This article has appeared previously with Equestrian Life. To see what is in our latest issue, please click here.

Roseglen Toytown and Allison O'Neill.

© Roger Fitzhardinge
 

Pony dressage as a sport is alive and well in Australia, with more competitions (and competitors) than ever before. Here, we take a look back to a few years ago when interest in pony dressage events really began to take off in Australia...

It has always struck me that dressage is a sport for people with very long legs. However, it is unfortunately true that not all of us are born with legs up to our armpits and equally true that most dressage horses are rather large warmbloods. Could this explain the new wave of pony dressage? Or is it just that people like to be able to get on something with four legs without a milk crate? These were my somewhat flippant thoughts as I began to investigate the (relatively) new phenomenon of pony dressage in Australia—only to find that a lot of people are taking pony dressage very seriously indeed.

So, let’s start at the beginning. What is a pony? According to the Australian Sports Pony Registry, a pony eligible for pony dressage must not exceed 148cm (14.2¼ hh) without shoes and must be registered with Equestrian Australia (EA) if they are to be entered in official competition. And here’s a surprise for the uninitiated: pony dressage is not just for children wishing to compete at lower levels but goes all the way to the top of the scale. Official EA dressage competition levels run from preliminary to advanced and then, as with standard dressage, the FEI levels continue from Prix St Georges to Grand Prix.
 
Top Australian dressage rider and trainer, Maree Tomkinson, is an example of how pony dressage is attracting riders at all levels. Maree is one of those lucky people who do have very long legs as well as a wonderful warmblood mare, Diamantina, that is dominating dressage in Australia at small tour level and is being touted as one of the future superstars of Grand Prix dressage in Australia. However, Maree is also very excited about another of her prospects, but this one comes in a much smaller package: a 14.1hh performance pony stallion called Aspen Way Gala Night.
 
Currently competing him at medium level, Maree says of Gala Night, “He’s a super pony, beautiful looking and with a great temperament. When you ride him he has this fantastic activity of the hind legs and an uphill carriage, so it makes you feel like you’re sitting on a big horse. We are aiming him for Grand Prix which is a big ask for any horse, and you never know if they will get there until it happens. But he certainly has the sharpness and trainability that you need in a horse of any size that you hope to get to Grand Prix.”

International Influence

In Europe, pony dressage has been popular for many years and is a well-established discipline. In Germany, the revered Bundeschampionate (German Young Horse Championship), held every year at Warendorf, have included the German Pony Championship for many years with classes for German Riding Pony and Dressage Pony. The FEI Pony Championships started in 2004 and were this year held in Jaszkowo, Poland, where young riders from all over Europe congregated to compete in eventing, showjumping and dressage. Germany won the Nations Cup (the dressage team event) with outstanding performances by all team members to secure the gold medal. In 2010, Germany lost the team championship for the first time in 20 years, but in 2011 they came back strongly to reclaim the competition and take out the top three placings. The team from the Netherlands had to settle for silver but Dutch rider Dana Van Lierop and Day of Diva took the gold medal in the Kur with their European Pony Championship record-breaking score of 80.75%.
 
It is not surprising that the countries that are traditionally strong in dressage are also champions in pony dressage. However, the trend has now spread throughout the world and the United States Equestrian Federation included FEI ponies in the 2011 Dressage Festival of Champions (National US Championships) for the very first time. In Australia, the growth in pony dressage is strong but it has been recognised that we need to compete internationally in order to help the sport continue that growth. In April 2012, the Australian Riding Pony Stud Book Society (RPSBS) sent two junior teams and an intermediate team to compete in the UK International Teams Challenge at Addington Manor Equestrian Centre in Buckinghamshire.
 
The invitation for this dressage competition was from the National Pony Society (NPS) in the UK and it was a great opportunity for international teams of riding pony and native pony breed enthusiasts to compete against each other. These international competitions also help to foster friendship and the exchange of knowledge between the riders and the international associations.
 
The intermediate team (which competes at novice level) consists of Katie Kelly (NSW), Sarah Bellman (SA), Issabelle Leppard (WA) and Jean Read (QLD). Seventeen-year-old Jean, who has been riding since she was two, was very excited about the chance to represent Australia internationally. “This is a wonderful opportunity that the Riding Pony Stud Book has given me and such an immense chance to ride as a part of an Australian team. I will be riding a 14hh bay pony called Old Court Charlotte and staying with the owner of the borrowed pony, a girl called Katie Morton, so it will be a really good chance to be part of the equestrian community overseas as well as compete internationally.”

