ON THE PACE: Jondaryan rider Karl Burton has scores of 90 in both major Warwick drafts with Lectric Kellie.
ON THE PACE: Jondaryan rider Karl Burton has scores of 90 in both major Warwick drafts with Lectric Kellie. Gerard Walsh

Karl Burton stars in campdrafting, Warwick style

CAMPDRAFTING: Karl Burton has two scores of 90 on the same horse in the two major drafts at the Warwick Rodeo.

He is competing for a second time at Warwick on Lectric Kellie, a six-year-old mare owned by Bob and Carolyn McKittrick, of Mudgee in New South Wales.

Karl has been coming to Warwick to draft for the past 16 years, mostly on horses bred by him and wife Felicity at Diamond K Performance Horses at Jondaryan.

"We breed and train most of our own horses,” he said.

He was runner-up on Lectric Kellie for the 2015-2016 rookie of the year title in the Australian Campdraft Association.

He has won a maiden and novice on the mare.

"She is such a reliable mare,” he said.

Karl remembers an era when his mother, Ruth Burton, was one of the instigators and first chief instructor for the Brymaroo Pony Club when sons Karl and Chris wanted to ride in competition.

"Chris and I mustered cattle for the bloke next door and while I was mustering, Chris was looking around for logs to jump,” Karl said.

While Karl started campdrafting, Chris kept jumping and was a teams' bronze medallist in eventing at the Rio Olympics.

But the equivalent of an Olympic medal in campdrafting is a Gold Cup win.

"That is what brings us here,” Karl said.

"It is good to be one of the leaders in one and be one point off the lead in the other,” he said.

He is riding five horses, one Elsola Rey, was ridden by wife Felicity to ninth in the cup last year.

"She is pregnant with our first child so I am riding Rey this year,” he said.



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