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<\/a><\/p>\n“David Woolley\u2019s a freak. He\u2019s bred six international horses. Cooper Oborn has one, I have two, Gaylene has another and then there\u2019s Melissa\u2019s two. Although, I think you have to be a certain rider for them. I think it\u2019s exciting what he\u2019s doing and he\u2019s doing it at affordable prices for us. It\u2019s more important for him that they are with good riders rather than the person with the most money. He was a rider himself and it\u2019s his passion. He loves going to the shows and following us all. He really follows us the whole way. You have that extra person behind you. It\u2019s really lovely.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/JoeyWillinga2.jpg\")
\u00a0Melissa Galloway competing at Willinga on Windermere J’Obei W
\n(Photo – Stephen Mowbray)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>THE RIDER<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>One of Vanessa\u2019s students, Melissa Galloway, lives in Marlborough, which is just at the top of the south island and is about as remote as you can get. Having won every Grand Prix test she\u2019s entered in New Zealand with her gelding Windermere J\u2019Obei W, Melissa really made us all stand up and notice during the two Willinga Park CDIs. The 27 year old and her nine year old Johnson gelding, were only beaten by Mary Hanna in all six tests over the course of the two competitions. The combination scored well over 70% in four of the tests and Melissa thinks the gelding still has plenty of marks in him. The pair then went on to win New Zealand Horse of the Year to end the season. I sat down and chatted with Melissa at Willinga.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/melissaPort.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nMellissa Galloway (Photo – Rebecca Ashton)<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cMy Mum used to do hunting and show jumping and then when she had us, she stopped and just did hacking and trail riding. My sister and I used to hang out the window begging for a ride. She got my older brother into Pony Club but he wasn\u2019t that interested so she never pushed me or my sister. That\u2019s always the way, we weren\u2019t pushed so we were desperate to ride. I had a little miniature and then ended up with a really big pony when I was tiny.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI then got Kirkwood Annabel which was more of a show pony and showjumper. I got her when she was six years old and I did a bit of everything with her. I started a bit of dressage at the local shows and she happened to be quite good at it so it went from there. When I won my first title at the Young Rider Championships at level 2, that\u2019s when I thought, I really want to do this. I love it.” <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIn 2006 at WEG, Andreas Helgstrand did that freestyle with Blue Hors Matine, back when we had dial up internet. Someone from our local dressage group sent it to my parents via email and it took about two days to download. When it finally downloaded I watched it and watched it and watched it. I think I was about 13. I had goosebumps. It was my dream to do that.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Hufendiek-Hubertus.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nHubertus Hufendiek<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cWhen I was 13 I started training with Andrea Raves who migrated to New Zealand from Germany. Andrea and a friend of ours helped me get a job with Hubertus <\/span>Hufendiek\u00a0<\/span>in Germany when I was 18. I had had some lessons with him in New Zealand when he was the national coach and I did very badly in those lessons. I was so nervous! I begged\u00a0 him to take me back to Germany and I was only supposed to be there for two weeks. I rode the not so great horses but worked really hard and then eventually I rode all the horses. I ended up staying a year and competing three horses up to S level. I had never ridden above Level 4 before that. I probably wasn\u2019t the best rider technically. I had to learn a lot, work on my position but he said I did have a good natural feel for the horses. I was able to teach the horses collection and swinging trot easily. I credit him for the basis of my training.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cFor the past six years I\u2019ve been training with both Andrea and Vanessa Way. Vanessa has really taken me and Joey to the next level and taught me all the Grand Prix and helped me teach my horse. She\u2019s been very supportive and she really believes in us.” <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/JoeyWillinga1.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nJoey – the good one (Photo Stephen Mowbray)<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI got Joey when he was 18 months old. He\u2019s nine now. I bought him off David Woolley. I also bought his half brother at the same time. He\u2019s two years older than Joey and probably not as talented but he\u2019s really consolidated at Grand Prix now. He was particularly difficult. He was the first horse in Australasia by Johnson. He didn\u2019t get a very good reputation because he bucked and had to go to three breakers. He bucked me off six times in the first six months. He was very difficult.