Rain, mud and wind did not deter the eight Aussie riders that fronted up to Mannheim last weekend, for our first selection event. There were some top quality horses well presented by their riders.

The arenas stood up well to the pouring rain the night before and during the Grand Prix. Poor Lyndal Oatley got the brunt of the bad weather. The skies opened and dumped on her just before the test was due to begin. The judge at C saw fit to stop the competition and then after returning to the stable Lyndal was summoned back and given the bell to start with barely a lap of the arena. However, undeterred, Lyndal rode a great test on Sandro Boy to become the best performance of the Aussies with 69.7%.

Next best was Hayley Beresford with the stallion Bellissimo. Like Sandro Boy , Bellissimo is also fairly new to the ranks of GP. With a huge book of 500 mares to serve, her stallion looked a little lighter in condition than when I last saw him in Aachen. However, he did a great job for the next best score of 68.8%, only just ahead of Kristy Oatley on 68.5%.

Kristy’s huge gelding Ronan, at 188cm is a gentle giant of a horse with legs that go for ever. He is so tall he can put his head over the top of the portable stables and peer down at all the little people and horses. His canter is huge and Kristy could barely fit in her zig zag and changes as he seems twice as big as a normal horse. Even so he put in a great performance.

Kristy and Lyndal - cousins clowning around!

Sancette put in a good test also with a pleasing piaffe passage tour. We had a very uncharacteristic bleep on the first halt where he dropped the bit and stepped backwards . And he did not maintain his final halt. These were costly errors and pulled his score down to 66.36%. I have not given up hope though as his performances have been consistent, and I know he has a high score in him. While the selectors look at these two selection events, there are many other considerations, such as soundness and consistency, and so other events are taken into consideration, particularly where riders have two horses. We are still waiting to find out if we can start our second horses at Compiègne.

There were some hard luck stories for some of the other riders. Poor Brett Parbery was very disappointed that even though Lord of Loxley did a nice test he had his tongue out the whole test, a fact that the judges did not appreciate.

The Special was a wet affair again the next day. Poor Lyndal got dumped on with pouring rain again. Still she did a great job with her first special getting a respectable 66.889%. Kristy’s Ronan, also new to the special, did not passage as well as the day before, but also a good job. Hayley pulled off a super test with a 69.33%, and lost none of the polish she had produced the day before.

It was a very positive overall result for Australia, and I think it is possible for us to produce a very competitive team for London. Many of us will compete again before the next selection event, some at Ermelo, at a National competition, and some at Munich or Hamburg CDI.

My next event will be with Umbro at Hamburg.

Working Sancette at the lovely stables of Claudia and Willy Munsterkotter

Well here we are back in Germany at last. Historically speaking not one of my favorite places… In fairness my opinion was probably negatively affected last time I stayed for a prolonged period of time by the fact that I had a herniated disk and two of my horses broke down…

This time I feel fit and healthy and right now my horses are the same. I just hope it all stays that way. Anyhow I have a very good feeling so far. We are staying with old friends, Dennis Callinan and his partner David, who are the most delightful friendly guys, and who have a great sense of humor. They have kept us entertained, and we have a great little apartment next to them. Their stable is also super with a lovely light airy indoor and good outdoor. The stables are huge with big picture windows and both horses think they have died and gone to heaven. There are nice paddocks to graze in, and good places to walk out. Umbro has even tolerated the 30-year-old mule who has his own personal “Villa Hugo” and grassy paddock. All the people, dogs, horses, and mules are friendly here.

Sancette and Umbro's new friend...

Yesterday we went to visit Shiraz at Patrick Kittel and Lyndal Oatley’s place. He looked so happy, and in perfect condition. It was a great relief for me to see him, as I hadn’t seen him for over a year. He really left a big space in our stable when he departed for the US, and we all missed him terribly. Patrick says he will start GP at Lingen, so we really look forward to that.

With Shiraz Black - photo by Lyndal Oatley

Today we had a special treat, as Clemens Dierks came over to see how we were going. I was very happy that he thought both the horses had made good progress, and it was really great to have my old coach have a look at our progress and look with fresh eyes. I always find Clemens great to get me in good mental shape before a big comp. On Wednesday he is off to help Rachael at the World Cup in Den Bosch and then for a visit to his East German relations.

Dennis and I have enjoyed riding together and bouncing ideas off each other. Some readers may remember Dennis riding at the Sydney CDI on my stallion Solo, many years ago. Dennis and I go back a long way, to the days when we both trained at Herbert Rehbein’s. Not that we admit how long ago that was as we are both a little sensitive about our age.

David Taylor, Dennis Callinan and Gretta our wonderful hosts, checking out the training!!

