Western Victorian Dressage Club

Marg was first involved in show jumping and eventing. Some of our older members will remember her horse “Pyewacket”, placing second in the open at Melbourne 3 Day event in the 70’s.

Marg then was a trailblazer in the dressage with the big horse “CK” (named after the breeder Colin Kelly). She was our first representative at the summer Olympics in Los Angeles 1984.

In a bid to qualify for the Olympics, Margret, who was largely self- taught, travelled to Europe in the early 1980’s leaving her husband Ken and children for six months.

In May 2007 Marg was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Ballarat in recognition of her contribution to dressage in Australia.

She is an honorary life member of Equestrian Australia.

So we, as members and friends of Western Victorian Dressage Club say goodbye to our esteemed judge and offer sincere condolences to her sons Ken (Charlie) and wife Jan and son Sam, wife Jane and their extended families.

WVDC Horse of the Year 2017 Winners

Hi everyone ,                    

Phew, another comp done n dusted....and  the gods looked after us (well John &  Joe) because there was NO DUST!

Thank you all who helped make a very memorable day for the competitors.

I have now lost count of the emails, txts and facebook messages of thanks from them for a really great comp.

Firstly to our wonderful sponsors, your generosity & commitment to the W.V.D.C. and the sport of dressage is truly appreciated.  

Hewitt & Whitty, (farm, rural & feed ) 

Ballarat Veterinary Practice (MRI facilities)

Horseland Ballarat, (we hope your stand was busy) 

Saddleworld Ballarat,

Formosa Gardens Nursery.    

Even the older adults loved receiving a rider bag, packed full of goodies.

Maxene & Joe put those letters out, AND in - Maxene & Joe gear checked all day too....

Marianne gathered up the pencillers, found more, and wrestled with the freestyle music machine.

Thanks to these pencillers: Marianne, Gwen, Caroline, Corrine, Emily, Susan Ryan.

And especially to Ian Milne, Yvonne Mc Donald, Marg Battye, Lisa Ashmore, Sherryn Smith, Kim Holmes & Monica Heim who offered their help.

Sheet runners Helen Mc D, Joanna, Viv Tipping , Sue Titcomb, and Anne Henry thank you,  & hope you had a rest on Sunday...            

Fiona Anderson and her girls sorted the rider bags days before the event…

Sue introduced, and thanked our judges on the morning but thanks again for your commitment to our club.

Roger Fitzhardinge from Sydney, Jane Ventura our “own” 4 star international, Lou D’Elia,

Jennifer Holmes, Judy Quinn, Sheryl Green, Glen Gault, Jill Suban, Annalise Larin, and Belinda Dawkins.

Belinda, a special thanks for the draw, and for hosting Roger as well.

Judy Peel (bless her cotton sox) stepped in and judged the 5.1 as well as riding,  elegantly as  usual, in her own tests earlier.

Ashley Gray was so quietly efficient at the desk & helping in all directions, a special thanks to her, as she is new to our committee.

John & Joe are the Mr. fixits, John actually raked the arena 5 edges in by hand early Sat am,

and Joe hauled his tractor in to the work bee & scratched up those crusty sand arenas 2,3 &4.

Coral & Carolyn Taylor helped John with those presentations and in between John & Joe cooked the snags,(is there no end to their talents)??

So there were rosettes, vouchers,envelopes with cash and bags of feed being distributed to very appreciative competitors.

Angela Carter from Horsham and Ashley were at the work bee on Friday also.

Karen & Courtney helped put stuff away at the end, even though Karen was exhausted from carrying her trophies to the car!

Can I say the committee members who rode had an outstanding success rate? (Karen, Sue, Joanna).

Thanks Angela, and Carolyn T for the slices/desserts you made for our judges.

Melissa Doodt again provided a wonderful spread of food for the judges which, I think, is why they say yes to W.V.D.C. Ballarat judging requests. (I believe, Judges that she is to cater in May)....start dieting!!

 Sue’s new best friends, Michelle and Amy of nominate.com thanks for tidying up the entries, & the refunds etc…

Chris & Laura of the ever efficient equiscore system give us wonderful service.

Adam Fawcett came from Warragul to take photos & cover the event, see ozdressage .com  and  Travis took videos.

I must also mention the Ballarat pony club, Judy Croagh who had the new sand spread in time on the warm up, had arenas 1 & 5 smudged & cordoned off , and Deb Bain who answers all of our questions within minutes!

Roger gave seven of us at his clinic on the Sunday a definite opinion of our horses outline and firm encouragement to improve our position and the application and timing of aids. We all watched a collection of really lovely horses.