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>Editor’s note: Readers may remember that in my report on the recent Dutch Stallion Licensing, I quoted one of The Netherland’s leading riders from one of the top stables, who said that they had a policy of No Johnson in their stables, not even horses out of Johnson mares, because they had had such bad, frightening experiences with Johnsons. Those Kiwi girls are made of sterner stuff…<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Johnny2-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nJohnny – the ‘bad’ one…\u00a0Caitlin Benzie Photography<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cWhen I was in Germany I rode a horse by Johnson and I fell in love with that horse so when I came back home, I saw these two horses on Trade Me. They\u2019d been on sale for over a year and had been offered to some of our top riders and no one wanted them. I was just this random girl who called up. I don\u2019t think they thought I was the right rider for them. I saw Joey loose in the paddock and it was actually his canter that stood out to me. It was so loose and uphill. We wanted Joey and weren\u2019t sure about Johnny but they came as a package! So, we got them both. Everyone told us we were crazy to buy the older one and I did fall off him a lot, but once he got to Level 4, he just calmed down and enjoyed the harder work and now he just got 68% at Grand Prix.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Johnny-1024x682.jpg\")
\u00a0Now he’s good too!\u00a0Caitlin Benzie Photography<\/em><\/span><\/p>\nAnd why does Melissa think New Zealand dressage has reached a new level? \u201cI don\u2019t know. Maybe it\u2019s just that Kiwi determination. I think Vanessa Way has been a massive influence. I think she\u2019s helped so many horses and riders be better than they thought they could ever be. There are some horses coming through now like Gaylene\u2019s who is also a Johnson bred by David. That\u2019s going to be a top, top Grand Prix horse. They\u2019re scoring 74% in the small tour at the moment. It\u2019s got amazing piaffe. Vanessa is coaching her too. Vanessa is a very special coach; her ability to see and she\u2019s so quick. She can see things and she knows how to sort it out having ridden lots of different horses with lots of different problems. She\u2019s still riding now and can relate to everything.”<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/vanessateaching.jpg\")
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\u00a0<\/span>\u201cObviously her help from Carl has been huge and she\u2019s taken our sport to another level. She wants us all to be better than herself. I don\u2019t see her as much as I\u2019d like. She comes to Blenheim about once every two months. In between I send her videos. Even from here at Willinga she\u2019s been helping me with my training and watching my tests online. I\u2019ve definitely had to learn how to be ok on my own though. Like here I don\u2019t have anyone to help me or warm me up. I\u2019ve just done it myself. I have to be able to do that. It\u2019s been amazing to have the mirrors in the warmup arena here! It\u2019s awesome. I wish we had that at every show!”<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/JoeyMelissa-683x1024.jpg\")
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Photo credit: Caitlin Benzie<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cYou just have to be really determined and want to be better and better all the time. Every test I come out of, I\u2019m happy but I just want to be better. I spend a lot of time watching riders like Charlotte online at night. I love it. I\u2019m a real visual learner. It\u2019s interesting when I was in Germany, Hubertus said it was a good thing that I had learned to ride independently. The riders in Germany are always told what to do so then when they\u2019re on their own, they don\u2019t know what to do.”<\/span><\/p>\nstory continues below the advertisement<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/KohnkeAdvert-September-2019.jpg\")
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\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe biggest thing I learnt in Germany though was the quality of the paces. Teaching the horse to improve the gaits; swing in the trot, improve the canter before we did any of the tricks. That\u2019s all we worked on along with position and seat. The seat is so huge. The work has to be quality work. Lots of expression. I think that\u2019s very important. I wrote a diary while I was in Germany and I think everyday I wrote inside leg, outside rein, sit deeper. Everyday was the same thing. It sounds boring but you have to get it in your head, you have to nail it. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ElmoNegro1-577x1024.jpg\")
Melissa’s Negro –\u00a0<\/em><\/span>Elmo aka Windermere Integro<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI ride full time. We breed a little bit. I have a five year old by Negro. He looks a lot like Valegro, but we can\u2019t put that pressure on him! I teach and do clinics, but my love is really the riding. I\u2019m riding five horses at the moment with two more coming from the breakers. My sister rides too but more the jumpers. But we work together and she\u2019s kind of my groom. A lot more people seem to import horses in Australia whereas riders in New Zealand tend to ride home breds. That\u2019s the biggest difference I see. I think it\u2019s something that\u2019s very special, riding the horses bred in New Zealand and also having them from when they\u2019re really young. That\u2019s something I\u2019m very proud of, training my own.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Elmo2.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nTHE BREEDER<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/David.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nDavid Woolley