All our efforts now are focussed on the upcoming shows. Hagen starts next week, and then the first of the official qualifiers at Mannheim the following week. Rachael, Chantal, Hayley and Lyndal will join us at Hagen, and with this year’s British theme and all the top Brits competing it promises to be a very tough and exciting show. All the top Germans will be there too, so the standard will be first class.

I look forward to watching the best of the best, compete, and hope we can also put in a good performance.

Now it’s down to the wire so stay tuned.

We also wish Rachael all the best for the World Cup in Den Bosch. It’s a really tough gig… so, go Rachael!

Cheers,

Mary Hanna.

Photos by Carol Newby

Sancette warming up before the GP...

After only one day’s rest it was straight back to business, for the second week of Vidauban. Luckily the gorgeous weather continued,with warm days and clear skies.

Brett Parbery stayed on for the second week, but Hayley set off back to Germany, for a stallion show. Brett was asking me what was the attraction of staying down here for long periods of time. After joining us for a Sunday lunch with some of our local friends, I think he was starting to get the gist of it… Wild boar and snails cooked by our friend who is French and a professional chef, washed down with copious quantities of the local wine seemed to convince him that this is a very nice place to be stuck for a while. This nearly became reality however when Brett’s truck refused to go at the end of the competition, and he had to stay an extra couple of days. Our Swedish friend’s groom broke her foot also while loading the truck, so we learnt two important lessons. Don’t get sick or have any issue requiring a mechanic in the south of France. The hospital is two hours away and no doctor will see you even if you are dying, and the mechanic never turned up after waiting two days. The groom was taken back to Sweden with strong drugs and no treatment, and Brett had to fix the truck himself, and left with a dodgy battery and dodgy breaks. I hope he gets there!

Back to the competition. For me I think two weeks with virtually no break or chance to train was a bit of a mistake. Sancette did a nice solid GP but lacked a bit of the sparkle of the first week, although he still did a good job in the Kür, to finish equal sixth with Brett, but again not with the energy of his week one test. Brett on the other hand improved his performance considerably the second week, and seemed much more together with his horse, with less mistakes, and a more fluent test. Lord of Loxley and Sancette finished very close in both tests.

Brett Parbery and I, equal 6th in the GP Freestyle.

One of the highlights of the second week, was the performance of the Japanese rider, Hiroshi Hoketsu, and the Hannoverian, Whisper.

After securing his place as an individual competitor, for Japan, with a good performance in the Grand Prix, he went on to convincingly win the GP Special with 72.53%. His coach , Ton De Ridder, said he absolutely went for broke in the special, and pulled off one of his best tests ever. At seventy-one years young, he is rather an inspiration, and makes me think what an amazing sport dressage is, where men and women, with up to 50 years age difference can compete on equal terms with each other. The second place getter in the special, is one young man you will be seeing a lot more of. Michael Eilberg, on the lovely grey mare Half Moon Delphi, performed a lovely expressive test, with a super piaffe passage tour. I first noticed this horse, when she won at the CDN when I competed at Addington, recently. She won convincingly there, and will be one to watch as a possible British team member, for London…

Kyra Kurklund and Richard White helping me at Vidauban's 2nd show - in beautiful sunshine again!!

Another horse that is new on the scene and placed well in both the Grand Prix and the Special was another son of the Sandro Hit, Sancisco, ridden by Armenian rider, Carrie Schropf. This horse caught my eye in training, and is drop dead gorgeous. His owners sold him out of Germany, after the German FN refused to allow him to compete internationally, unless under a big name rider. Rather than giving his regular rider the sack, who had trained him and competed him to GP with very high National scores, they chose to sell to a rider who could show him internationally. This situation could be a clue as to why Germany has slipped on the international scene, as new outside riders are not encouraged, and given a fair chance.

Over the last two weeks I have seen many new and interesting combinations from countries that are really new to dressage at a top level.  It  is very encouraging to see dressage as a truly global sport, and very important to see this growth, if dressage is to stay in the Olympics.

On my return to the UK I will be competing at the Addington CDI, where I believe all the contenders, for the British team will be present with their number one horses. With a gold medal firmly in their sights, this should be a very high-class field, We stay on here for one more week, and then set off for the two day trip back to the UK for more training. Stay tuned for my next blog which will be in a couple of weeks after Addington.

Dane Rawlins (organiser of Hickstead) and my husband, Rob catching up.

Photos thanks to Carol Newby.

Great weather, and a beautiful venue! Who could ask for more, for our first outdoor show of the year? I was not the only one to make the two-day trek down to the south of France, as Hayley Beresford and Brett Parbery also came down to take the last chance for points and qualification for the Olympics.

