The First US Campdraft
The relatively newly formed US National Campdraft Association held it’s first ever event in Kiowa, Colorado. The even included a Judges Clinic followed by a two-day Campdrafting Clinic with professional Campdrafters and clinicians, Pete Comiskey and Steven Hart. After the 20 or so participants absorbed as much campdraft knowledge as the could, they put what they learned to the test. If you are not familiar with campdrafting, it is one of the most popular sports in Australia. There are two parts of the competition. First a rider must cut and control a “beast” (usually a full grown steer). The rider gets a score and yells “gate” That signals the gate to open and the beast is released into the arena. The rider has to negotiate the beast around a series of 3 “pegs” and receives points for the run. The two scores are added up.
The competition on Sunday had many different classes and quite a few participants who had not attended the clinic. They just came out to have a go at campdrafting! Many did quite well. The cows were fast and rank and proved to be a big challenge. Australian Stock Horses made an impressive showing over the entire weekend. About half the field in the clinic was comprised of Australian Stock Horses that had come from across the United States to attend.
I covered the event for the Australian Stock Horse Society Journal. You can find the article here.
The very first run of the day was taken by an Australian vacationing in Colorado. He won his class. But, there was much talk of hosting more Campdraft events in the US. Watch out Australia, the US campdraft riders are looking to make a clean run at your beast of a sport.