\nPHOTO CREDIT: Hannah Comrie from NZ SuperGroom and Photographer<\/em><\/p>\nDavid Woolley, although only a small breeder has proved he\u2019s got quite the eye and has placed many horses with New Zealand\u2019s top riders. I asked David how he\u2019s gone about his breeding and why he thinks New Zealand is starting to get some depth to the dressage sport.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIn Australia it seems a lot of the top team riders are based overseas and there\u2019s enough money that the top horses come from overseas. It\u2019s more of a foreign based sport at the top level than it is here in New Zealand. There\u2019s probably less money in New Zealand. I think we\u2019ve been lucky to have Andrea Raves here for a long time as a trainer and she\u2019s provided a fabulous base. Judith Matthews has used frozen semen and has been breeding some really good horses for a long time as well.” <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cDuring his Masterclass last year, Carl Hester was so surprised with the horses. And it\u2019s not just the quality, but also because Vanessa has played a big part in their training. She has had that exposure to Carl and can train them in that really modern way that makes it look easy. I actually saw a comment from Mary Hanna about Melissa, that she rides in a really modern way. And it is compared to what you\u2019ve seen in the past in Australia and New Zealand. Melissa has three horses that I bred. Two Grand Prix ones, both by Johnson out of Thoroughbred mares, Joey and Johnny and a two year old by Johnson. Johnny was a little nut case. We wouldn\u2019t let her take Joey without taking the other one! He was a very touchy horse since the day he was born. He\u2019s doing so well at Grand Prix as well. I think Joey is the superstar though. He can passage as well as any horse out there. Carl said that horse is as good as it gets. I have half sisters to both of Melissa\u2019s Grand Prix horses and a half sister to the Gaylene\u2019s horse. They\u2019re my broodmares.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/JohnsonHP.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\nJohnson – ‘amazing!’<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cI saw Johnson by chance watching a video of him one day while I was bored at work. I saw him in his licensing in hand and he just looked amazing. We investigated whether we could get the semen in New Zealand. We watched him as a young horse and then a few years you didn\u2019t see him and then he came out Grand Prix and was a team horse for Holland. Early on people in Europe were saying how they didn\u2019t like him but then he started doing well and his progeny started doing well. I happened to breed to Johnson and have three Grand Prix horses from the first three horses I bred. It\u2019s the best decision I ever made. I have another Johnson foal and two four year olds, one of which I sold to Vanessa.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI used the Thoroughbred mares. We went and bought two racehorses. One was on Trade Me and the other one was from the sales. Joey\u2019s mother cost us $300. She looked exactly like him, huge, chestnut, big neck, really strong top line, bent through the joints well when she moved. She was an elite mare when she got approved by the Hanoverian Society.\u00a0 We were given the mother of Gaylene\u2019s horse.”<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/JaxJohnson2CaitlinBenzie.jpg\")
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Gaylene and Jax – another Johnson: Photo: Caitlin Benzie Photography<\/em><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cI read an article in The Horse Magazine that Chris wrote about the latest rankings of the best dressage stallions. There were some really interesting graphs in there. There was one of the Thoroughbred blood in the top ten stallions. Vivaldi, Jazz, Johnson had 40-44% thoroughbred blood in them. So Joey, who has Johnson as a father with that much Thoroughbred in him out of a Thoroughbred mare, that\u2019s a lot of blood!”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe other interesting graph was a strike rate percentage of the top ten stallions that get to Prix St Georges then Grand Prix. Johnson was about second on the list. That\u2019s not bad for such a young stallion. That told me that I need to keep the blood in the horses really high. I think it makes it a lot easier at Grand Prix as well.\u00a0 Mary Hanna\u2019s Calanta is also by Johnson. John\u2019s horse is out of a Johnson mare. So at Willinga it was Johnson, Johnson, Johnson mare in the top three.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cIn between I\u2019ve done a few German horses and they\u2019ve been pretty good. Most of those horses are now my brood mares. This year I have six in foal. The stallions I use have to have been a Grand Prix horse or have left a Grand Prix horse for me to use them. They have to come from a Grand Prix line. I don\u2019t necessarily want to breed a beautiful, black spider by an unproven stallion. I\u2019ve used Zonik. I love Zack. I think he\u2019s quite phenomenal. I think Jazz has the strongest genes of any stallion. I love Don Schufro and the Sir Donnerhall mares; they just keep coming up time and time again.”<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/firstRock.jpg\")
