Four Australian women are competing at the 2023 FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses at Ermelo in the Netherlands – underway as we speak from 3-6 August.
The combinations selected to represent Australia are Simone Pearce and Dutch-bred No Limit, Maree Tomkinson and German-bred Imagine II, and Alicia Ryan with Australian-bred Merricks Sonique. While the FEI/WBFSH selection protocol only allows Australia to have one combination entered per age group, a US-based Queenslander, Hope Beerling, has been selected to represent the USA with an American-bred mare named Vianne. We catch up with the four riders to find out more about how they prepared for the event, their horses and their aspirations.
“Imagine showed enormous
potential right from
the beginning.”
MAREE TOMKINSON & IMAGINE II
Imagine II has always been a high achiever in young horse classes. With Maree in the saddle from early on, she won the four-year-old championship at Dressage & Jumping With The Stars (DJWTS) in 2021 and has continued to shine ever since.
Since relocating to Germany with Maree last year, Imagine has been successful across five- and six-year-old CDI-YH classes and scored as high as 87% in qualifying for this year’s World Championships.
A six-year-old Oldenburg mare bred by Gerhard Dustmann in Germany, Imagine II is by Ibiza out of a St Moritz mare. She is owned by Maree in conjunction with Susan Gorst, and will be groomed by Nina Ditz in Ermelo.
EQ LIFE: Imagine II has always been a star in young horse classes since winning the four-year-old championship at DJWTS – how do you feel she’s developed between then and now as a six-year-old?
MAREE: For me it was always abundantly clear that Imagine showed enormous potential right from the beginning. As a four-year-old her development and training was age appropriate as it is as a six-year-old. As she gets older, she becomes stronger and more balanced and even to the less experienced eye, it is not possible to deny now how world class she is. As she develops more and becomes even more confident and secure in her power and training, it will become even more obvious. She is exactly where she needs to be at this age and stage. I am very happy with our preparation.
EQ LIFE: What are her greatest strengths?
MAREE: She has many! Imagine is a complete horse. She is exquisitely beautiful to look at, with the perfect conformation for a sport horse. She has three outstanding gaits, remarkable trainability and a very unique character… she is very calm and confident in just about any environment, but still with good energy and enthusiasm for her work and this makes her very easy to judge. She is exactly what the modern sport is looking for: a relaxed, harmonious and confident sport horse. The perfect mix. It is very rare to find such a horse, such a complete horse.
EQ LIFE: What is she like personality-wise?
MAREE: She is very sweet, gentle and a little goofy. She is inquisitive rather than afraid of things. If she sees something she is not sure of, she will slow down, look hard at whatever it is and slowly move towards it… never away. She is calm and confident and interested in everything around her. She goes out in the field every day and is very relaxed outside. She loves Friday [one of Maree’s other mares], they go out together and scratch each other most of the day. Imagine is a very easy and well-adjusted horse to have around and really she never does anything wrong ever; she is a good eater, traveller, wonderful at competitions, loves the other horses and all people. She is an absolute sweetheart.
SIMONE PEARCE & NO LIMIT
In June this year, Simone Pearce made the move to Bavaria in southern Germany to base with Thomas and Monika Ritzinger and their daughter, Sophia. The horse whom she’s been selected on, five-year-old No Limit, is owned by the Ritzinger family and Simone had only been riding him a matter of weeks before gaining a qualification score in the CDI-YH at Šamorín, Slovakia. The pair scored an impressive 86%.
No Limit is a Westfalen gelding bred by Marcel Roerdink of the Netherlands, by Geniaal (Vivaldi) out of Florina (Florestan I). At the World Championships he will be cared for by Simone’s long-time groom, Emily Reudavey.
EQ LIFE: You’ve only been riding No Limit for a matter of weeks; you must have been thrilled with your tests in Šamorín where you achieved the qualifying scores?
SIMONE: I’ve only been riding Limit for a month and a half, and it was really awesome to be able to compete at Šamorín and get a really nice score and qualification. I’m super happy and proud as always to be at the World Championships. I wasn’t there for the first time in many, many years last year, so it’s great to be back at one of my favourite shows for the year.
EQ LIFE: What do you feel are Limit’s greatest strengths?
SIMONE: I think he has a really amazing presence in the arena. He’s a really big horse with three super gaits, and I think his overall impression is what gives him that wow factor.
EQ LIFE: What is he like to have around the stable?
SIMONE: Around the stable he is a real character; he’s a little bit cheeky but really, really cute, and I think that cheekiness with the young horses is always part of their charm. So he’s a real pleasure to have around!
