she has ambitions of going back to America to work as a ranch farmhand.

Win or lose in Fort Worth Texas, one thing is sure. Stacey has her hands firmly on the reins of her future.

LIZZIE YORKSTON is into her third year of a Bachelor of Human Movement degree at the University of Queensland. She wants to be a senior PE teacher and apart from keeping fit herself she has to study human physiology. Lizzie has organised her own gym program at the well-equipped Maleny Gym and thinks keeping herself fit is simply part of her own career path. For the first few

years that path will probably mean teaching PE to children in Queensland country schools, something this young person is quite cool about.

Patrick Campbell is in Year 12 at Maleny High this year and at 16 he is already an accomplished and dedicated sportsman. He has won several school swimming records, but his focus is now as a sprinter. At a zone carnival last year he achieved 11.3 secs in the 100 metres which gave him a buzz and made him realise that he had the speed to at least qualify for the Asian National Games.

Patrick trains 4-5 times a week at the Maleny Gym under the guidance of personal trainer Dan Clarke. His personal challenge is to improve his upper body stature and build up his hamstrings – the key leg

muscles for a sprinter. Patrick intends to build up slowly through low level

competition and see where his personal fitness will lead him. Of course Year 12 will be a busy one for Patrick who knows he has to carefully arrange his studies alongside his personal fitness program and his part-time job of junior swimming coach at the Maleny pool. But then Patrick, like Lizzie, is well able to stretch himself to his outer limits.

Maleny Community Gym is located at the Maleny Showgrounds. Contact trainer April Adsett Ph: 5494766 or email: apriladsett@hotmail.com

Among its many benefits, Rhee TaeKwon-Do promotes self discipline, health & fitness, moral values and personal growth, while improving confidence and encouraging self reliance. Rhee TaeKwon-Do is an Australia wide organisation, with 12 branches on the Sunshine Coast.

“Every 3 months our Master Instructor, World Master Chong Chul Rhee, visits the Sunshine Coast, allowing students the opportunity to receive instruction from a World Master.” said Nathan. “This is a benefit unique to Rhee TaeKwon-Do”.

You’re invited to come along to the Maleny Community Centre on Maple Street Maleny at 5pm on Tuesday or Thursday and take advantage of the Unlimited Free Trial currently on offer. Phone 0419 496 160 or 5447 0166 for more information.

The Red Bull race takes paragliders over the dangerous Alps

A hazardous paragliding adventure across Europe
Many people believe there is no adventure left in the world, but Lloyd Pennicuik is living proof that adventure is where you find it. Lloyd is an adventure athlete who is about to take off on the most dangerous and most gruelling race yet thought of.
In July Lloyd will join 30 other international paragliders who will fly, run and stagger 818 kms from Salzburg to Monaco. This 20 days and nights, non-stop  adventure is over the snow-capped Alps, with turning points in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland and France. Athletes must carry their flying equipment at all times which weighs a hefty 20kg. Hopefully, they finish on the beautiful Mediterranean Coast with the winner the first to fly, walk or run across the line.
Lloyd Pennicuik is one of the super fit and highly skilled international paragliders who has been selected to contest what’s known as the “Red Bull X Alps” adventure. He is the only Australian amongst athletes from around the world from Germany to Japan.
Residents of the Hinterland may have seen Lloyd floating off the ridges of the Range. He flies regularly with the Conondale Flyers and he is now looking for sponsorship for this expensive ($40,000) leap into the unknown. He spoke to the Hinterland Times about the enormous physical demands of the ‘Red Bull’.

Lloyd steers his glider by simply pulling down on the lines in each hand

“I found sky-diving rather boring. You go up, jump out and it’s a big rush for a bit then it’s all over quickly. I started with flying trikes, a powered hang glider, then I jumped into hang gliders. I got fairly good pretty quickly and entered the 2001 world championships in Spain after only competing for about two years.
It’s this amazing mental game you play when you are up in the air. As soon as you’re flying across country, you’re looking for these invisible thermals, invisible parcels of hot air rising that’s rising up. You’re looking at the cloud conditions, what the winds doing, what it’s doing when it snakes up valleys.
“Generally you’re up for two or three hours. I do a lot of competitions. I did a flight once from Widgee up near Gympie all the way up past Chinchilla, 200kms in a straight line, that took me five and a half hours. I only landed because I wasn’t sure whether anyone was coming out to pick me up.
Paragliders  basically sit in a padded bag. They navigate by GPS in a little electronic cockpit unit that sits in their lap. It also tells them whether they’re going up or down in foggy weather.
A race involves taking off from a set point and then turning at points which are set into the GPS. Race goers have to fly within a radius of those turning points and then to a finish line. You get scored on the speed which you have flown the course. You fly at about 40km an hour. You can speed them up to 60kms an hour and you steer them by pulling down on a couple of lines, just like a parachute.
“There are massive distances in between turning points and when you land, you pack all your gear into a back pack and start running. And it’s non-stop night and day. We have a GPS tracking device on us that sends data via a every 15 minutes to the Red Bull’s (sponsor) internet site. So there is live tracking the whole time. We also have one supporter who can drive a vehicle and feed you. We are also allowed to sleep in the vehicle.
The Red Bull race is always a gruelling test of stamina says Lloyd.
“This is a non-stop, full-on race. If you can stay awake 24 hours a day, then you just go for it. You can only fly during daylight hours so that during the night I was running all the time. You have to be fit. I ran between one and two marathons a day every day. The prize is 10,000 euros this year. This is the hardest endurance race in the world, and one of the most dangerous , taking off in turbulent conditions, three hours sleep a day. It took me 17 days to complete the race last time and I was averaging 3-4 hours of sleep a day. You’re either running or flying. Mentally, it’s just ridiculously hard.

