Horsing around in the Hawkesbury at the Equine Lifestyle Festival

President of the Sydney Dock Dogs Philip Chadd, said both his two German Shorthaired Pointers, Hayley and Orion, have loved being involved with the Sydney Dock Dogs. 

"I wanted an outlet for the dogs in summer, and to have enough energy to get out and about with the dogs,"  Mr Chadd said. 

"Sydney Dock Dogs is full of good people and we have great fun on Sundays."

Other than just making a splash in the pool, Mr Chadd said he has been training Hayley for the past few months to jump off the ramp.

"Orion started jumping last season and today he jumped 5.91 metres (19.4 feet)," he said.

"The best he's jumped is 6.12m (20.11 feet)." 

Mr Chadd said he also takes his dogs out for dry land sledding during the cooler months of the year. 

"The dogs need to have two main things - a toy drive, to want to go and retrieve it, so its obviously got to float and a fondness for water is a bonus." 

Media and marketing manager for the Equine Lifestyle Festival Elia Lom said show goers have the chance to compete in dog competitions and for kids there's mini world with miniature horses and games. 

"We have the heavy horse competition, Arabians, miniatures, showjumping, camp drafting, dressage, polo and the mounted games," Ms Lom said. 

"And during the day there's the bison demonstrations, which you don't see a lot of them in Australia." 

Ms Lom said people are recommended to catch the train to the event, bring bottles of water and their dogs on leads. 

“There’s even a horse assessment area, which is run by Richmond Tafe,” she said.

“People can take their horses there to be assessed by nutritionists and veterinarians.”