But it was touch and go because he lives at Dirribandi, seven hours driving west of Brisbane, and the family farm has been flooded for a month.
"The house and the cotton crop is OK. But there has been a lot of water around," Horne (15) said.
The problem was that all the roads out of his small town were blocked and the only method of getting off the farm was by helicopter that took him to an airfield at the town of George, where he caught a flight to Brisbane to join the 15 strong Queensland under-16 athletics team for the New Zealand Development Tour.
"It was scary," Horne said. "I thought I might not make it to New Zealand. The trip is a lifetime experience for me.
"It was a relief to get out of the flood zone and see civilisation again."
Queensland has been making the trip to New Zealand for the South Island teams meeting for the last three years and Horne did not want to miss it.
He competed in the jumping events and came close to his personal best when he finished fourth and jumped 4.91m in the long jump.
Three members of the Queensland team James Quinn, Annelise Wesley and manager Rob Gardner come from flood damaged Bundaberg.
Quinn finished runner-up in the 200m in 23.87sec and Wesley was runner-up in the 200m in 27.21sec.
Other Queensland winners included TJ Paehua high jump (1.61m), Frances Calleja 400m (61.19sec) and Bayley Lau javelin (43.57m).
Canterbury Red won the teams event with 41,496 points from Otago 35,646, Queensland 28,164, Canterbury Black 26,632 and Southland 12,123.
One of the best contests came in the boy's discus when Charlie Gamble (Canterbury) threw 48.49m with his last throw to beat Lau who was leading with his first throw of 46.45m.
New Zealand secondary school champion Jesse Bryant (Canterbury) won the long jump with 6.58m from Mackenzie Haugh (Otago) 5.85m.
Bryant also won the shot put with 13.45m from team mate Gamble, who threw 12.63m.
The other Otago athlete to impress was Libby Jones who won the discus with 28.86m, a throw that was just 64cm short of her personal best.
Canterbury athlete Lauri Watt won three individual events - 80m hurdles (12.17sec), long jump (5.29m) and 200m (26.90sec).
Rebekah Greene (Hill City), in her first race since breaking the New Zealand aged 16 800m record last month, finished third in the open men's 1500m in 4min 31.11sec.
She races at Palmerston North in the 800m tomorrow night.