 “It’s ridiculously expensive and I am still paying off the last race”, says Lloyd. “I have a website and I am raffling off my wing from the last competition.  I would appreciate more sponsorship”
Contact Lloyd Pennicuik on email: lloydpennicuik@hotmail.com

Previous dances were a great success for the club and a lot of fun for local families.  Single and family tickets are available which include a BBQ dinner and adult and children’s dance sessions including rock & roll, line dancing, barn and square dancing.Everyone will go into the draw for lucky door prizes and there will be a prize for the best country dress.   Cost is $20 for adults and $60 for a family. 

Tickets are available at Blackall Range Financial Services and Brady & Metcalfe.For more details contact James on 5472 7869.

“When I was younger, I would not touch the water,” Patrick admits “But then I saw the world swimming championships and I thought they were pretty good.”

From a young age, Patrick had a passion for competing in several sports including soccer and swimming.
“I like swimming for the thrill of when you win, when you get a podium finish or break a record. You swim fastest when you’re competing because you get the adrenalin rush. And, everyone likes to win.”

Each week, Patrick devotes most mornings and afternoons to the pool. As a result he has represented Maleny on numerous occasions, making his way through district and regional carnivals and even through to the Queensland championships.

This year, Patrick has broken two Maleny High School records. The first was the 15 year boys 50m breaststroke. Patrick annihilated the record, coming in with a speedy 34.81 seconds.
The second record he broke was on the athletics track with the challenging 200m sprint.
The record had stood for 15 years before Patrick came along. He ran the race with outstanding technique and speed, barely giving his onlooking peers time to blink before crossing the finish line.

Patrick completed the race in an exceptional 24.63 seconds, beating the previous record by a little over 3 seconds. “Breaking a record is good because you see all the hard work finally paying off,” he says.
Although skilled in most sports, Patrick’s main focus is swimming the breaststroke. And when one sees him competing, it’s not hard to see why. “I like the power when you’re bringing yourself up out of the water.”
Patrick feels that the breaststroke is harder than most people think.

Japanese Olympian Kosuke Kitajima is Patrick’s idol. Kitajima is currently sitting on three gold medals at the Beijing Olympics, where he also broke the world record in the men’s 100m breaststroke.
“Well, I like him because he’s got a cool name, and he does the same stroke style as me.” Patrick says. He believes that if he puts in the effort and trains hard enough, he may have a future in swimming, like Kosuke Kitajima.

Patrick’s aim is to start training 7 - 9 sessions a week in readiness for the upcoming swimming season. He claims that it’s hard finding the time for school, work and swimming but he’s determined.
So, keep your eye out for Patrick Campbell, Australian breaststroker, in London’s 2012 Olympics.

A few days ago they successfully ushered in the birth of their first foal of the season.  “Prestige” was born to a fully imported warm blood Argentinus mare with David quick to identify a future show jumper.
“He’s straight, a fine face, plenty of bone and not too heavy”, says David with a smile on his face.

David and Pam’s  stunning new 106 acre Tengarra horse stud has been taking shape for two years on Mountain View Road. Maleny. And local ‘sticky-beaking’ has been intense as mud has turned into green paddocks, and the impressive timber fencing defines the perimeter of this picture postcard property.
As David says with a laugh, “there’s been a lot of interest. We’ve had aeroplanes flying over and helicopters taking photos. It’s amazing”.

But David is quick to point out that there’s  is not a flash property. “I’m a pretty average sort of guy. I don’t get around in suits and ties. That’s why I like Maleny. It’s pretty relaxed.”

