Sport
31 January, 2022
Torimba Queen determined to join campdrafting royalty
NOMINATED in the Ravenshoe Junior Sports category of this year's Australia Day awards and sitting at the number one spot in the Australian Campdrafting Association's (ACA) Juvenile Northern Zone standings, reigning Torimba Queen Anastasia Theocari knows what she wants and does not hesitate to chase down her dreams.
Growing up on Morecambe Station, near Mt Garnet in a “horse focussed family”, Anastasia competed in the “minis” at her first campdraft at Eureka Creek when she was just eight years of age.
“I played football and netball for two years, making it into the Atherton and Mareeba representative teams, but I decided early on that campdrafting was my sport,” Anastasia said.
Australia's second biggest equestrian sport after horse racing and unique to this country, campdrafting kicked off at the Tenterfield show in 1885 and exemplifies the horse work carried out on our cattle stations throughout the interior.
“My ultimate goal is to become one of Australia's top horsewomen. I want to win the title for the year's highest scoring Open rider,” Anastasia said.
“I would like to be versatile enough to perform well in the arena and to train horses to do well in a number of events. I would love to win the Man from Snowy River Challenge."
Offering a huge prize pool, the annual challenge highlights the special relationship between horse and rider in an intense, hard-fought competition.
“I am lucky to have been attending horsemanship clinics for many years and have observed the techniques adopted by the sport's leaders. At industry events, I am like a sponge, always trying to soak up as much knowledge as I can,” Anastasia said.
“You will always find me sitting with the ‘best of the best’, listening to their advice, watching how they warm up their horses before an event, just watching and listening how they do what they do.”
Anastasia received a huge confidence boost when she placed 6th in the Juvenile Draft National Finals at Mareeba in 2019.
“I was so nervous before the competition I told my Mum I thought I was going to be sick, but getting into the top 10 in such a big event really put a cherry on top of my year,” she said.
“I placed in the Novice final in Normanton and decided to work really hard in 2020 to consistently place or get around a full course at every opportunity. My 2021 competition highlight occurred at Eureka Creek when I won the Juvenile event and topped the carnival with my cut out score of 94 points.”
That weekend, the 16-year-old also managed a 4th in the Novice draft on Stylish Miss Chick and made it into the winners circle, scoring a 10th place in the $40,000 Nugget of the North Maiden Draft on Laroona Madonna.
“That day I got my first taste of being in the line-up with the ‘best of the best’ from Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. So many experienced competitors have helped me to keep improving and inspired me to keep improving,” she said.
Anastasia's typical day starts at 5am when she warms her horses up with a 10km run before a session of drafting practice, working on their ability to move, stop and read a cow, attends school and repeats it all again in the afternoon.
Covid stopped Anastasia getting to the Warwick Gold Cup last year, but this year she hopes to spend several months on the road attending premier events at Condamine, Chinchilla and Warwick and the National ACA finals in Springsure in April for her last chance to contest the National Title as a Juvenile.
Wherever she tours and competes, Anastasia is passionate about promoting her beloved home town of Ravenshoe and while at home she is committed to training young local children in all aspects of horsemanship.
“This year I want to start holding 15 years and under riding clinics, getting kids onto a horse, teaching them the basics and putting them through a camp drafting dry pattern I will adapt to suit the program,” she said.
During her own school holidays, Anastasia travelled to Ellimeek Station near Pentland to take part in a Darcy Davison run three-week horse clinic which involved 10 people taking 40 unbroken, unhandled horses and starting from the ground up, delivering each horse back to their owners in a “ready to ride” state at the end of the 21 days.
“It’s amazing what you can do with a horse in three weeks,” Anastasia said.
“We could ride them standing up in the saddle and crack whips off their back. I would eventually like to breed and train my own stallion and have him standing at stud.”
But in the meantime, the 2022 school captain plans to finish Year 12 and pursue veterinary science, agribusiness or ag science at university with the aim of working with the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and eventually setting up her own mobile practice as an equine vet.
With all of that planned, it’s just as well Miss Theocari started her scheduled Year 12 assessments last year to ensure she could squeeze everything in to what is sure to be a very hectic year to come.
