FASSIFERN Vaulting experienced a fairy tale ending to more than a year and a half of challenges shaped by the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Saturday, the club’s vaulters showcased their skills to family and supporters in a two-hour program choreographed around a fairy tale that was part fantasy, part sci-fi.
And there’s potentially another fairy tale ending in the offing as Fassifern Vaulting, the club and its committee, are finalists across three categories of the Equestrian Queensland annual awards.
Long term supporter and member of the State Vaulting Committee, Lisbeth Betts, is one of eight finalists in the Administrator of the Year category.
Her daughters, Anna and Lucy, are among the 11 finalists in the Coach of the Year category and the club is named among the 10 finalists in Club of the Year.
While the winners won’t be announced until February 2022, there’s already cause for celebration says committee secretary, Erin Kerr.
“The awards are open to all disciplines of equestrian sports, so to feature as finalists in three categories is exciting.”
Especially, she says, when considering the more recent challenges the club has faced.
“Vaulting is not a ‘Covid friendly’ sport as there needs to be interaction between the vaulters, and between the vaulters and trainers and that’s not possible when there are social distancing restrictions.”
But the club managed to survive the issues this caused, unlike a number of other vaulting clubs in the State.
When it was possible, vaulting training days were held and the vaulters’ skills were further refined through work with a gymnastics coach.
“Vaulting is not as strong an equestrian sport in Queensland as it is in New South Wales and Victoria so twice during the last 18 months or so we have tried to organise and host a National Vaulting competition in New South Wales,” Erin said.
“We’d planned to hold it at the New England Girls Grammar School in Armidale as it’s more central to a number of the bigger vaulting clubs.
“We’d arranged for international judges to be there but it had to be mothballed in 2020 and again this year due to Covid.
“Our plan now is to hold it during the June-July school holidays next year.”
And international standard competition and judging is important to the club and its members.
“We need to keep developing our top vaulters and bringing the less experienced vaulters through to the top,” Erin explained.
“To do that they need to compete and to get quality feedback from the judges.”
Erin is Head of Inclusion at the Boonah State High School and admits her interest in vaulting was piqued more than three years ago when she was driving past the club’s training arena at Teviotville.
“I joined the club three years ago and I have had a ball,” she said.
“We have 15 active members ranging in age from six years old to 42 years old – that’s me of course – and we’d welcome more.
“Vaulting is statistically one of the safest equestrian sports.
“Those new to the sport go through a lot of training steps before they are allowed on a horse and I’ve found that members of Fassifern Vaulting are very supportive of each other.”