FOUR-TIME national junior champion Jack Durr will represent Australia at this year’s Pony Club International Mounted Games Exchange in the UK.
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The Carwoola teenager is one of five riders to have been selected for the Exchange which will see some of the best young equestrians from Australia, Canada, the US and the UK competing.
Mounted games is an equestrian sport that sees riders engage in displays of extreme horsemanship. Individuals or teams attempt to complete a variety of tasks from horseback in a race or relay format.
Durr, who won his first Australian Mounted Games championship in the under-12s, is also a two-time under-15s champion and last October won the national under-18s pairs title.
His selection for August’s Mounted Games Exchange however, marks the first time the 15-year-old has been chosen to represent his country.
Durr did enough to earn his ticket to Europe after impressing at a NSW state camp earlier this month.
“[Representing Australia] has been a goal for me for a little while and I was reasonably confident heading into the state camp because I knew my horse had been working well,” Durr said.
“But he has a few issues with his back and he pulled up pretty sore during that week. I didn’t actually think I rode that well to be honest so it was a relief to be selected.”
The Mounted Games Exchange will run from the 3rd-18th of August with Durr the only NSW rider selected in the Australian team.
Not content with resting on his laurels, the teenager is also hoping to qualify for the Australian side to compete at the under-17s World Mounted Games Championships in France later this year.
Selections for that team will be finalised next month.
Durr said he would be staging a number of fundraisers in a bid to help raise funds for his foreign adventures and is also hopeful of securing local sponsorship.