Well, the Australian dressage team of Jayden Brown on WillingaPark Sky Diamond, Simone Pearce on Fiderdance, Lyndal Oatley on Eros and Mary Hanna on Calanta have competed. Big picture, the end result was eighth place for the Australian team.

This is pretty much back on board with where Australia is ranked in the world. We did have a setback at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics where we came 13^th out of 15 teams. Not a great result. So, thank goodness we are back and now we need to focus up on the way forward.

I mentioned before the FEI World Championships how I thought it was important our riders achieved their personal best scores at Herning. It was, after all, their PBs that they were selected on.

So, to be specific, Jayden Brown on WillingaPark Sky Diamond scored 69.674% in the Grand Prix at the Championships. This was exactly equivalent to his PB that got him selected on the team. Simone Pearce on Fiderdance scored 73.463% at the Championships, which was in actual fact a new PB for this combination. Totally brilliant.

Lyndal Oatley on Eros scored 72.189% at the Championships, which unfortunately was 2.181% below her PB of 74.370%. Had Lyndal equalled her personal best of 74.370%, Australia would have moved up one spot and finished seventh in the team classification rather than eighth. So, no harm done – we qualified a team for the Paris Olympics regardless – but we really, really do need to be aware of personal best scores and their potential to make a very big difference to the Australian future.

To further illustrate how important the personal best scores are, the Australians did compete in a Nations Cup competition at Aachen prior to the World Championships. We finished eighth out of eight teams competing in the Nations Cup. When the three Grand Prix scores plus the three GP Special scores were added together, Australia scored 419.947 in total. This is how the Nations Cup is scored, resulting in us coming eighth out of eight teams.

However, had the Australian riders all scored the equivalent to their personal bests in the Grand Prix and Grand Prix Special, we would have had a team score of 434.046. This would have placed us fifth in the Nations Cup as opposed to eighth. We would have been ahead of Spain, Great Britain and the United States. A significant difference.

GIRL POWER

Another interesting development is that the new reigning World Champion is the English girl, Lottie Fry. Lottie is 26 years of age. The silver medallist at the World Championships was the Danish girl, Cathrine Laudrup-Dufour, who is 30. The gold medallist at the Tokyo Olympics was the German Jessica von Bredow-Werndl, who was 35 at the time. Charlotte Dujardin, who won the individual gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics was 27 at the time. Australia’s superstar of the moment is Simone Pearce. Simone is 31 years of age.

So, mid-20s to mid-30s and mostly girls is where the really, really tops in the sport of dressage tend to be. Well, in 10 years’ time, Brisbane will be hosting the 2032 Olympic Games. Right this moment, Australia has to be desperate to put together a High Performance program targeting talented teenagers up to and including riders in their 20s. If we fail to plan for the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane, we plan to fail.

Of course, we have amazing talent out there capable of charging down gold medals for Australia come Brisbane 2032. These riders will, however, need nurturing and directing if they are to fulfil their potentials and change history forever for Australia and Australian dressage. So far as I am aware, there are not even early discussions at Equestrian Australia or among our High Performance staff in charge of their HP programs. Ten years is enough time for us to go from eighth in the world to first in the world. At Sydney 2000 Olympics, Great Britain came eighth as a team, and 12 years later in London 2012 they won the individual and team gold medals at the Olympics. We so need to get up and do something.

Personally, I am very worried about the EA and its ability to implement an effective program which realistically has the potential to deliver dressage gold medals. Ironically, I think our best hope is going to come from parents shouldering the responsibility. I do not think that the parents have to be distinguished riders themselves. I think this program will reflect a nurturing logic with a very clear outcome and date, that is, a gold medal in 2032. I think this program will have realistic KPIs that need to be met every six months. When a KPI is not reached, how realistic the expected achievement was needs to be carefully reassessed and then coaches changed or horse management changed – or, in short, action taken. High Performance programs have to be reactive. The riders are not dropped from a program because of bad form. This is the advantage of parents in that they still love their child even when they struggle. Normally, High Performance programs inherently get rid of athletes that have lost form. In actual fact a loss of form is exactly when the athletes need the most help. Anyway, a topic for another column…

EVENTING

Talking of gold medals, the Australian eventers certainly have a very clear history of winning gold at the Olympics. At Tokyo 2020 (’21), the Australian Eventing team won team silver and Andrew Hoy won individual bronze. Australians really, really can win medals in the equestrian disciplines.

So, the World Eventing Championships at Pratoni del Vivario, Italy, run from 15-18 September 2022. The Australian team taking on the rest of the world is, in alphabetical order:

• Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos
• Shenae Lowings and Bold Venture
• Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam or Willunga
• Shane Rose and Virgil
• Hazel Shannon and WillingaPark Clifford

The reserves are:

• Sammi Birch and Finduss PFB
• Sam Lyle and BF Valour
• Jessica Rae and Fifth Avenue
• Shane Rose and Easy Turn (Shane has been selected on his first horse, Virgil)

At or before the first horse inspection on 14 September, the National Eventing Selection Panel will select four combinations for the Australian Team and one Australian Individual. Sticking to the personal best score theory, which we have discussed in the Dressage element of this column, here is what we expect:

• Andrew Hoy and Vassily de Lassos have a PB score of 29.6 penalties from Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
• Shenae Lowings and Bold Venture have a PB of 25.3 penalties from Werribee CCI4*L in June 2022.
• Kevin McNab and Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam or Willunga. Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam has a PB of 34.3 penalties from Lexington CCI5*L in April 2021. Willunga has a PB of 49.2 penalties in the CCI4*L at Millstreet in June 2022.
• Shane Rose and Virgil have a PB score of 35.7 penalties from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
• Hazel Shannon and WillingaPark Clifford have a PB of 44.6 penalties at Millstreet CCI4*L in June 2022.

So, according to these three-day event scores (CCI5* and CCI4*L format), here are the expected top three performers, the discard score, and the individual Australian representative. The selectors may well consider one-day event (CCI4*S) performances, which can change everything. I do point out that the Australian selectors used a little bit of poetic licence and considered one-day event performances with the selections at the Werribee Oceania Championships against New Zealand. These little selection deviations were very unsuccessful and did mean that a rider who should have been included in the A team didn’t even get selected in the B team. Not good.

Anyway, selection by these scores should be:

• Shenae Lowings on Bold Venture
• Andrew Hoy on Vassily de Lassos
• Kevin McNab on Scuderia 1918 Don Quidam
• Shane Rose on Virgil

The individual rider for Australia should be:

• Hazel Shannon on WillingaPark Clifford

Just totalling the three top scores we are hoping for from these riders gives Australia a team total of 89.2 penalties. I am going off the Tokyo 2020 Olympic results, and 89.2 penalties will leave Australia in a silver medal team position. By my calculations, Great Britain will again win the gold medal with a score of around 85 penalties. However, you just never do know. To be at the top end of the Olympics or World Championships, you can see just how important it is to nail your very best performance – and not just one member of the team, but everyone. Not one of our top riders can even blink! This Australian Eventing team is really, really good and I can guarantee that they will be worth sitting up late for a couple of nights in a row to watch them go into battle for Australia. EQ

Cheers,

Heath

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Big High Performance Issues –Equestrian Life, August 2022