EQ Vaulting Development Day

On Sunday 24th July, Vaulting Queensland hosted an action-packed fun day of learning, focussed on the development our equestrian sport of vaulting at Byron Bay Equestrian Centre.
Attended by 3 of our 4 Vaulting Clubs in Qld & Nth NSW, it was a wonderful opportunity for Lungers, Vaulters, and horses, from beginners to experienced, to come together in a collaborative learning environment to share information and learn new skills.
Nina Fritzell, travelled from South Australia and as an EA Level 3 Judge, EA & FEI Level 1 Coach & Official Lunger she had a wealth of experience to share. Nina lead the session for Lungers in Competition Protocol (incl Presentation for Vet Check/Trot up). Particularly aimed at encouraging more lungers and horse handlers to our sport. This was very interactive, with each participant gaining practical experience and feedback from each other in such a way that even experienced lungers received some new tips to add to their toolbox. New lungers got to practice their skills of lungeing experienced horses with vaulters supported by Nina and experienced competition lungers. As an EA Level 3 Judge, Nina was able to explain how the judges score the horse at canter and the newly introduced Walk Horse Score.
Our vaulters and lungers (& coaches) particularly enjoyed Nina’s session on “What happens if??” a practical discussion of what to do when things don’t go quite to plan at a competition. From technical failures with music to horse trotting in performances, from a judge’s perpective, Nina was able to give us all some great advice in understanding the dos and don’ts of competition.
Nina was joined in the vaulters coaching session by David Waller (EA Level 1 Coach) assisted by our celebrity guest vaulter Gera Grun from Germany. The vaulters enjoyed some team games, gymnastic circuits, freestyle choreography, trying some new freestyle moves on our experienced walk horse Xena, and challenged to some fun compulsory drills at trot and canter on Lucy. It was great to see vaulters from different clubs having fun learning together, experiencing different horses, and getting to know each other better in a non-competitive, supportive, team environment.
Another highlight was Gera, our guest vaulter from Germany, finishing our action packed day with some story telling. Gera inspired our vaulters, telling of her own vaulting journey from a young flyer in one of Germany’s top squads to placing 4th in Pas De Deux at World Equestrian Games in 2014. She told of the struggles and the hard work but also the fun and the inspiration she had gained from other champion vaulters. She also told us about training her own vaulting horse that her and her mum raised from an injured foal. This was Warrell, the horse that the Australian Junior Squad competed on at World Championships last year. Warrell carried the Zelos Juniors to 4th in the world in their 2nd round freestyle.
A Big Thank you to everyone that assisted in organising and participated in the day. Thank you to Byron Bay Equestrian Centre for providing great facilities, canteen and indoor arena.
Special Thank you to Equestrian Queensland for your support of our Development Day and your on-going support of our equestrian sport.