Victorians come together to celebrate year's achievements
ALL ages mixed happily at Equestrian Victoria’s annual awards on Saturday night as the previous year’s outstanding contributions and achievements within Victorian equestrian sport were recognised.
While it’s the time of year when the state’s horse fraternity comes together to celebrate achievements of the year across all ages and disciplines, it’s also a rare chance to frock up and dance without having to run off and feed horses.
There’s quite an age division at the event, with those inducted into the Hall of Fame and given lifetime service awards being generally older and revel in the “remember when” chats going on around their tables. The rider of the year winners are a younger and livelier set, so it’s good to see them mingle. Equestrian Victoria chief executive Amy Slayter said the organisation was pleased to be able to showcase equestrian talent in this way.
“It is a true pleasure seeing both the young and the not-so-young share in a common passion that unites us as a community,” she said.
There were two new inductees to the Hall of Fame this year – Graeme Barker and Stan Fear.
This honour is awarded in recognition of “outstanding and extraordinary dedication and achievements of individuals or organisations that have contributed to the Victorian equestrian sector over a number of years”.
Both men have certainly done that.
The Lifetime Service to Sport awards won by Alf Parsons, Anne Marie Greenway and Peter Gardiner recognise members of the horse community who have contributed to the sport, not necessarily as riders or owners, but as the ones that keep the wheels turning, like time keepers, judges, announcers, fence builder and starters, without which the sport simply doesn’t run. The young riders are a talented and well-mannered group. Previous winners have gone on to become come Olympians and World Championship competitors and the individuals who featured this year are keen to follow in their footsteps.
This year’s winners were:
Horse of the year (Eventing): Woodmount Lolita
Horse of the year (Jumping): Denison Park Spartava
Horse of the year (Show Horse) St Andrews
Horse of the year (Dressage) Captain Cooks
Rider of the year (Eventing) Sam Jeffree
Rider of the year (Jumping) Andrew Lamb
Rider of the year (Show Horse) Abby Heffer
Rider of the year (Dressage) Pauline Carnovale
Rider of the year (Amateur owner-rider) Emma Turnbull
Young rider of the year (Eventing) Edward Darby
Young rider of the year (Jumping) Hayden Parker
Young rider of the year (Show Horse): Jessica Sharp
Young rider of the year (Dressage): Jessica Dertell
Carriage driver of the year: Andrew Damsma
Young ambassador of the year (Eventing): Briony Deeker-Fradd
Young ambassador of the year (Jumping): Arienne Holdsworth-Rose
Young ambassador of the year (Show Horse): Stella Paterson
Young ambassador of the year (Dressage): Ileena Neilson
Para equestrian athlete of the year: Maddison Cooke
The 2022 off-the-track category featuring retrained, ex-Thoroughbred race horses will be announced in early October.
GALLERY
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