Closer to Home

On the Australian scene, there has been a significant increase in the number of pony dressage competitions. One of the high?lights of these is at Dressage and Jumping with the Stars (DJWTS), the Australian Young Horse and Pony Dressage Championships held at Werribee Park, Melbourne. The enthusiasm and entries for the pony dressage classes have increased dramatically since the inaugural Four-Year-Old Young Dressage Pony Championship in 2009. In 2010, Equestrian Australia and the DJWTS Committee included a five-year section and, in 2011, classes for four-, five- and six-year-old ponies were added.
 
The Pony Champion of Champions was also introduced, and in its first year the award went to the Musto AYDH Five-Year-Old Champion, Baxter’s Grand Image ridden by Georgia Welch ahead of Penmain Posh ridden by Justine Greer, winner of the Musto Material Championship for four-year-old ponies.

There can be no doubt that, as with standard dressage, the participation of international judges and riders at this level will help to improve the standard of Australian pony dressage riders and their ponies.
 
In October 2011, the Bates NSW Pony Dressage Championships were held at Sydney International Equestrian Centre and provided yet another platform to showcase some of the best dressage ponies in Australia as they battled it out at their respective levels.
 
The event organiser, Kelly Hattersley, pointed out that the number of participants at the event this year was far greater than in previous years and that the standard was extremely high. “The increased interest is not only from younger riders,” says Kelly. “There were a significant number of adult riders present at the Championships this year, many commenting that they have made the switch to ponies and are enjoying themselves so much that they doubt they will ever go back to ‘big horses’.”
 
Kelly is a convert herself, having moved from a full-sized thoroughbred to a 14.2hh Welsh Arab pony. “I’m not a big person and I find it much more enjoyable to ride a pony. It’s much nicer to ride a small pony with a big movement than a big horse with no movement!” She also enjoys the camaraderie of the pony dressage competition. “It’s a very inclusive environment and everyone is there to enjoy themselves.”

This year saw the introduction of Young Pony Classes to the program, run under the same rules as Young Horse Classes. The four-year-old class was won by Sandy Langsford riding her talented gelding Smit’n Batai, while the larger five-year-old class was won by Queensland rider Helena Shanal riding the stunning up-and-coming stallion Double S Dark Sun. The six-year-old test is demanding for any pony or horse and this year the class was won by Georgina Barrey riding Brumby Jack. Breeding on the rider’s side may be an advantage (Georgina is of course the daughter of dressage ace Glennis Barrey) but for Brumby Jack, who is of ‘unknown parentage’, this may not be the case.
 
In the hotly contested preliminary and novice classes, there were a strong group of ponies moving up the grades, all demonstrating lovely movement and good training making the judges’ decisions quite tough. In the end, the preliminary champion went to Double S Dark Sun ridden by Helena Shanal and the reserve champion to Rachael Raheb riding Glynyarra Park Classic, a pony that stands just a shade over 11 hands! The novice champion was awarded to Baringa First Class ridden by Brianna Cartwright while the reserve novice champion went to Rockfire U-Turn ridden by Kathy Turner.

Rockfire U-Turn, affectionately known as ‘Wombat’, seemed destined to have a successful weekend following up the next day by taking out the elementary reserve champion, beaten only by the lovely mare Burnham Brooke Bewitched who was beautifully ridden by Jocelyn King.
 
The highly successful and well known Little Paddocks Gift continued his dominance at this event by taking out both Best FEI Preliminary Pony and the medium champion this year while reserve medium champion went to Madelyn Colquhoun riding Congarinni Royal Sovereign.

In 2012, the advanced class had more than doubled in size from last year and champion was awarded to Alison Gill and her grey gelding Bamborough Epic closely followed by Sancha Butler riding Goldshaft Moonshadow who took out the reserve champion.
Finally, the FEI Small Tour Champion was awarded to Suzanne Laidler and her beautifully educated Craigrannoch Park Destiny.

If the increased interest and participation at the Bates NSW Pony Dressage Championships reflects the general growth in pony dressage, it seems to have a bright future in Australia.

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