©Roger Fitzhardinge

By Roger Fitzhardinge

The third day at the Sydney CDI dawned again with beautiful autumn weather. The morning started off with the HQ Insurance Intermediate II competition. The winner was Mary Hanna on Hamag W Strona with a score of 66.85. This young mare by Jazz shows great expansive paces and with Mary’s experience, she really showed the way.

In second place were Suzanne Hearn and the black gelding Jude, on 65.4. Sue’s grand prix horse Remington developed a high temperature before trot-up and was scratched, so this was her only start of the competition. A very impressive, well balanced horse, but at times could be more in front of the leg.

In third place the delightful Alexis Hellyer and Waca W, on 64.3. The class was full of interesting young horses and of course; minor mistakes lose a lot of marks. Quality horses but not confirmed and established as of yet.

Shannon McKinnie and Ambassi were the only one’s in the under 25 CDI Grand Prix freestyle. A score of 62.7 saw them take the winnings.

The Agnes Banks Equine Clinic CDIY Freestyle saw a great win to Rodrigo III for Tayla Desmet with 70.23. This beautiful liver chestnut gelding, that was originally trained and competed by Maree Tomkinson, was then competed with Gina Montgomery and is now with young rider Tayla. Simply, a beautiful combination. A wonderful career for this horse, and obviously a great partnership with Taylor already.

Second place went to to Eloise Devlin riding the Anamour gelding Brimstone Anakiwa with 69.6 percent. In third place - another Maree Tomkinson inspired combination - with Morgan Duell and the beautiful chestnut Florinzz on 69.58. The young rider class has developed into a very serious group, well ridden and beautifully presented horses, with riders that really think and ride well.  Even now, even in these classes, there is no room for any minor mistakes; it is all about focus and centred riding.

The IRT Advanced Tournament Freestyle capped off a fantastic weekend for Alycia Targa, and CP Dresden, by Damsey. This gelding, owned by Jane and Maurice Bruce, is a seriously talented young horse at only 7. Jane helps Alycia with the horse all the time and is already working on the high level movements. His forwardness, coupled with cadence and expression, shows some fantastic highlights, especially in collected trot and half pass. Again, it is important to realise how strong the advanced classes are. The top three horses, all over 70 percent and the top ten all over 66.

In second place Nina Boyd and Kalimna Emblem, owned by Wendy Lorincz, a mere 0.038 behind Dresden. This chestnut horse was recently purchased from WA, but was a winner at Dressage with the Stars a few years ago. This horse also is a great horse for the future; short coupled, powerful and with a good ability to collect. In third place, was Mark Arthur and imported horse Show Master with 70.08 percent. This big expressive bay horse, ridden well by Mark, is yet another top horse for the big tour in the future.

The morning competition was relaxed and serious. Riders at this competition are really focussed about their training and their journey to the future of Grand Prix. As always there is differences of opinion from judges but it is the combination of all their scores that mostly come out with a good, balanced average mark, applicable to that horse.

Horses are born with an ability to produce expressive paces, and with schooling and dedicated training these paces can be enhanced. Not every horse has God-given fantastic paces but with good training, a rider can produce a good test, and feel rewarded for their ability to develop the horse in the best possible way. There is more to riding a dressage test, than a few minutes in front of the judges. Horses need to be produced, not only physically well, but always with feeling towards a confident mental state. They must always feel safe, secure, and trusting. You cannot produce a grand prix horse unless you have his mind. The love of the horse; the training, the care and grooming, the riding, and the journey - from preliminary to grand prix - takes many years, not to mention the hours of patient training. This culminates in riding in front of the judges. It is not their job to understand and know each horse and rider’s problems along the way, it is only their job to comment and see what happens in the six minutes of a test.