To those of you who would like to do all again on May 16 and July 4 at Elcho park Lara, please contact our  President Coral Byrne: cozb@live.com.au

Cheers,  Sue Nevett

Members and friends, membership for the 2014/2015 year were due last July 1.

*If you wish to receive the membership discount for entry fees the W.V.D.C. treasurer will need to receive your membership form & monies a MINIMUM 2 weeks before entering any W.V.D.C. competition.

Sunday July 27, a great day on the dressage Vic. calendar.

Our team was:  Janelle Miller & Karen Blythe in Nov.

                             Riannon Pettigrove & Holly Hornsby in Elem.

                             Judy Peel & Fiona Anderson in Med.

The girls came third! ( out of 7 teams). See the placings / scores in results.

Commiserations to Joanna Muir, who made the journey from Moriac, only to have a pulled shoe. But Karen happened to be there with the young “Pumpkin”, she stepped in…..& won the class! 

Janelle, returning from injury, replaced Virginia Martin & rode a great test.

Thanks to Marianne Crawford for organising the teams.

We won the best table/display!!  Joe Argento, our president, worked all week to construct a huge Eiffel tower from horseshoes, so our booth stood out somewhat!

The other decorated tables from Berwick, VDC, Westernport clubs were beautifully detailed too.  Thanks Sally Frost for the yummy French food (note the pic. of profiterole eating)!

A big thank you to riders, including Joanne & Virginia, & to our supporters & decorators (Sue, Jen, Maxene) who turned up.

We presented Judy with the HOTY Medium horse trophy as she is unable to come to the AGM. The weather was sunny, & a lot warmer than the Ballarat districts, so members, keep an eye on the calendar for 2015 & join in next year.

BALLARAT DRESSAGE FESTIVAL REPORT 

By Roger Fitzhardinge for Equestrian Life 

The Western Victorian Dressage Club ran the Hewtitt and Whitty CRT Ballarat Dressage Festival in the spacious Victoria Park. This wonderful venue was well prepared despite the drought like conditions, with the arenas well watered and much effort put in to decorating with flowers and plants. The day saw good entries in all classes from Preliminary to Grand Prix, along with Freestyles at all levels and the competition at the top end of the classes producing some complimentary scores.

The highlight of the day was Hagen Park’s Kylie Riddel, who rode a great Grand Prix test on Clive to gain a 65% and a 68% from the two judges, Clive took it all in his stride and performed like Ballarat was a mini Olympics! Some well deserved and seriously high marks in the passage piaffe, would have had them on a higher score, however a mistake in the two tempis and a lack of balance in the first extended trot lost some important marks. The new combination looked at home making the test appear easy, and that's what dressage is all about. In the Freestyle they finished on 66.5% and were infront of Marianne Crawford and Jaybee Bellair.  Marrianne also rode two good tests but for some mistakes in the piaffe which is where the coefficients are now counted.

Preliminary Champion went to Nina Loyd and Ballahowe Fortuna a good moving bay gelding with a strong top line and good canter. Runner up to Flowervale Sandeka and Joy Endresz.

The Novice tests were hotly contested and the eventual Champion was The All Black for Hillary McGregor-Potter with a 69% and 71%. Joanna Muir was runner up of the seventeen entrants. Her horse Napoleon Jack, an attractive dappled grey gelding produced a very consistent test with a steady outline and tempo.

The Elementary was also a strongly contested class with the Champion here to a very attractive bright bay gelding, Withered Wings. This gelding showed good rhythm and   trainability. There is no question that in time this horse is going to develop well. His rider Holly Hormsby showed a great style and position and the overall picture looked great. The runner up Remi Faberge and Erica Henderson. This horse is a bright and energetic liver chestnut with a very round outline and expressive paces. Perhaps a little tension caused the loss of a few marks, but this horse is looking good for the next levels.

The Medium champion was the impressive brown horse Hit Singer and Judy Peel, Hit Singer is developing such an uphill way, unfortunately in the test there were problems with a few late changes and that was where the marks were lost for sure. He will get confirmed here without any problems in very near future and instantly more marks easily.

The sponsorship for this was fantastic with over $2000 cash being divided amongst the winners and an embroidered woolen rug for the Championship classes. Ballarat Veterinary Practice was also a major sponsor along with Hewitt and Whitty CRT who supplied bags of feed to the place getters. Simplex Insurance Solutions, Formosa Nursery as well as Horseland and Equissage were also generous in their sponsorship.

The Advanced Champion went to Emilly O’Connell and Moonlight Park Foxtrot, just in front of Waterfords Tiffany, a bay mare bred in WA by Hannie Byrnes and ridden and trained by Dianne Humm. Both horses scoring in the low to mid 70% and handing in consistent work.