“We looked all around Queensland for a property to do our show jumping. But in many places there’s no lifestyle. It might be good horse country but at the end of the day there’s no life.  In Maleny you’ve got the best of both worlds . You’re in the hinterland and if you want to go down to the hustle and bustle of the Coast, it’s there”.

David and Pam are Bundaberg people, with David setting off to plant trees, run cattle and horses as soon as he left school as a 15 year old. By the time they were bought out two years ago by a large corporate organisation, David and Pat had assembled a number of rural properties.
“We were orchardists basically, avocado and mangoes,” says David, “and we used to run a lot of cattle all over the countryside”.

With five children and a strong interest in horses, David and Pat turned a personal corner and decided to set up a property for horse jumping. Their daughter Sam is the only professional show jumper in the family and it was another daughter Chrystal who found the Maleny property on the internet after David had been looking for 12 months.

“I knew as soon as I drove in that it was the right place but there was a lot of erosion”, says David. I brought a lot of machinery down with me from Bundaberg. We tidied up the erosion. Did the fencing ourselves.  People wondered what we were doing here for a while because it was a bit of an eyesore. But we’ve gradually tidied it up.”

David is conscious of the bruising impact of the flu virus on the thoroughbred industry in recent times and so he’s moving cautiously into the breeding of race horses.  Part of his attraction to Maleny was the development of Corbauld Park as one of the major race tracks in the state. 

“We have 50 horses at the moment. We are spelling most of them for the thoroughbred industry. We have three of our own warm blood stallions here for stud, for outside mares to come in. The basics are spelling paddocks with a shelter shed. You can put million dollar horses in those pens. It’s safe. “

David’s daughter Sam is the driving force behind the showjumping aspect of the property. Apart from her own professional show jumping agenda, Sam teaches young children riding and show jumping.  Spelled horses will also be trained and re-educated using their two 70 by 30 metre training rings.

The Courtices are optimistic about the future. People just keep bringing in horses says David. “We have 10 brood mares of our own. We breed 8-9 foals and we have 40 of our own horses here including three stallions.”

As for “Prestige”, the Maleny-born foal, for the next three years he will have the pleasure of simply galloping around the Maleny hills. He will then be broken in and trained for his first competition at four – a potential champion show jumper from Tengarra Park, Maleny.

www.tengarrapark.com.au

The rigors of the recent Tour de France may not be your style, but thousands of Australians take to the saddle each week in every state. In this article we hear from two hinterland cyclists who regularly head off around the Range in rain, wind or shine.

Marek Malter took up cycling about 15 years ago literally  to keep up with his wife. Libby had climbed onto a bike in 1994 to compete in the triathlon at the World Masters Games in Brisbane. The couple have been following each other’s rear wheel ever since.

Marek and Libby are enthusiastic amateurs but they have completed a number of vigorous rides including the Great Victoria, Great NSW, Great Queensland and WA rides. 

Adventure gets into the blood of most committed cyclists. The Malters are no exception, having flown overseas with their  Giant brand bikes. They’ve pedalled 1100 km across France from Bordeaux  to Alp d’Huez, completed a 900km ride in Slovenia and sweated over their pedals in Laos. Their verdict is “Fabulous” says Marek. “Especially on European roads where we found cyclists were accepted with sensational courtesy”, he adds.

The health and well-being benefits of cycling are obvious to Marek and Libby who are pharmacists. There’s also the pleasure of meeting like-minded people from a wide range of backgrounds, ages and professions.

But lest you think they’re into pain therapy, the level of exercise out on the open road allows the freedom to indulge in calorific delights. In France for example no cafe stop was complete without sampling the delicious local patisseries.

On most weekends it’s not unusual to see squads of lithe cyclists pedalling up and down our hinterland roads. Marek and Libby despair at the rudeness of some motorists but the wonderful range of scenery and terrain makes up for honking horns. Their favourite weekend ride is a 50km circuit from Maleny out past the Showgrounds onto Wootha Road. A couple of hills out to the 9km mark to warm up, and then fabulous scenery overlooking the Glasshouse Mountains before a winding descent to Peachester. A rest at the fruit stall then off uphill through eucalypt forest along Bald Knob Road.

Back onto the Landsborough Road, whizzing through the Ice box, into Mountain View Road past Mary Cairncross Park  and its chocolate box view. A right turn at McCarthy’s road takes them past Maleny Dairies and back into Maleny township.

The next ride for the Malters is a 27 day epic journey around Sulawesi in Indonesia. When asked why, Marek was quick to answer, “because it’s there! This is a brand new ride destination and we’ll be going into remote parts of the highlands, fortunately with a local language speaker”.

It’s never too late to learn to ride a bike. If you’re interested in exploring pedal power check out the Bicycle Queensland website www.bq.org.au.

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