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May 2004
Last month the column was devoted to the Eventers, and who was likely and who was not, with the Athens Olympics just around the corner. As I put pen to paper for this May column no major moves have yet been made other than those heading into the Northern hemisphere for Badminton and Punchestown boarding planes and saying goodbye to supporters and family here in Australia as their marathon quest for Olympic selection begins. What I did say in last month’s column which is incorrect is that the Olympic team will be made up of five members with four scores to court. Sorry, I got it wrong. Only three scores are to count which does of course make much more sense. The team however will be made up of five members.
Since my April column however, the National Dressage Championships have been and gone, and so just who is likely to represent Australia in the dressage at Athens?
At this very moment, Ricky McMillan and her horse, Crisp are in awesome form, showing truly international class in piaffe and passage.
They won the Intermediaire II, the Grand Prix and the Kür. That must surely make them at this moment clearly Australia’s No 1 selection for Athens.
Now as I understand it, Australia has yet to qualify to send anyone to the dressage at Athens due to the fact we failed to qualify for a team position which would have allowed us four representatives. The rules about which nation gets to send which individuals are incredibly complicated but the very best we can hope for is to send two individual representatives to Athens. So if Ricky is the first off the rank, who is the next in line for selection?
I think that the recognized system is to select the next highest ranked Australian on the BCM rankings. The BCM rankings take into account all international competitions in the world and rank riders according to their successes in these competitions. At the moment, as I understand it, Mary Hanna and Limbo head up the Australian section of these rankings. So rider No 2 will probably be Mary and Limbo. So are there any challengers or controversies circling out there?? Well Kristy Oatley Nist, who was Australia’s highest placed dressage rider at the Sydney Games with a 9th place, has just clocked up some pretty impressive performances on her young stallion, Quando Quando.
She had a wonderful performance at Bremen where she won the B class Grand Prix, she followed this up with a great ride on Quando Quando in the World Cup final where she scored 66.46 in the Grand Prix, this was the same weekend as the Australian Championships where Mary Hanna’s Limbo scored 66.75 – so you can see whichever way the selectors go it is going to be a very close call!
My young Grand Prix horse, Greenoaks Dundee is just eight years of age and is in awesome form. He managed to run third to Ricky and Mary in the Grand Prix and the Kür at the Nationals, which is very pleasing. His scores are only just behind these two seasoned Olympians, and the future for Dundee is fantastically bright.
On April 15-18, the Sydney CDI will be held at the Olympic facility at Horsley Park, and I will need to win convincingly to be an Athens contender.
Personally I couldn’t be happier with Dundee’s progress and he is improving at an awesome rate. Nevertheless both Mary and Ricky are also continuing to lift the bar and I think that Athens may prove to be a fraction too close for Dundee in terms of overtaking Limbo and Crisp. Still we are ‘pumping’ right now and the Sydney CDI will see Dundee and I attack with all our might.
Ann Serrao and her little chestnut horse, Centaur continue to improve and have so much electric and bouncy expression. They have to be an outside chance at the moment, however if they won at the Sydney CDI everyone would certainly talk about them.
Glennis Barrey is an ‘absolute state of the art’ competitor, which combined with her horse Gaucho II’s talent for piaffe and passage means they have to be watched. Gaucho II is also a young horse who will keep improving for years to come.
From Queensland comes Kelly Layne on her horse, Amouchier. This horse is very sensitive and takes all of Kelly’s skills to pilot out a mistake free test. Amouchier does have truly awesome piaffe and passage.
Also out there, not long home from an extended Northern Hemisphere tour is Sue Hearne and Manhattan. This combination spent a lot of time training with Kyra Kyrklund. They will make their first Australian appearance at the Sydney CDI and that will be fascinating viewing.
So those are the most likely challengers, although there is enormous depth appearing in Grand Prix which a couple of years ago was unimaginable, and, who knows, a left field player can always swoop in and upset all expectations! Beautiful!!
Switching to another aspect of the Nationals, almost the entire Novice class was made up of Victorian entries. To be accepted for this class you needed to have averaged a minimum of 69% over three official tests. Well it seems that Victorian dressage judges are more likely to score horses over 70%. Judges in other states seem to be reluctant to give such high scores and so it meant that horses from states outside of Victoria just could not manage such a high average and so were balloted out.
In the main I hear people saying a) it’s not fair and b) the Victorian judges are too soft and mark way too high!
The little mare I had entered in this novice class, Overbrook Honeymeyer had averaged 68.2% and was sixth reserve. Now I was lucky that due to seven riders withdrawing, I did get a start and what’s more, the mare went beautifully, and so became the Australian Novice Champion.
You would think that this then suggests that many other deserving entrants from states outside Victoria were denied entry by the Victorian judges being so generous with the Victorian scores. Well, on reflection, I have to say that in the scale of marks of 0 to 10, 8 means good. Certainly today, I am extremely fortunate and do ride some awesome dressage horses. Through my experience I do at times put up really good tests. Not one resistance, a relentless presentation, the horse going with great energy and swing through the back and performing without inhibition. Yet I never get an 80%!
I promise you that sometimes I do do a good test. The judge’s scale of marks absolutely do say that on those occasions I should score 80%. Yet never.
I vividly remember one such occasion when I had put in a ‘blinder’ and I just happened to watch another local rider doing the same test. To my disbelief, they also put in one of the best medium tests I have ever seen, and I realised that they were going to get very close to my score. Well they did better than that, they beat me!! Bugger! The point is however that neither of us even scored 70%!!!
Honestly dressage in Australia is improving so much, so quickly. Riders all over Australia are doing good tests and that means they should be scoring 80%
The Victorian judges have not got it wrong. It’s the judges in all the other states that have got it wrong, and the sooner these judges recognise what the riders are achieving today, and then support it with appropriate scores, the sooner Australia will challenge for Olympic dressage medals. May it be real soon!
Cheers,
Heath