2015 Queensland State Dressage Championships

The 2015 Queensland State Dressage Championships has been run and won in near perfect weather. With brilliant sunshine over the 3 days the only glitch was the wind on the first day, Thursday 13^th August.

This year the numbers were a little lower than we are used to but the quality of horse and rider was very high. There were combinations from as far away as far North Queensland, making it a truly State event and Northern NSW. Our riders from far North Queensland, after travelling for 3 days, did themselves proud.

Judges officiating this year included two New Zealand judges, Judith Cunningham and Robin Friend, one Western Australian, Kim Thomas, one South Australian, Liz Duncan and one Victorian, Pam Edwards. These ladies were ably supported by our top level Queensland judges. It was great having the International and Interstate judges attend and gibe our riders a different point of view.

There were lots of personal bests but some to mention were the rides by Emma Flavelle, Nicole Tough and our up and coming young riders Eloise Devlin and Kaitlin Dooney to mention just a few. Emma took out the Equestrian Land Developments Novice Champion, Proteq Equine Bedding Elementary Champion, Medium Champion and Strathearn Insurance Brokers Advanced Champion, missing just one Champion at Preliminary. Not to be out done was Nicole Tough on her two FEI horses. Nicole won the Festival of Dressage Small Tour Champion on Borsato and the Festival of Dressage FEI Medium Tour Champion on Furst Tyme. The Horse Store.com Preliminary Champion was Georgie Cham on the very lovely Laquestar.

The Festival of Dressage Big Tour Champion was hotly contested by the 3 combinations that were eligible - Victoria Welch riding two horses, Glogau and Brentanus and Jayden Brown riding Furst Friedrich. All three combinations received equal points after the Intermediate II and Grand Prix so it was down to percentages to separate them. With less than 2 points separating them, Tori riding Glogau pipped Brentanus at the post taking out the Grand Prix Champion.

This year there were no pony classes at the State Championships as the ponies will have their own Championship event in October in Toowoomba. The ponies were missed!

Para-equestrian competitions were included once again with seven Para riders riding a Team, Individual and a Freestyle competition at Grade II, III and IV. A great effort by all our riders.

Sponsors of the Queensland State Dressage Championships this year included The Festival of Dressage, Strathearn Insurance Brokers, Proteq Equine Bedding, Horse Stores.com, Equestrian Land Developments, Equessential, Equest Dressage, Prydes Feeds, Running Cool Feeds, Guardian Horse Supplies all the way from far North Queensland and Aussie Equine Supplys. Caboolture Dressage Group, proud hosts of this year’s State Championships, expresses their sincere thanks to all these sponsors and supporters for their continued support of not only this particular event but dressage in general. Events like this don’t happen without the continued support of these businesses and all the volunteers who helped put this event on the ground.