Rider rankings to decide individual places are decided on results up to the first of March, so these two events are crucial for us to have any chance of a fourth rider. I opted to start Sancette in the GP for the Kür, as I felt this was my best option to gain points. He has already done the required two GP Olympic Specials, so this seemed a good choice. Many of the top riders were here, including Carl Hester, and British team hopeful Emile Faurie, plus many of the more exotic countries trying for the individual places.

Sancette

In all, 76 horses were entered for the Grand Prix, to be split into two classes. It seems the number of internationally competitive horses is constantly increasing along with the overall popularity of the sport.

Day one of competition, and Sancette did not disappoint me. He put in a really smooth test with no major errors; only now needed are the small details to get the extra points. He was well scored by three of the judges, but the Finnish judge was not a fan, and pulled the mark down to 67.12%.

At first I was a bit upset with the mark, but after seeing more scores come up I realised the overall marks were very low on all riders, compared to what they had been getting in recent competitions. In fact, on average it seemed to be two to three per cent lower. However he was placed 7th in a strong field and qualified to start in the Kür so I had to be happy with that.

The second day was the GP for the Special, and again a very strong field of 40 riders. Brett was the first Aussie to go. The stylish bay stallion, Lord of Loxley, has presence to burn, but with some uncharacteristic errors, Brett was a little disappointed. Hayley would have been more happy with the performance of Simba, who has just moved into the ranks of Grand Prix, and seems to be building up a good partnership. The last time I saw this stallion was at the Sydney CDI where he won the young horse class for six year olds. At the time I was judging the class and rode him as a finalist, and he definitely gave me the feel he could be a grand prix horse, so it was nice to see how he had developed.

Her lovely stallion Bellissimo, had stayed home to compete at Bremen in the coming weeks. Straight after the first competition, Hayley was heading back to show him at a stallion show at Aachen, so it’s a very busy schedule for the popular breeding stallion.

Hayely, her groom Mel and trainer Herman watching Sancette

Umbro had a bit of an unfortunate moment just before entering the arena, when the dusk light made some scary reflections, causing him to be a little tense at the start of the test, however he settled as the test went on, but the tension was costly and he just missed out on making the special.

Warming up Umbro

All my focus now went to Sancette, for the Kür the next day. I had new music, and had changed the pattern of my test to make it more flowing. However, I had had no chance to practise it, and so was fairly nervous about how it would go. Also it was the first time he would be competing outdoors under lights on the Saturday evening, and the arena was not easy, surrounded by flags, tents and dogs and people in constant motion. However, when the time came to enter the arena, he was totally focused on the job in hand, and thrilled me with a lovely performance. The music worked well to my new pattern, and the judges seemed to really like it, awarding 72.625%, which was exactly equal with Carl Hester and Philippe Jorissen in third place. However, on a count back of the artistic score, Carl stayed in 3rd, and Phillipe and I were equal fourth.

It was a great finish to the first week of competition, and both horses seemed to have pulled up fit and well. We have a break today and then straight back into it, with the vet check tomorrow.

Kyra and Richard arrive tonight to help with the training. Last week when they could not be here, it was great to have the help of our team coach, Ton de Ridder.

Cheers…until next week…

Mary

(Photos by Carol Newby)

Rob and Ton De Ridder watching Sancette's training

The last week has been spent making our preparations for the big trip down to Vidauban in the South of France. There is really a lot to be organised.

Because we intend to stay down there for 6 weeks, we have to have a pallet of feed sent down, including haylage and grain. It is really important to keep the horse on the same feeding regime to minimise the risk of colic or stomach upsets, and as many of the products we use are not available there, the easiest way is to have our normal feed and additives transported down. Over the last six months the horses have travelled extensively so it is really important to minimise the stress of travelling. Normally we take them on the train via the tunnel, which is quick and easy but involves lots of paper work.

As usual the bureaucrats do their best to complicate things, so at the last minute we find we need another special certificate for the truck, (new rule) to be allowed on the train.

A four-hour drive in the truck by Carol and £300 later we are organised with certificate in hand. Nothing is simple or cheap about travelling to the continent with horses.

Sancette with Carol Newby in the snow...

After Sancette tried to murder himself jumping over his partition in the truck on the ferry on the way back from Aachen, we see the tunnel as our only option.

Our next problem is the snow. Everything here grinds to a halt when it snows. Even the airport! If it snows heavily we can’t even get out of our house, let alone down the driveway at Kyra’s. So we are praying for no more snow before we leave on Sunday.

