Like Us on Facebook

Saddleworld 2015 Dressage Festival 10-13th December – Hailed a huge success!

Saddleworld Dressage Festival

From Monday the 7th of December Horses and riders arrived from all around Australia at Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre for the CDI-W Pacific League Final, the Aachen Challenge, the Victorian State Dressage Championships, the Victorian State Young Horses Titles and the HRCAV dressage classes. 

All 4 days of the festival delivered near perfect riding conditions and even though much of Australia is praying for rain, it was great that the sunshine prevailed.

The “Festival” is a favourite with dressage enthusiasts as it provides an end of year celebration, which lends well to relaxation, watching fabulous dressage and the opportunity to catch up on some Christmas shopping for special horsey friends.

 
DF Decor
  

All 43 Saddleworld stores around Australia have worked together to support this important event and their involvement has taken the 4 days of competition out to a wider audience through store owners, their staff, friends and customers.

The 2015 Event Director, Marli Plant, did a great job in her inaugural year and was very well supported by the “evergreen” Deb McNicol who has a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw on.   Deb always manages to seamlessly mesh the official elements with the social highlights.

With the Rio Olympic Games fast looming, all focus was on the Australian based Grand Prix combinations, as their results are under the scrutiny of Australian Dressage Selectors who will assess performances of the “long listed” combinations and make their recommendations for the Australian Olympic Dressage Team. 

Congratulations to Olympian Mary Hanna and her imported gelding Umbro for their win in the Pacific League World Cup Final CDI-W Grand Prix on Friday and another top scoring performance for the Saturday night Freestyle.

 
Mary Hanna and Umbro
  

The Marcus Oldham Aachen Challenge has become the benchmark event for young dressage riders looking to rise to the top in their chosen field of equestrian sport. The long running “Challenge” is contested over 3 rounds and is open to riders 25 years of age and under and entrants do not have to own the horse.   The final round sees the top three placed riders take the reins of the 3 top placed horses with just 30 minutes warm-up to get to understand each other.  It was a tight contest with final victory going to Madison Tristram riding the Mary Hanna trained mare, Hamag W Strona.  Here are the results for the top 3 riders and the top scoring horses

Marcus Oldham Challenge 2015


The Para Equestrian events were also under the scrutiny of the Australian Dressage Selectors.  London gold medallist Joann Formosa made her debut appearance on GB Winchester (Weltmeyer) for a clean sweep of the classes she entered.  Queensland professional Gary Lung has generously offered Joann the ride on his wonderful, well performed chestnut gelding.

Another new Para combination making the Saddleworld Dressage Festival their public debut was Nicole Blanks who had success on Jenny Johnson’s charming Andalusion gelding Rangeview Mikardo. “Mick” has lots of friends as he was trained and campaigned by Maree Tomkinson who is now overseeing this new Para pairing.  Maree said,  “It was terrific to see Nicole and Mick do so well, he has been part of my life for many years and is such an honest horse with lots to offer!”

Sunday was HRCAV day and the 2015 program added this important Victorian sector to the line-up of well-performed combinations that were at Werribee Park to test their talents in the Saddleworld Dressage Festival. 

A Saddleworld spokesperson said, “The 2015 event has offered something for everyone … and this philosophy mirrors the commitment of all of our stores to Australian horse enthusiasts!  We believe that we have something for everyone and our stores aim to support their customers’ unique interests and chosen equestrian discipline.”

SaddleUp Saddleworld (Chirnside Park, Victoria) represented the group in the Trade Village and were delighted that the retail interest was very strong in 2015.  SaddleUp reported that it was a really great competition and people were relaxed, friendly and keen to learn about the specialised range of dressage saddles that are now available.  “We had fantastic interest in the recently introduced “Noble Outfitters” range of clothing.  People loved the cool fabrics and clever designs – they are perfect for Australian conditions!” 

Full Results from the Saddleworld 2015 Dressage Festival