WARWICK Pony Club member Selena Madsen won gold for Queensland in the eventing team event and an individual bronze medal in the Pony Club Australia National Championships at the Werribee Equestrian Centre in Victoria.

After a successful week at the Pony Club Association of Queensland Mounted Games State Championships in Chinchilla which Zone 21 (Southern Downs) won for a second successive year, Madsen and many of her Queensland team-mates travelled to Victoria for the nationals.

Madsen headed to Victoria with her horse All Bling for the national eventing championships as a member of the junior eventing team from Queensland.

"Even though it was a long trip to Werribee, it was worth it as this had been a goal I've been working towards since I started eventing," Madsen said.

The day after arriving in Werribee, All Bling passed her veterinary check and the same day, they combined in the dressage warm-up in which they came 12th in a field of 30.

On the Wednesday morning, Madsen and All Bling went clear in two show jumping warm up rounds, one against the clock, which put them in second place.

"I was stoked with that as I thought she would be tired after the travelling," Madsen said.

In the official competition, Madsen was fifth in dressage, a major improvement on a 12th in the warm up.

"The pressure was then on me to hold my place in the top five. I am always told I compete better under pressure so I thought this may be to my advantage," Madsen said.

"That afternoon my team and coach walked the cross country course. When we got around the course, I thought to myself this is a course that you would see on TV, not a course that I would be competing on at age 15.

"The nerves started to kick in as I had only been competing at local competitions at 90cm (height) but for nationals it was 1.05m. I completed my cross country course clear only being a couple of seconds too slow."

Madsen was then in fourth place after cross country with only the showjumping phase left.

"The nerves really kicked in when I was getting ready for show jumping as there was less than four penalties between 1st and 7th which meant if I knocked a rail I would have dropped back to seventh."

She had a clear round to stay in fourth place but a Queensland rider in second place knocked a rail which put Madsen up to third. Queensland won with Madsen third, Evelyn Williamson (Moura) sixth and Indira Werny (Dalby) seventh.

Bronze for three locals at Werribee

THREE Zone 21 riders won bronze medals in the national pony club mounted games competition at Werribee in Victoria.

The team included Callum Miller and Selena Madsen (Warwick) and Nathan Brown (Killarney) along with Leteesha Linsday (Maroochy) and Roxie Pitcher (Glasshouse).

All the riders in all the mounted games teams from across Australia rode horses loaned for this event so that was an added challenge for the team to be competing on horses they had not ridden before.

After competing in 21 games Queensland finished third overall.

The three riders from Warwick and Killarney enjoyed a successful month as zone 21 was the most successful at the state championships at Chinchilla.