Trail Ride Secretary: Ashleigh Wilson
FB Admin/Publicity: Roxanne Aprile / Vicki Crowley
Life Members: Mike Teuwsen, Kath Ryan, Graham Stabler, Noel Cowan
Breakaway Horse Riders have been promoting Trail Riding and Endurance in the Mackay District in Qld since 1986. That’s quite a vision our founding members had.
We decided to give ourselves a bit of a birthday bash in 2016 and we shouted ourselves to a revamped logo that captures our 30 years of endurance (see the rider’s bib number), our passion for trail riding and the Queensland bush.
Vision: to keep finding ways to make riding more fun and to encourage more junior riders to be involved.
We have had many great rides, made many friends and have many, many great memories. Join with us this year and help us to enjoy the many events our club runs. These range from moonlight, beach, sunset and pub rides, day rides, various overnight, weekend and longer camps on beautiful private properties, State Forests, the National Trail and other places in Qld. We have done cattle working and horsemanship and other education clinics. There is plenty of quality riding, education and fun to be had with Breakaway.
Our memberships are increasing yearly and is made up of singles, couples and families of up to three generations from all walks of life ranging from 3 to over 80 years of age. Our members live north, south and within the Mackay District and extend as far west as Moranbah, Clermont and Capella in the west. We still have Foundation Members who are active in the club as well as four Life Members. We love our members, welcome new people, and we are a great club because everyone is so friendly and just helps out in whatever large or small way they can.
Our club cares for the environment also, having links with Sarina Landcare and by following our Biosecurity Policy.
Breakaway is also very community minded, working with the local community to raise thousands of dollars for charity each year:
We have held our very successful, annual May Charity Ride from Marian to Dows Creek, in conjunction with the Dows Creek Hall Association, for more than 21 years, raising money for Cancer and Heart Research. Our numbers and support for this ride is also increasing with each event. Each year we ride to raise awareness for a particular cancer and we also donate to the Mackay Base Hospital’s Oncology Unit in memory of past member Mick Essam. We donate a portion of funds also to other local cancer support groups, dress up on the day in the themed colour, visit the Mirani Aged Care home with the horses and have a lunch time guest speaker. The local community supports us with many prizes and forms of help. We have a lot of fun riding and afterwards at the Family Bush Carnival at Dows Creek.
Each year we hold an online custom-made saddle raffle and donate over $3000 to the This Strong Mum Foundation who supports parents of children with profound illnesses.
Breakaway has also supports the community by attending ANZAC Day ceremonies within our catchment, dressed in Light Horse regalia carrying flags and with a team of tribute riders. This initiative is also growing and we have managed to do this with the help of community based grants from Bendigo Bank Sarina and support from the Sarina ANZAC Day Committee.
There is no doubt that Breakaway is a family who cares for its members and the wider community, rather than a group of people who is just interested in horses.
Email President Roxy Aprile at breakaway.sec@gmail.com for info about our club & find us on Facebook by searching for Breakaway Horse Riders Mackay.
Breakaway Horse Riders Club Inc. (previously known as The Breakaway Trail Horse Riding Club) had it’s origins in the Kuttabul District and has been going strong since 1986.
Past & founding member, Ross Dodt, after some research, put pen to paper and wrote the following.
PRE 1986 – The Breakaway Trail Horse Riding Club had it’s origins in the Kuttabul District. On 9th June 1986, Graeme Cameron & John Fry attended a meeting of the Kuttabul Sports Club.
The Kuttabul Sports Club involved a small band of district families who were primarily concerned with the development and promotion of sport for district residents. Football and cricket were the main sports. The district also boasted soccer, indoor cricket, tug of war and softball teams as well as organised boxing tournaments. Mention is also made in their minutes of a donation from the Kuttabul Rodeo Club.
Apart from being Kuttabul residents, the reason for the attendance of Graeme and John was to seek support from the Kuttabul Sports Club to promote Trail Horse Riding.
The incentive for regular trail horse riding activities came from several fields:
In 1985 Mirani butcher, Les Butterworth, member of a well-respected family with horse and cattle interests, organised a horse ride from Nebo to Pinnacle. An overnight stop was made at the ‘Old Bikies’ hut on Waldon’s property where we still ride today. This non-profit ride was supported by over 100 riders. Local media gave outstanding support with film clip from this ride used in later promotions by North Jacklin Motors and Mackay Tourism.
In 1986, Les organised a second ride. This ride, a ride on behalf of Tracey Petersen, who was an entrant in the Cattleman’s Union Miss Charity competition. Money raised was donated to the multiple sclerosis foundation.
A 250km endurance ride, promoted by the Stockman’s Hall of Fame committee based in Longreach, was also stirring the Australian public in the lead up to the Bi Centenary celebrations in 1988.
At a meeting of the Kuttabul Sports Club on 14th July 1986 the following entry was recorded in the minutes:
“The trail ride held on the 12th & 13th July (at Balmunda) went well. Due to the horses breaking out, the clubs name was formed – BREAKAWAY. Twenty eight riders turned up and some from Mackay”
The next activity was a ride from the Mackay Showgrounds to Greenmount Homestead to raise money for the Cancer Foundation.
The closing record of the meeting dated 20th October reads:
“As there weren’t enough members at the meeting it was decided to close the club for 1986, hoping that 1987 would have new and interested members.”
While the Kuttabul sports club was running out of energy the Breakaway group was busy planning a “camp out’ Christmas breakup. This was held at Oakdale station on 14, 15th November. The aim was to check the suitability of Oakdale as a venue for an endurance ride.The first raffle of 10 cartons of beer was also organised. We have come a long way since this first raffle.
The club got its name Breakaway from the very first camp at Balmunda where horses where the horses ‘broke away’ that night
