Four young women only found out they had won the Victorian State Horse Trials after another local team congratulated them.
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And then the tears flowed by the mothers of the Kergunyah Pony Club at the competition in Gladstone.
"The win was very exciting as it was not expected," mother Carolyn Harris said.
"The team went to go to the presentation and did not find out that they had won until one of the other North East riders told them.
"There was smiles all round and happy tears from all the mothers who know how much hard work it takes."
Kate Babidge, 24, Johanna Harris Draper, 23, Lilli Hamilton-Cronin, 16 and Evie Kamevaar, 14 took out the state trials with their combined scores from the dressage, cross country and show jumping events putting them in first place.
"It just goes to show all their hard work has paid off," Ms Harris said.
"The dressage was on the Saturday morning and Evie was our best placed rider being second after dressage.
"The grade three show jumping was on the Saturday afternoon on a very challenging course with only 10 clear rounds.
"Grade one and two show jumping was on the Sunday morning and all of our riders went clear on cross country and under time and were the only team to do this.
"The cross country course was very challenging and included a grade one water jump, lots of brushes and ditches, a stuffed man on a seat jump, flowers and carrots on a box jump and some technical AB jumps."