ALICIA RYAN & MERRICKS SONIQUE
Merricks Sonique is the only Australian-bred horse on the team at this year’s World Championships. The seven-year-old Hanoverian mare was bred by Sally Jones of Merricks Warmbloods in Victoria, and is by Stedinger (Sandro Hit) out of imported mare Waldfee (Donnerschwee).
Alicia and Sonique – aka ‘Audrey’ – qualified for the World Championships with a CDI-YH score of 70.257%. Owned by Alicia’s mum, Susan Ryan, Merricks Sonique will be groomed by Lyndal Kramer in Ermelo.
EQ LIFE: How old was Sonique when your family purchased her from the breeder, and what was it about her that caught your eye?
ALICIA: My mum purchased Merricks Sonique, or Audrey as we call her, as a yearling from Merricks Warmbloods on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.
On paper, it was definitely her breeding that caught my interest. However, once we had seen her in person, we couldn’t go past her big ears… they are so huge! She also had the most beautiful kind eyes, and good solid gaits. Otherwise, she really was a bit of an ugly duckling at that age!
EQ LIFE: Have you ridden her from the beginning, and did she compete much in Australia?
ALICIA: Yes, I’ve had Audrey from the beginning of her riding career. She was broken in a little late as a rising four-year-old because I had been away completing my master’s degree in Europe, so her competition career didn’t begin until she was a five-year-old. She had her first official competition at Novice level at the Victorian Young Rider Championships in 2021, which she won convincingly and after that I didn’t compete her again until she was a six-year-old and at Medium level. It was after this I decided to pursue a professional riding career in Europe.
EQ LIFE: When did you relocate with her to Europe, and where have you been based?
ALICIA: I relocated at the end of 2022 to work as a rider for Helgstrand Dressage in Denmark. It was definitely a big decision as to whether or not I brought a horse with me. It’s a huge financial commitment flying your horse to the other side of the world and I’m lucky to have a super supportive family by my side. However, this journey I worked very hard to fund myself! And although at times I might have felt a little drained, metaphorically speaking… bringing my beautiful girl with me to train and compete has opened up a world of opportunities for us, which was worth every penny!
EQ LIFE: What do you feel are her greatest strengths?
ALICIA: Audrey has a good brain and is trainable, which has allowed me to progress her quite quickly. She’s a quick learner; once she understands what you want, she’s on it!
“I think this horse
is a potential candidate
for the 2028 Olympics”
HOPE BEERLING & VIANNE
Hope Beerling will ride Vianne in Ermelo, a seven-year-old American Hanoverian mare owned by NorCordia USA (an equine investment company cofounded and owned by Catherine Haddad Staller in conjunction with Denmark’s Ulrik Clemmensen). Vianne was bred by Catherine and is by Vitalis out of Raureif (Ramiro’s Bube).
Although on this occasion Hope is representing the USA, the former Queenslander represented Australia earlier this year with Small Tour horse Uno Elando when she was part of our Nations Cup team in Wellington, Florida.
It is an FEI/WBFSH rule that a combination can only try for the World Championships through one country, and thus Hope and Vianne’s owners ultimately opted to take the US selection route. Hope, 23, moved from Queensland to the US in 2019 to train with Catherine and has since enjoyed success on the US circuit with several horses. She’s trained Vianne since she was a three-year-old and has scored as high as 77.772% in CDI-YH classes this year.
EQ LIFE: What do you feel are Vianne’s greatest strengths?
HOPE: I feel that Vianne’s greatest strengths would be the trot tour of the test and also her reliability. Vianne’s trot has come a long way and she’s so powerful yet finds it so easy to collect, which is a big part of the seven-year-old test. She’s also one of the most rideable horses I’ve ever ridden; she’s never once been spooky or nervous and she knows how to go into the arena and do her thing. Sometimes I feel like she just says to me “don’t worry, I’ve got this!’”
EQ LIFE: You’re travelling from the USA – how long do you plan to have Vianne in Europe for, and will you head to any other events while you’re there?
HOPE: I left for Europe on 14 June and plan to be in Europe for just over a month before returning to the USA. At this point in time there’s no other competition planned as we went over to get settled in and train in Germany before heading to Ermelo.
EQ LIFE: You’ve been partnered with Vianne since she was a three-year-old, where do you hope the partnership can go in the future?
HOPE: I still stand by my word and I think this horse is a potential candidate for the 2028 Olympics held in Los Angeles. I would still love to put together a syndicate to buy the horse after Ermelo to try to continue this ride with this amazing horse! I think she could be ready for the 2026 FEI World Championships, and I think it’s hard to find a horse with the brain, reliability and trainability that she has. I am forever thankful for NorCordia, as they have believed in us from the beginning and have made this dream of mine come to reality.
The 2023 FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses runs from 3-6 August. Find out more via the event website. EQ
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