By: Brett Parbery

With the inclusion into the CDI calendar in the last five years of Boneo Park CDI 3* and Thin Line Dressage with Altitude CDI 3* in Orange, what would once have been a break during the festive season is now a busy period. From my perspective, when you include to this Dressage with the Stars and the Sydney CDI, four of the best dressage events in Australia are now being held in the first five months of the year, so consequently there are no holidays for the Parbery family around this time.

Our goals for 2014 are quite simple. To move all of our horses in training up a level and spend time consolidating whats required of them on their journey to Grand Prix. To keep them fit and healthy, happy and enjoying their work are ongoing commitments that fit in parallel to the overall objective.

Having now completed the first two CDIs, I am more confident than ever in our training systems and our horse quality.

BRETT'S HORSES

DP Weltmieser, owned by Susan and Richard Duddy, was small tour champion at Sydney CDI in May ’13. He didn’t compete throughout the remainder of '13 as he was training for Grand Prix. At Boneo Park January '14 he competed in the Big Tour Entry Level test, where he finished second with 71.057%, and was the winner of the FEI Test Intermediate A with 70.143%.

To explain these new levels: The FEI and the EA have realised that the jump from Inter I to Inter II is too large – the EA made it an initiative and so did the FEI. The Big Tour Entry Level is Equestrian Australia, and then there’s the FEI Intermediate A and Intermediate B – all ask for a softer version of Grand Prix – 7-10 piaffe steps over 2 metres, 7 one-tempis, passage on circles rather than a turn left/turn right, passage and piaffe not connected, trot-piaffe, walk-piaffe. The horses which are stuck at Inter I and waiting to be good enough to go to Inter II will have another level to sit at for six to twelve months - it will be a nicer transition for the horses.

He then journeyed to Orange where he won the Intermediate A with 71.23% and then completed his first Grand Prix where he won the National class with 67.26%. I am absolutely thrilled with how he has made the transition to the FEI Big Tour level and put it down to many small things, one of which was the decision not to compete throughout the training period. His owners Susie & Richard Duddy, together with Brian and Barbara Marheine, trusted our plan and stayed loyal. I cannot thank them enough for allowing me to work with such a great horse and to allow me the time to produce my next horse to Grand Prix. I truly hope we have some great times ahead of us. His next start will be at the Sydney CDI in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Freestyle.

PPH Zeppelin, co-owned by Helen Batson, who has moved from Medium to Advanced, has also had a great start to the year. I have always said that Advanced will not suit him – he’s too big. Whilst he has proven me to be completely wrong by winning two Advanced Championships from two shows, he did struggle at Boneo. The true quality in this horse comes in his trainable temperament. He is fantastic to work with and it is for this reason that I think his best will be revealed at Grand Prix. However, in the Advanced 5.3 he came fifth at Boneo with 64.65% and he won the 5.2 with 68.86% and was consequently awarded the Boneo CDI 3* Advanced Champion. At Orange, he was much better prepared for the Advanced level and yielded two great wins and another Championship. He was absolutely focussed and rideable to win the Advanced 5.1 with 70.81%, and then backed it up with another great performance to win the Advanced 5.2 with 70.33%. Helen Batson and I own him together and he is bringing us so much enjoyment. We are two great friends who decided to own a horse together and our journey to Grand Prix is beginning to get interesting. He will start next at Clarendon on March 9 in the Prix St George.

PPH Zeppelin © Roger Fitzhardinge

?Good As Gold, co-owned by Carolyn Lieutenant, didn’t handle the electric environment at last year’s Nationals in October '13. On paper his performances at the Nationals seemed ok but for his standard, we under achieved. Throughout the 'off season' I have focussed on building trust with him and have reduced all pressure. With the truck already going to Boneo, I decided to take him for the run and chose to enter him into the CDN Prix St Georges. I wanted to trial some ways of managing him at the shows without having the pressure of the big classes looming over us. Before he competed at Boneo, he had lots of little walks out of the stables, two small rides a day leading up to the event and a low key early morning ride prior to the class. All low adrenalin but keeping his focus. In the end all these bits and pieces added up to his being relaxed and a well deserved victory with 70.53%. He was then also taken to Orange, not to compete but as my ride in the masterclass that Tor van den Berge and I hold on the Friday night. He was wonderfully well behaved and I managed to work on most of the Big Tour work that lies before him, in a training environment rather than a competitive one. As with Weltmieser, I am choosing competitions carefully for him because his next step is to move to Intermediate A. He will compete however at one more event in the small tour, and that will be Sydney CDI in early May.

Che de Jeu who is owned by the McDonald family of Melbourne, arrived from Holland in late November and has been slowly adjusting to the Australian way of life. He is working beautifully and has no pressure at this moment to compete.

After having most of November off, my beautiful team of horses owned by Mulawa have been working away quietly in the background. The Farrell family who own Mulawa, and provide me with lovely horses such as Aber Hallo, Furstin Friendship, Luxor 118, have been away for most of January travelling through South Africa. Kate, who finished Year 12 last year, did her first Intermediate A with Luxor two weeks after arriving home from holidays. Both Kate and Luxor were brilliant and handled all of the Big Tour work with ease. Kate won her first start with 65.9% and has a big future at Grand Prix awaiting her. Aber Hallo has two more weeks off before his 2014 season commences and Furstin Friendship will have her first outing at Elementary level at Clarendon on March 8 and 9. Between the Farrell's being away, and with us being away at so many shows, these horses have had a slow start to the year, but from here on in they will all be in full work.

Aber Hallo 29 © Roger Fitzhardinge

MEL'S HORSES

Julane Bowen’s mare BFP Apache Tears won two annual awards at Bowral Dressage Club – Novice Champion Horse 2013 and also winning Mel Rider of the year for 2013. At the end of 2013 Mel took Halle out to her first few elementary tests and Halle has now done enough miles to return to Julane for Alisha Tenbokkel to take over the reins, we wish her lots of luck with this beautiful mare. Melinda has a new horse in training - L’Akteur - which she will be taking out at Prix St Georges/Inter 1 and Ettienne will hopefully return to work this year.

She is also designing logos for various equestrians.

OUR TRUCK

Our truck is still under construction but is looking fantastic. George Riley is showing his full set of skills with this job and is managing to impress himself with some of his workmanship. Hopefully it will be finished in the next three months and be able to feature signage from all our sponsors.

OUR PROPERTY

We continue to develop our property to be a safe, comfortable and no stress environment for our horses, staff and clients. Having bought an old property, we are faced with many challenges but living in the village of Penrose is perfect for who we are and what we do. We love it here....!

Picture © Brett Parbery

?JAKE

Now three-and-a-half years old he is riding his bike without training wheels! He loves pre-school where he went for the first time a few weeks ago and he’s riding a 9-year-old Welsh pony, originally also named Jake, who is now known as Mr J.

?

Picture © Brett Parbery

DRESSAGE TASK FORCE

I accepted an invitation to sit on the Dressage Task Force and at the first meeting held at Boneo Park, some great initiatives emerged. The minutes from this first meeting of the Dressage Task Force will shortly be available.

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR SPONSORS –

YOU’RE ALL A MAJOR PART OF OUR TEAM AND WE COULDN’T DO IT WTHOUT YOU