Horse Magazine Spt 2014

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SEPTEMBER 2014Transitions

Horsetalk

Tekna Leaderboard

Deauville - The Shoot Out

Vaughn Jefferis: Learning to Jump

Unsung Talent at the Brisbane CDI

Grace Kay Travels North

The Big Hendra Debate

Free Rein with Lucinda Green MBE

Rider of the Month:Lyndal Oatley

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Eventing Leaderboard

Showjumping Leaderboard

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CONTENTS

44 Doing simple things beautifully 60

78

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Jessica & Christine, Part Two

State Stud Director, Jürgen Müller reflects

The Queensland Showjumping Circuit

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On the Cover: Kristy Oatley and Ronan Photo: Roz Neave

Marco Kutsher and Liberty Son on the big

arena at Aachen

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LAST CHANCE

Page 26Excitement at Aachen


Chris Hector and Roz Neave are on the spot for the final selection trial in Deauville

the shoot outDeauvilleI did suggest some time ago that the idea that eight

dressage combinations would be in the mix for the final selection was somewhat unrealistic, and in the end, we

have five competing for four places and they are pretty well the five you would have nominated six months ago. Okay given the unpleasantness that surrounded the selection for London, the process was probably essential, but it does seem a little weird dragging horses, riders and a rather large team of extras, all the way to Austria, then all the way to France, to come up with a result that I could have given EA for free from the comfort of my home… and saved our poor horses all that travelling in the lead up to Caen.

The EA board has opened a can of worms, when it decides that Hayley Beresford can bring Alabaster to the second selection event at Deauvillle – after being unfit for the first – with her single score to count. I guess they were bending over backwards not to provoke the sort of orchestrated hysteria that proceeded London, not to mention expensive legal action. They do arrange for an independent German vet to examine the horse – we do remember that at the last WEG, Hayley’s horse was dragged all the way from Germany to Kentucky only to be belled out right at the beginning of their first test. After the veterinary examination, Hayley decides to withdraw the horse. It might have been smarter to have had the vet check first before granting the exemption.

The scores from the Australian judge, Susie Hoevenaars at the first selection event, Fritzens, will kill the argument for

an Australian selection trial with Aussie judges for a couple of decades. Our highest scored rider was Mary Hanna with Sancette, placed 7th, 3rd, 6th and 3rd with four judges who all had her over 70% (including a 72.1 from Stephen Clarke) while Susie had her 14th on 68.6%. Maree and Diamantina placed 14/26/22/14 with the other judges, while Susie had her 7th on 69.9%.

The trot up at Deauville was a pretty wild affair, with the Aussie horses the worst behaved. Time has come for EA to ask that internationally recognized expert on training horses to behave at the end of a lead rope, Andrew McLean, to help our riders get their act together.

Briana and La Scala - Through the trot up but not able to start the next day


Triumph for Lyndal and Sandro Boy


It was unprecedented, shocking and totally unexpected… no I’m not talking about Valegro’s myriad

mistakes in the Grand Prix – the cigar store has disappeared from the Aachen Trade Village!

Don’t be self-indulgent; Charlotte’s fall apart was more dramatic than any temporary addictive twitch. The test started oh-so brilliantly. There was a kind of silent hum of just on six thousand people concentrating as Valegro and Charlotte Dujardin cantered around the ring in the bright German summer sunshine. The halt is square and they have already grabbed

the predictive lead. The trot is so correct and true and believe me we’ve seen some hideous short-stepping, stilted hind legs, scurrying to keep up with extravagantly waving front ones today. Valegro’s extended trot well deserves the 9.2 average (the score board has alternated between giving us the five individual scores and an average, perhaps some of the judges are shy).

