State Dressage report from Helen Wilkinson  Photos

The PCA N.S.W. State Dressage Championships were held at the Albury Wodonga Equestrian Centre at Thurgoona on the weekend of 28^th/29^th August.

Nine riders from Zone 23 competed at the event.

The rain which had made its mark on the venue, held off to allow the competition to proceed, with over 196 riders competing from clubs all over N.S.W as well as riders from QLD and Victoria.

The riders in the Zone 23 Dressage team were:

Under 13years Riding Tests 1C and 1D

Sarah Mc Vicker and Apache dream (Forest Hills)

Rachael Temm and Grooveman 5^th and 4^th place (Forest Hills)

*Phoebe Wilkinson and Farleigh Havana 1^st and 1^st place and Champion

(One of the four highest scores of the comp named as part of the N.S.W State winning team) From Avondale Pony Club.

13 and under 15 years Riding tests 1D and 2A

Lauren French and Chasing Gold (Forest Hills)

Rachel Adam and Neversfelde Whisper 1^stand 6^th place(Forest Hills)

Bianca Clarke-DAprille and Alacantra (Forest Hills)

Georgie Grove 9^th place (Forest Hills)

15 and under 17 years Riding tests 2A and 2D

Elloise McWilliams and Docs Power(Dural)

Isabelle Miller and Wingrove Finale 8^th and 4^th place(Forest Hills)

Zone 23 was the Winning Team at this event with.

Phoebe Wilkinson,(who scored 20 points) Rachel Adam(15points)

Rachel Temm(13 points) and Isabelle Miller.(10points)

Thanks must go to Garry Temm who did a stirling job as under 13 years manager; always immaculately presented in Zone uniform and always where he should be all the time; ensuring riders were too.

To be eligible for club trophies members must have attended 50% of the Club’s rally days during the year, up to & including the day of the event. Club Event Trophies are awarded based on competition at Avondale Closed events or as determined by the SI & Awards Panel.

Tara competed at the Pony Club Nationals this week on the NSW eventing team and WHAT an experience!   Thank you so much Avondale who generously sponsored her entry and stabling costs.   Thanks also to Avondale members who came to support her.   It made a big difference and we were proud to be from such a great club.

WA brought 40 horses, Tas brought 18, Vic & Qld brought approx. 40.   Amazing so many came so far - it made it truly national.  It was a sight to see all the riders and officials in their State colours.   The atmosphere was really great.

It started on Monday with warmup competitions in all disciplines.   From these result, each State declared their dressage and showjumping teams of 4 riders from their total of 6 riders (other 2 rode as individuals).

The eventers did a SJ warmup on Monday and dressage warmup on Tuesday.  Tara did OK - clear + pole a pole in the jump off - good for Twiggie who thinks all jumps should be solid XC jumps - for an 8th.   In the warm up dressage was on Tuesday, they were warming up v.well but when they went into the arena, Twiggie dangled his tongue out the side of his mouth and just let it flop about - not a good look - 12th.  Tuesday night PC NSW picked the 4 rider NSW junior and senior eventing teams and Tara was thrilled to be selected onto the team.   Tuesday night, Twiggie had his muscles massaged by his favourite chiro but we noticed he was a bit down and had swollen glands.   Nerve wracking - but on Weds his glands were down and he was OK.

The official event started on Weds with the dressage - the judges varied significantly - one put Tara 1st and the other put her around 7th - averaged out she was 4th overall after the dressage - good strart.   Thurs, she was clear XC and still 4th.    It all came down to the SJ on Friday -  there was less than a pole between the top 5 who rode in reverse order with the leader last.   John Vallance built a great course - v.testing - almost everyone had multiple rails - there were only 4 clears.      As Tara was lying 4th, she jumped 4th last and had a pole down.   The next rider had several poles, so Tara went to 3rd.     The next two horses were on exactly the same score and both went clear.   One was a 13.3 pony who seemed to have springs on his feet - amazing.   There was a count back for them to the XC - both clear then to the dressage - both had the same mark from the 2 judges so it came down to who had the highest mark from either judge - and the WA pony won!   A boy from Vic was 2nd and Tara was third.   Great competition.

Overall NSW did v.well - we won all the team events except the eventing where we were third.   Zone 23 did well - Cassandra Louveear was on the winning junior team and Natasha Anjoul was on the winning junior dressage team.

The next Nationals will be in Victoria in 2011 and we would encourage you to go.   It was an AMAZING experience and we thank Pony Club for running it.

Gaye and Tara

Shane Rose is a former member of Avondale who won a Team Eventing Silver Medal in 2008. Shane comes back to Avondale  to teach our riders.Shane and his horse All Luck also third at Burghley horse trials in the UK in 2006

Read Shane's profile >> click here

Edwina Alexander is one of the world's leading showjumpers. In 2008 she came back to Avondale for a BBQ and spoke to us about her life. she presented the club with a beautiful framed photograph of herself and her mare Pialotta

Read Edwinas profile  >>click here