Dressage horse owners recognised for their contribution to the sport

By Katy Islip

General news

07 February 2012 11:13

The owners of top-flight dressage horses have seen their contribution to the discipline honoured with awards from the sport’s governing body.

In partnership with Shearwater Insurance, British Dressage (BD) presented the three awards at the BD Supporters’ Club annual dressage ball, held at the end of January in London.

The Grassroots award, which recognises outstanding performance at grassroots level competition, was a family affair, presented to Adrian Wong for his home-bred Samurai II, ridden by his daughter Jodie, 16.

Since they began competing together in June 2010, the pair have racked up many wins, including clinching the Petplan preliminary freestyle at the Winter Dressage Championships with a score of 77.73%, the highest over all the classes in the Area Festival Championships.

Adrian explained he originally started to breed horses for himself after failing to find a suitable mount within his budget, with Jodie taking on late-backed Samurai II after she couldn’t find a new pony after outgrowing her 13.3hh.

He added: “Now Jodie is able to benefit too. Her jump from a pony to a 17hh horse was made easier by Samurai’s kind character; he really looked after her.”

The Para-equestrian award is presented to the owner of the horse which has produced an outstanding performance in para-equestrian competition.

This year’s winner was Sally-Ann Brown, whose horse Teddy has enjoyed fantastic success with Grade Ia para rider Anne Dunham.

Anne took the ride on the British-bred gelding in 2006 and in 2007 the pair won all three classes for their grade at Moorsele CPEDI 3*.

The following year Teddy and Anne were selected to represent Team GB at the Beijing Paralympics, bringing home one silver and two gold medals.

Their performance in 2010 led to selection for the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, where they were part of the gold medal winning team, and 2011 Teddy and Anne won all three available individual golds at the European Para Equestrian Dressage Championships.

The Elite award, which is presented to the owner of a horse which has produced an outstanding performance in Senior International competition, went to Roly Luard, co-owner of Valegro, who enjoyed an incredibly successful 2011 with rider Charlotte Dujardin.

More information about dressage and para-dressage can be found at www.britishdressage.co.uk