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\u00a0Vanessa’s F\u00fcrst Romancier – DW Furst Rock<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cNow I always try to sell my horses to really good people. Vanessa has been a huge coup for New Zealand with getting into Carl and knowing what she knows. I started to stalk Vanessa and showed her a video of a F\u00fcirst Romancier out of the half sister of Melissa\u2019s older horse. He\u2019s a freak mover and he\u2019s now five and about to go to his first show. She really loves him. His name is DW Furst Rock. Cooper Oborn has a young Bordeaux that I bred. He also trains with Vanessa.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/SchockemoehleAD-1-686x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>THE CHAIRMAN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/scott.jpg\")
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Scott McKenna, Chairman of Dressage NZ, sums things up: \u201cKallista Field came to Australia with Waikare and won (the combination also represented New Zealand at the Sydney 2000 Olympics scoring 68% in the Grand Prix Special and just missing the cut off for the kur). Then we had Julie Brougham and Vom Feinsten who was scoring in the 70s. Wendi Williamson had Deja Vu; that was a seriously good horse before he unfortunately died. Wendi\u2019s on her second string horse now. Vanessa Way had KH Arvan scoring in the 70s in national shows before it got injured and she has another scoring in the 70s. Kallista is back with a small tour horse that is seriously talented and winning everything with really high marks. But it\u2019s the depth we have now. We have the four combinations here (at Willinga), but there\u2019s two or three combinations still at home who are scoring at least as high as these guys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>Scott is quick to point out that it\u2019s all come from hard work and some cluey coaches and home bred horses. \u201cNot one of those riders had a fancy school master as a young rider. They\u2019ve all been forced to find a way to do it. There\u2019s not been one way for all of them either. There have been a few stand out coaches; Vanessa Way, Andrea Raves and Christine Weal are probably our three leading coaches. Vanessa has probably got the most riders getting the best results and that\u2019s largely because of her training with Carl Hester. I think that\u2019s really pushed us forward in the last couple of years. <\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>All of the horses except John Thompson’s horse JHT Chemistry have been home bred. Victoria Wall’s horse is by a resident NZ stallion. Wendi\u2019s horses are from Matthew\u2019s Hanoverians. Melissa\u2019s two Grand Prix horses were bred by David Woolley. Possibly the best small tour horse going around at the moment was also bred by David (Gaylene Lennard\u2019s Jax Johnson).<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span>\u201cMichael Milton Paralympic gold medal winning skier spoke to us at the FEI Regional Dressage Forum. His point was when you take away a leg, you have to find creative ways to solve everyday problems. I think that\u2019s a little bit like New Zealand dressage. We have a huge disadvantage to probably any other dressage country so we\u2019ve had to find a way to succeed. Even if you had money, you couldn\u2019t buy a trained school master. They just didn\u2019t exist. We have had a couple of good ones imported as youngsters, but really, there\u2019s just been a couple. So, we\u2019ve really done it all on our own horses. Our young riders were thrown in the deep end and had to work it out. That creates a sustainable model. That makes riders who can not only last but really make horses. You can\u2019t buy medals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nSo horses with lots of blood and matching them with top riders, spending time in the stables of the world\u2019s top trainers, doing the hard yards and helping each other seem to be the main ingredients of success for the Kiwis. That \u201cnever say die\u201d mentality should see the Antipodeans garner ever more success on their dressage journey.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/vanessaCaitlinBenzie2.jpg\")
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Vanessa and NRM Andreas leading the Kiwi challenge: Photo Caitlin Benzie<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand dressage comes in out of the cold – with an innovative home breeding program, some talented riders and a locally grown, Carl Hester groomed, coach… Rebecca Ashton reports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,714,4],"tags":[953,20,2038,1820],"class_list":["post-48993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-breeders-club","category-dressage","tag-carl-hester","tag-dressage-training","tag-new-zealand-dressage","tag-vanessa-way"],"acf":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48993"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55950,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48993\/revisions\/55950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\u00a0<\/span>That’s a pretty handy pair of hacks, Vanessa riding Freestyle, Carl on Delicato…<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.horsemagazine.com\/thm\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/JaxJohnson.jpg\")
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