Onto the Prix St George and it was a win to the flamboyant mover in Knotuk Wilson ridden by Jason James. For Jason, who deserved the win, I am sure he could well be questioning things given there was nearly a 7% difference in his scores. But, it's called dressage and in Victoria with a large discrepancy like this, there is a form that the judges after viewing the papers and discussing the horse and the marks, fill out with an ordered reason why they saw the differences. This is an excellent idea and an initiative, which is positive in making the sport more and more transparent. It only takes 0.5 in each movement to come to his percentage difference. It's not so hard to do if one judge perhaps sees a horse not forward and the other thinks it is, or one judge doesn't like the contact and frame and the other does. It happens, and after discussing it's easy to come to an agreement and I think that the overall score of the 66.9% would have been a very acceptable outcome. This horse has plenty of expression in the trot work with an arched and raised neck. The canter work at times could show more jump and hind leg as well as in the changes. There is no doubt nor question that this horse is improving at every outing and that's what is good to see. It will be interesting to watch this horse on his journey to Grand Prix and he surely has the look factor.

Second to Clifton Court Laurenz for Sue Nevett. This lovely scopey big brown gelding showed some fabulous parts but again a lack of consistency staying shoulders up and in front of the leg took away a few marks. With this came a few moments of a little behind the vertical and for sure that lost a few more marks, but all the same it was a creditable test and a mark of 64.88% showing the quality of the work. Belcam Cadel for Bianca Barnes was 3rd and again a super uphill grey horse also very well ridden but a few too many overly expressive changes! It always goes to show that a correct test with no mistakes is first and foremost when it comes to winning at this level. Too much expression and a few mistakes in tempo and balance and hey presto a few 4s (especially on coefficient movements) and down the list you go. But no one can deny dressage is a tough sport and mentally challenging.

In the Inter I there was only the one starter in Belcam Cadel for Bianca Barnes and a score of 65.8% was certainly well deserved. This horse made a few costly mistakes in the flying changes and a few rhythm lapses, so in turn lost important marks. This upstanding grey certainly has the consistency in the outline and Bianca does a great job and has a super elegant and effective position.

Our competitions are entered via Nominate - www.nominate.com.au

Would riders please note the closing dates.

Nominate will close on these dates to allow our event secretaries time to send entry list to EA for approval,do the draw & send out to judges & riders.

Should riders have any difficulty in on-line entry, please contact our event secretaries

To compete in the January 2013 event you will need to become a member of WVDC to ride at all levels  

OR

be at least an EA Participant Member and ride at Preliminary and Novice Levels only.  (Participant Members in Victoria must also register their horse).  

As long as you are a WVDC member you are eligible for points towards our Horse of the Year Trophies.

PLEASE NOTE :

No EA Grading Points are awarded. (For Closed/Restricted Classes)

All WVDC Members can ride in our Closed/Restricted days or Restricted classes at our Official competitions. 

You will not be riding against an ‘Official Competitor’, so come and have a go ! 

The competitions offering these classes are :

Ballarat 2nd November 2013, Colac 18th January 2013, Elcho Park 22nd June 2013.

2013 Horse of the Year Award Winners

LARGE TOUR

JB Bellaire Amanda                     Marianne Crawford          6 points

SMALL TOUR

CC Laurenz                                  Sue Nevett                       20 points

ADVANCED

RP Heartbeat                                Kate Frost                          24 points

MEDIUM

Hit Singer                                    Judy Peel                         28 points

ELEMENTARY

Ottawa                                         Emma Alexander                            33 points

NOVICE

Baxter                                         Lyn Coates                                     40 points

PRELIMINARY

Eskimo Joe                                  Janelle Miller                                 23 points

A new way to reward riders at all levels with a change to the Clubs Awards.

New trophies (for members) are being commissioned for all levels from Preliminary to Large Tour.

Including the Jean Luckock novice & Judy Fraser-Rees medium trophies.The maximum number of points to be achieved will be 6 in a field of at least 6 riders or more, 5 points for 5 , 4 for 4. Etc.

Trophies may only be won with the same horse and only in one section.

All riders please note E.A. dressage rule changes for 2013.

In particular the helmet rules 2.1.1 – 2.2

WVDC NOVICE HORSE OF THE YEAR 2012

ROXBURY VOODOO - NORMAN HUBBLE

WVDC MEDIUM HORSE OF THE YEAR 2012

WATERFORDS TIFFANY - DIANNE HUMM

WVDC FEI HORSE OF THE YEAR 2012

LPL BACHELORETTE - KAREN BLYTHE