Annual gymkhana event attracts 100 horse riders, 50 bikers

LAWRENCE

BARRY Guthrie, of Lawrence, has held a yearly position perched on a shed above the Lawrence gymkhana grounds to oversee and commentate on the annual gymkhana event.

He says he never gets tired of it — “I guess that’s what happens when you live in a place your whole life.”

A group of nearly 100 horse riders and about 50 motorcyclists arrived at the Lawrence gymkhana grounds yesterday to tear up the dirt and jump over some obstacles.

Lawrence Gymkhana Club secretary Helen Gibbs said the horsey events for the day included a “cowboy challenge, which was like an obstacle course’’.

‘‘Then there were jumping and pony games, and some gallops around the track, as well.”

South Otago Motorcycle Club members tested their skills on a recently completed dirt track at the site.

Club vicepresident Adam Robertson said that motorbikes had “always been part of the gymkhana’’.

“We’ve upped the ante this year, creating a bit of a safe space for the kids to have a go, giving them a pathway to continue if they want to.

PHOTOS: JACK CONROY Monkey business . . . Alyssa Goble (9), of Tapanui, picks up a toy gorilla in one of the many unorthodox exercises in the “cowboy challenge”.

Up and at ’em . . . Liam Homer, of Lawrence, tries his luck on the gymkhana dirt track.

Top spot . . . Larry Guthrie, of Lawrence, oversees and commentates on the day’s proceedings from a spot he has taken for 30 years.