A NEW horse sport is riding into New England in the form of poker sorting.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The event at Armidale’s livestock and exhibition centre on September 24, was put together by local Penny Stumer, who is raising funds for breast cancer charity Reclaim Your Curves.
The charity is aimed at women who have undergone a mastectomy and are considering a breast reconstruction.
Reclaim Your Curves was started by Stumer’s sister Louise.
"Re-claim your curves that my sister started after she got breast cancer,” Stumer said.
"She found that she couldn't find a lot of information about reconstructing her breasts after a double masectomy so she wanted to make sure other women, particularly in regional areas, had better information.
"She is trying to get more information out to regional women and I am trying to raise money for her to do that.”
Based around the American equestrian and cattle sport of ranch sorting, poker sorting involves teams of two selecting a card and matching it up to the relevant animal and then forming your best poker hand with four other cattle.
You have ninety seconds to cut out the cattle and get them over the line to win.
"There will be no one that is really good at it because we have never played it in Australia before,” Stumer said.
"The scoring is based on both your time and the value of your hand so you could get your card and get that first and get any other four cows and do it really quickly but if someone scores with a really good hand but a slower time, they will score better than you.
"It is really about skill and not just about time.”
The poker sorting event in Armidale is the first of its kind to be held in Australia and Stumer encouraged people of all ages to get involved in the new sport. Entries have come from as far as Dubbo and the Hunter and Stumer hoped more locals would put their hand up to get involved.
"It is all for fun and we have heaps of lucky door prizes,” she said.
"It is just about getting people out there to give it a go. Don't think you can't do it. Bring your pony out of the paddock, it doesn't matter what it looks like or how it goes, it is a really small arena so you don't have to worry about your horse taking off on you.”
A run in the poker sorting competition is $20 for the open’s category and $15 for juniors. To enter, visit www.armidalepokersort.com/