The troops, eager to keep a slice of our war history alive, congregated to compete for the annual prize.

The JF Thomas Light Horse Troop from Tenterfield welcomed teams from Guyra, Murrurundi and Toowoomba for the event.

Jim Hamilton from the local troop said it was an exhaustive process to pull the weekend together.

“It was a lot of work – 12 months to organise,” he said.

Despite Tenterfield’s strong link to the light horse, it was the first time the town had hosted the competition.

“I was at Murrurundi at the association cup in 2004 and I was thinking then, ‘geez I’d like to see Tenterfield do one of these’.

“Light horse riders will travel anywhere. Its good fun to keep the legend alive,” Mr Hamilton said.

Guyra claimed the trophy and Jim said it was hard for their troop to compete with one much younger than theirs.

“They have some brilliant horseman.”

Each team was put through their paces and points were tallied from events such as tent pegging, skillet arms, dummy thrust, section hurdles, obstacle races, dismount for action, stand to your horse and cavalry relay race.

The cup event is essentially a modern version of the Prince of Wales Cup competition which ceased in the early 1950’s.

Fortuitously, Tenterfield is currently babysitting the original Prince of Wales Cup trophy at the School of Arts museum. 

The 15 kilogram cup was temporarily removed from the museum to be displayed ring side at the showground.

“It fits 57 litres of red wine to the brim,” Jim said knowingly.

One sour note to the event was the impatience shown by drivers towards riders utilising Manners St Jim said.

Pointing to Roads and Maritime Service guidelines Jim said motorists need to ‘treat horses as potential hazards’ and ‘slow down and pass with care’.

Other than that: “We all had a great weekend,” he said.