What the heck is a Campdraft??

So you may (or may not be) wondering what the heck I’ve been talking about when I say that I’m at a campdraft. Well now is the time where I enlighten you to how this Australian sport works.

Actually here's a link to the ACA [Australian Campdraft Association] description of what campdrafting is: http://www.campdraft.com.au/Page/94/Our-sport, it may do a better job than I can!

But of course I want to have a go at explaining it myself, I even have some graphics and pictures to aid me because I’m pretty sure when I just blabber on about it I would confuse you even more. This next picture will be the most helpful, so refer to that for the next bit.

You start of in the “camp” in which there are ten cows (they call them “beasts"). What you do here is pick out which beast you want out of the group – you pick it depending on how attentive it is to you and your horse, how long it’s been in the camp (they rotate a new one in for each rider), or for other reasons like if it looks fast and you have a horse that does well chasing fast cattle, etc. So you and your horse work together to single this beast away from the main group and towards the front of the camp where the gate to the rest of the arena is.  Now this is easier said than done because cattle don’t like being singled out and will always try to get back to the main group - which of course is in the opposite side of the camp than you want it to go. But you don’t just want to single your beast out and go right out the gate, you want to prove to the judge that your horse is good at “cutting” which is turning sharply and blocking the beast as it tries to go back. The highest score you can get in the camp is 26 but I have yet to see anyone get higher than a 24. A good camp score is 20 + but if you let the beast get past you and your horse you get a low score, like a 14 or 13. And if you let the beast get past you twice the judge will crack his whip, signifying that you are done-zo and get a no score for your run. 

Here's Brendan on Snippy in the camp. At this point he's picking a beast out for her and because Snips is a super fast horse he was most likely picking out a beast that was lively and attentive.

Occasionally if you are unable to successfully cut out a beast and the judge cracks his whip, the beast you were attempting to cut out still needs to be removed from the camp so the next rider has a choice of ten fresh cattle. That's a major part of each campdraft actually, having enough cattle donors to make sure there is a fresh beast for each competitor and horse.

Once you have successfully cut your beast out and called for the gate to be opened you are in the main arena. Your objective here is to now chase the beast around two pegs and then through the “gate”, which is just two pegs that are close together. If you look at the above picture you will see the direction you should go (but if it’s a left-hand course you just reverse the direction). You get 4 points for successfully going around the two pegs and gating your beast. But a good number of competitors will only get 3 points because though they went around the first two pegs (the first peg is worth 2 points, the second peg is worth 1) they weren’t able to gate their beast (worth 1 point). But the majority of your score comes from the course work score the judge awards you while you and your horse are chasing the beast around the course. The maximum amount of points you can get here is 70 but the average is anywhere from 55-65. You get judged here on how much control you have over your horse, how well your horse can direct the beast (for example following it really close on its right side to turn it to the left or vice versa), and how well your horse handles the beast you picked out (some are very fast, some are very slow, some just stop and lay down). There are a few ways you don’t get an outside score; your beast runs off course (aka the opposite direction of the first peg), the beast runs into the perimeter fence, you fall off your horse, your horse falls over, etc and you end up with just your camp score. So overall the highest score you can get is 100 (26 + 4 + 70) but most of the time the high scores are from 85-90.

This is Brendan on Hope, he had just called for the gates to be opened and is now chasing the beast out into the arena. 

Here is a competitor chasing a beast round the first peg (this was a left-hand course). You can see the second peg in the background.

Each weekend there are different drafts (events or classes) at the campdraft: maiden, novice, open, restricted open, junior, juvenile, ladies, and encouragement drafts. The junior draft is for kids younger than 13, the juvenile is for 13-17 year olds, and the ladies is for, well, ladies. The encouragement draft is for novice riders (like me; Brendan keeps trying to convince me to let him sign me up for an encouragement draft. HA HA HA.) However the rest of the drafts are dependent on your horse’s skill level and not really on yours. The maiden is for horses that have never won a draft before, but once they have won one they cannot participate in the maiden any more. The novice and open are kind of the same – it’s for horses that are a bit more experienced but the open is more advanced as once your horse has won either three novice drafts or one open they can no longer compete in the novice anymore. And the restricted open is for horses that have won an open draft before. A lot of times there is an initial first round for each draft and if you score well (usually they take 83-85 and up) you go on to either the second round or the final round – it depends on how many competitors there are at that weekend’s campdraft. So you add up each round score to get a total score and the rider with the highest score is the winner. And though first place has the highest prize money, you also get money for placing (usually the first 10 places) and also for highest round score as well. Obviously if you campdraft you are doing it because you enjoy the sport, but because you have to pay for each first round run for each horse, which is about $50, you are also competing to win to make it financially worth it to go each weekend.

A junior draft competitor... the beast was bigger than the pony!

The "dreaded whip crack".

So yeah, that briefly sums up the world of campdrafting. Brendan brings 6-7 horses to each campdraft and he goes practically every weekend. So far the furthest I have gone away from Roma with him is to Tamworth NSW, which was 9 hours away. But typically we go to different towns in QLD that are about 5-6 hours away. We usually end up leaving Friday morning and come home Sunday afternoon though that depends on when the draft starts and finishes. And though it’s the weekend, we have work to do while we are away at the drafts. I’m still responsible for feeding, trotting/warming-up, and cleaning the horses but I also need to be aware of how Brendan is doing because if he gets two horses (or more) close together in a second or final round I need to help him saddle those horses and sometimes even have them waiting for him at the arena so he can hop off one and onto the other. But overall once those little chores are done I have plenty of free time to do stuff on my own, like go online to post blogs! And of course the nightlife at campdrafts is always in full swing as it seems like everyone at the campdraft are old friends and always appreciate a few cold ones to aid them in catching up. It’s pretty fun, especially now that I understand the scoring a bit better than I did and now that I can recognize a few riders and horses that I have seen at previous campdrafts to see how they are doing that weekend. And now that Pascale is working at Brendan’s it’s fun to have a friend to hang out with during the day and go out with at night.

Time to eat!! Rosette, Hope, and Basil are anxiously waiting for their dinner!

Inside the truck; there are two cots for Pascale and I, a bed that folds down for Brendan, a microwave, fridge, shower, and sink and plenty of cupboard space for food and towels, etc.

The horses can be tied up around the truck when we are getting ready to leave either home or the campdraft. 

And this is what the truck looks like when we have packed up the human stuff and are about to load the horses. 

So hopefully you understand a little bit better about what I’m doing each weekend now! If any of that was confusing or you have more questions just let me know!! I hope everyone is doing good wherever they may be!

xoxo Zee