The stables at Krya's Snowhill Farm

Even though it is freezing cold here the area looked like something out of a fairytale after last weekend’s snow. Our area around West Sussex is very picturesque, and the snow made it even more beautiful. Vidauban has had snow also, so we hope we don’t have to ride out in it, down there, as the competition is outdoors…

Meanwhile Brett Parbery has been braving the weather travelling to Poland for Lord of Loxley’s first Grand Prix start. I am sure he would be very pleased with his GP debut with 66.60%. Next week he will be joined by Hayley in a second CDI at the same venue, before they make the trip down to the South of France. Looking at the photos on facebook poor Brett looked frozen to the core, with all the horses wearing rugs as they warmed up in an interesting array of clothing layers and hats on the riders and spectators.

Any ideas I may have had about moving to Europe have certainly been quelled by the recent cold snap! Believe me it is a lot nicer to be home in Aus at the moment.

On a more positive note, I have been very happy with both my horses in training over the last few weeks. I have had quite a few light-bulb moments, where things seem to be falling into place and am looking forward to getting back into the competition arena to test our progress. It doesn’t matter how well you think you may be going at home; the true test is in the competition arena.

Riding Sancette in the GP at Addington, UK.

With Umbro in the GP, also at Addington.

Hopefully next time I write my blog, we will be safely in Vidauban, with lots of news from the competition.

Cheers,

Mary

I returned back to my horses after a great Christmas break. It was nice this time to get through border control without any glitches, armed with my Olympic visa. Carol, my groom, was not so lucky coming back to the UK, with the horses. Even though her visa was also in order they still gave her a hard time. UK customs are really not very friendly. It will be interesting to see how they treat people coming in for the Olympics…

While I was home, Carol, with some help from Richard and Kyra, kept the horses lightly worked, so from my first ride back they both felt great. Carol has done such a great job with them. Considering it’s mid-winter their coats look fantastic, and they are fit and healthy, even after so much travel. Fingers crossed that they stay that way.

After settling into the work again, we decided it would be good to do a national show, to check our training was going in the right way. Kyra and Richard suggested a National show at Addington. I was thinking it was a good chance to go and try a few things that we had changed in training, thinking no one will know about it so I can experiment a bit. Absolutely wrong! Except for the actual team riders, most of the major players were there, and it was a much bigger show than I anticipated. However, it was good to experiment a bit and try new things. I was very happy with Sancette, who put in a solid 68 + %, with a much more steady frame. We changed the bit on Umbro, which caused a few glitches, but otherwise I was fairly happy with his steadiness and the way his trot is developing. The all-important selection shows are not far away now, so a bit of fine-tuning is very important.

Mary riding the lovely Umbro

Vidauban, in the South of France, will be our next show, and it is lining up to be really interesting. Apart from Lyndal Oatley’s Potifar, and my own horses, there will be some new up-and-coming stars. Brett Parbery will be there, with Lord of Loxley, who is just moving up to Grand Prix, and he may also be presenting a new Holsteiner stallion, Liostro 51, who is a bit of a mystery horse recently acquired for Brett to campaign. He is a 12-year-old by Linaro, born in Germany, but standing in Switzerland. When I last talked to Brett he was just tidying up the details, so let’s hope that works out for him. Brett is pretty good on the catch rides ,so stay tuned.. .Lyndal will also be presenting a new Grand Prix ride, with her lovely Sandro Boy, by Sandro Hit, the same sire as my own Sancette. Lyndal and I must both have a thing for quirky horses, as we both now have a Jazz and a Sandro Hit. They certainly are a bit special to deal with.

Mary's Sandro Hit son, Sancette

Hayley Beresford will be bringing several of her young Grand Prix horses, and will be back in the running after her recent tragic loss of her wonderful Reli. It is great for Australian Dressage to see some depth in the Grand Prix horses vying for spots. When we add in the already proven performers about to embark from Australia, it looks like the selectors will have quite a choice of good horses.

From my point of view, there is no room for being complacent. The pressure is on to really have my horses at their peak when the selection events come round in May.

The competition venue at Vidauban is one of my favourites. Set amongst beautiful vineyards, with a backdrop of mountains, the facilities are world class, which is why in only its second year, it has attracted so many good competitors. It was also our place of exile, after we were rejected from the UK, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Dressage rider, Bernadette Brune, who owns the magnificent Domaine Equestre des Grand Pins, was so welcoming to us and our horses, what could have been a lonely exile, was in fact a wonderful experience. I guess that was as close as I will get to “A Year in Provence”, but the bonus of having my horses and husband with me made it all the more fun. Now I am really looking forward to returning there, and the next weeks will be busy preparing for the long trek down to the South of France.

Mary and husband Rob with Sancette