Amateur owner riders enjoying dressage just for the love of it

ABOVE: Louisa Inge and Aber Formira MI. Picture: ONE-EYED FROG

MORE and more equestrian disciplines are finding it necessary to provide competitions for their non-professional members.

The intent is to highlight and reward non-professional riders who own horses only to ride and train for their own pleasure.

The amateur owner-rider dressage championships at Boneo Park in Victoria showed the benefits of the classes, with lots of really good tests from horses and riders of all ages and sizes.

There were also plenty of former show riders finding their “happy place” amateur owner-rider dressage.

Toni Webb’s pony Salient Park Prince was the small tour champion, winning both his tests and showing why the Welsh Cob breed is so valued as a dressage mount.

ABOVE: Small tour champion Toni Webb and Salient Park Prince. Picture: ONE-EYED FROG

Confusius SDM ridden by Eliza Mylon and Christine Allingham riding Amby Hills Furst Embrace both won an advanced test, with Eliza taking the championship by just two points.

Madelon McDonald on F1 Soliloquy and Rhonda Thomson’s Harney Park China Girl were equal on points for the medium horse championship with Madelon winning on the countback.

In the medium pony championship, Alexandra Parratt’s Grantulla Leviathan scored equally as well as the big horses to win.

Elementary horses and pony classes were well filled with Anthea Wood’s Roosevelt winning the horse section and Melanie Clark’s Simply Magisch the pony section.

The novice classes showed that there are some really nice young horses coming through with scores in the 70 per cent range. Louisa Inge on Aber Formira MI was the horse championship winner while Jayde Whitehead’s Stop N Stare took the pony sash. (One wonders how he got his name.)

In the preliminary classes, Cassandra Fasan Jones rode her pony Kyandra Undercover to win her section and Ashleigh Fry’s Bloomfield Fiontini was another to win in a count back from Kerri Imrie's MP Chess in the horse division.

ABOVE: Alexandra Parratt and Grantulla Leviathan. Picture: ONE-EYED FROG

ABOVE: Sharon Oskan and Cherry. Picture: ONE-EYED FROG

Full results

View and purchase ONE-EYED FROG images from this event

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