Every year, in early May, the bit town of Scone in new South Wales lights up. As the equine funding of Australia, the Scone equine celebration is one of the very best times of year to find as well as find exactly how things are performed in the country.

We like visiting rural areas of Australia. discovering that lost connection between the city as well as the countryside is fascinating. Mrs romance as well as I just recently visited the bit gem of a country town called Scone, about 3 ½ hours north of Sydney.

We’ve discovered that – under that quiet, sometimes stoic exterior, these bit Aussie towns have a huge heart that beats difficult as well as quick – you just have to discover out what increases the pulse.

With Scone (pronounced so it rhymes with ‘stone’ by the way; never “sconn”), it’s all about the horses. Yes, the money from close-by mining jobs have stimulated the town, however it’s the equine breeders – the stud – that truly makes this location tick.

So when we heard that the biggest equine town in the country – in truth the second biggest equine stud town in the world – was having its annual equine festival, we couldn’t wait to inspect it out.

The celebration runs over 15 days in early may each year, however we were only right here for the weekend. Still, we were soon to find that even such a short time will provide you a excellent taste of what Scone’s all about.

Scone equine Festival

What did we see as well as do?

The ball

There’s plenty to do over the Scone equine Festival. The celebration sphere (a.k.a. the Australian stock equine society equine celebration Ball) marks the begin of the celebration appropriate as well as is worth a look. You requirement to book tickets to this one.

The equine Parade

A genuine show of the neighborhood spirit, the parade includes everybody from the town’s polo team as well as the mounted armed forces as well as authorities to schools, neighborhood groups as well as even auto clubs.

The procession takes over the entire primary street as well as actually stops traffic. There are MCs such as this fella on the roof of the royal hotel announcing participants as they go by – we truly enjoyed this part of the festival.

Farrier Competition

Think incredibly tough guy working with white-hot braziers as well as hammering white-hot metal into horseshoes. There’s a innovative aspect to the competition in addition to ‘hot-shoeing’ horses. It’s incredible to see watch this much overlooked craft in action.

Tentpegging

A little-known aspect of horsemanship, tentpegging goes back to when mounted armed forces efforts would descend on an opponent encampment as well as wreak havoc by cutting down tents. These days, riders spear pegs stuck in the ground as they trip past. The competitors make it look simple however I get the feeling it’s not.

 

Rodeo

The crowd-pleaser, the rodeo is a variety of different skills on horseback. Rope as well as tie, bronc riding, bullriding… it’s a great deal of fun as well as some impressive skills are on screen here.

Polo

One of Australia’s oldest, Scone Polo Club is an organization – figuratively as well as literally! They now likewise have the very first ever all-woman polo competition here.

Watching the polo is a quite low-key design as well as about as country as you can get. Of course, there’s a licensed bar as well as food available, however the clubhouse is quite open plan as well as rustic!

Pig racing

Obviously not directly part of the equestrian festivities however a bettable race nonetheless. tucked away in the courtyard of the royal hotel on the corner of Kelly St as well as St Aubins St – easily across the road from our hotel actually!

Watch the racing piglets hurtle round a track to get to the bowl of food in the middle. It’s so funny – particularly when they noise the bugle contact us to begin the race, the piggies all understand what’s going on as well as get extremely excited as well as swarm the begin line!

Where did we eat?

There are rather a few choices for food in Scone, which is a pleasant surprise for its size. There’s the ubiquitous Chinese restaurant of course, as well as there are sufficient pubs as well as the RSL to keep you fat as well as fed.

But if you’re looking for a truly excellent feed, The Cottage is the only location you requirement to understand about.

This beautifully renovated old guesthouse is now an epicentre for superbly cooked steak. The hanging space for the meat means the beef is all dry-aged to perfection as well as the wine list, service as well as ambience matches. We’ve got more to state about this place, however suffice to state if you come to Scone as well as don’t eat here, you’re truly missing out.

Where did we stay?

The celebration is a extremely prominent time of year, so discovering lodging can be tricky. We stayed at INN Scone, a shop hotel with three one-bed apartments as wellas a cottage that sleeps 4 right in the heart of Scone.

The apartment we had was perfect of what we needed. A completely equipped kitchenette, a great size bathroom, a cosy courtyard, the all-important free wifi as well as the comfiest bed imaginable.

The place of this location truly made it a win too; seconds from the primary street as well as a quick 10-minute walk to White Park where all the rodeo fun happens.

Scone is one of those locations carefully dotted around the Australian countryside that, up until you spend a bit of time here, you might just drive with in under a minute as well as believe nothing more of it.

But if you do, you’re missing out on a whole spectrum of experiences as well as memories that’ll stay with you for a long time.

Have you ever been to Scone? have you ever heard of tentpegging?! have you ever been to a rodeo? tell us about it in the comments!

Images by Mrs romance utilizing an Olympus OM-D E-M5 mark II camera. We visited Scone courtesy of Scone & upper hunter equine celebration Committee.