IT was a case of the boy becoming the man as the youngest finalist won the $10,000 first prize in The Man from Snowy River Challenge at Corryong yesterday.
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Ryan Pendergast, 23, outclassed his older rivals to emerge the youngest winner of the challenge, which began in 1995, as part of a festival to mark the centenary of Banjo Paterson’s poem The Man from Snowy River.
The win was extra special for Pendergast after last year he was stripped of points in one category of the challenge involving whip cracking, stock handling, bushman’s packhorse, horseshoeing, cross country, bareback obstacle, brumby catch and stocksaddle buckjump.
“I’ve been trying for this one for a long time, this is the one I’ve been really wanting to win for a long time,” Pendergast said.
“It’s just an honour, I suppose, to be up with the names on this cup and it’s the money as much as anything.”
In the past two years he has won the Dalgety’s Stockman’s Challenge in the Snowy Mountains that carries a first prize of $5000.
The Man from Snowy River Bush Festival chairman Peter Hunt said the win was a credit to Pendergast, who was disheartened after last year’s competition.
“Young Ryan was going very well last year and had a little mishap and had to lose some points,” Mr Hunt said.
“I went and had a talk to him and asked him to come back, as did the committee, and he has come back and won it.
“I take my hat off to him — that’s great.”
Pendergast, who partnered quarterhorse Monkey, first entered the junior section of the challenge in 1999.
He amassed 675 points at the weekend to win, ahead of dual champion Tumut’s Scott Bandy (649) and Mudgee district competitor Trevor Nash (644).
Pendergast grew up on a property at Tumut and now works as a stockman at Yanco in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
His uncle Col Pendergast was also in the final 10, and the only competitors in the last two events, the brumby catch and buckjump.
Mr Hunt was thrilled with the turnout for the three-day festival, which also included poetry, music contests, a market and a re-enactment and ride in honour of Jack Riley, the original Man from Snowy River.
“It’s an Australian iconic event now as far as I’m concerned,” Mr Hunt said.
“It’s the only festival that is run in Victoria that does pay its own way.”