Lovely half passes, and everything is going according to plan. Then there is a less than square halt and a less than perfect rein back, shock horror, they have their first sub-8 score,

albeit a 7.9. Then the extended walk looks less than purposeful, 7.4. Oh well that’s your wakeup Charlotte – and sure enough they nonchalantly toss off an 8.9 piaffe and sanity is restored… or is it. A mistake in the twos for a 4.2 and it appears Valegro is human, or is Charlotte human? Very human it seems, two mistakes in the ones for a 3.5 and the pair are sitting on a 77%. There’s a messed up pirouette right for a 5.4 and a break in the trot through the corner for a 3.9. An 8.6 extended trot cannot pick up the pieces and the magic duo seem to have left the wand and the fairy dust

AACHEN

Aachen Day 1Story by Christopher Hector and Photos by Roz Neave

Damon Hill and Helen Langehanenberg, a little flat but still very correct

Valegro and Charlotte Dujardin, too many mistakes for a win in the GP


at home, 76.9% and they are to finish sixth. Those knowledgeable Aachen spectators are in a state of shock.

They were already a little stunned when Germany’s golden girl, Helen Langehanenberg and Damon Hill produced a somewhat flawed performance. Once again the basic quality of the work was super. Damey is another who really uses his hind legs; he is so supple through the back, so correct in his way of going. The 8.7 for the first extended trot is well deserved as is the 8.9 for the second, lovely passage, beautiful languid walk, super collected canter… okay the

piaffe is not wonderful, but the judges finally crack it for a 9 in the extended trot, and they have edged into the lead, then it all falls apart when Damey, who has perhaps not been 100% in front of the leg, decides the test is over and stops at X and Helen has to kick him into a shoddy couple of passage steps for a 3.8, second place and that controversial black stallion, Totilas is back! He has won at Aachen against a field that really only lacks Edward Gal, Steffen Peters and Carl Hester to make it top-of-the-tops.And what of Totos’ test? I still can’t stand the short stilted tottering steps

of the hind legs especially in the big trots, but the judges are more or less on to that and consistently give a 7.5 to 7.7, which is probably a mite generous but at least proves they are awake. Great half passes, some super passage, but the rhythm is dodgy - see three legs off the ground, fine piaffe, the twos are lovely, accompanied as they are by the photographers’ shutters marking time, the crowd oohs when there is a mistake in the ones, but it has been a very pleasant show, and more or less deserves the 82.3 it receives.

The other highlight of the day is the appearance of Isabell Werth’s Bella

AACHEN

Totilas and Matthias Alexander Rath, back to the horse’s best in pic 2, but look at the instant before…


W hen you watch educated riders it is easy to see what they are doing, and what they are aiming to achieve. Watching Sue work on her Grand Prix

horse, Remmington, is a reminder of that: everything fits together, there’s no spurring or jerking… After the session I remark to Sue that, riders go out of their way to complicate what is essentially a rather simple process…“Yes, I think if the horse feels good in the back and good in the contact, then that’s your main ingredient isn’t it? And basic exercises. I trained with Miguel Tavora for a very long time, and he has some fabulous ways of getting the horse’s back relaxed. I am not a big believer in pushing and holding, because I can’t hold them eventually. That’s my big thing, I want to be able to ride and not have to use my muscles to hold the horse. I want the horse to respond to half halts and relax and hopefully build himself.” I found that when I used to ride with Miguel, he did have so many exercises and variations on movements, then you could spend the next two months riding by yourself, because you had all these little tools. “He gives you the tools to work through things. Even though I have been to a lot of trainers, and you get something from everybody, but if I have a problem, I always end up going back to the basic exercises to fix the problem, not just go repeat, repeat… those exercises still work for me.”

Story by Christopher Hector & Photos by Roslyn Neave

Dressage is... doing simple

things beautifully

Sue Hearn is a model for all our aspiring dressage riders, here is a rider who sits quietly, correctly in balance, on a horse that flows rhythmically and demonstrates that it is possible to actually improve the natural paces as the horse’s education progresses.

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hySue and Remmington winning the Grand Prix at the 2014 Brisbane CDI


It sounds so easy, once you get the contact, but it seems to me that about three quarters of the riders doing Grand Prix in Australia don’t have a good contact. How do you establish that lovely sweet connection with your horse’s mouth?Well, that starts when they are young. You have to be meticulous about that. I really don’t want a horse that’s leaning somewhere or holding somewhere. So that’s my first priority when I’m warming up. You’ll notice with Remmington when I was warming up, he will try and hold me a little bit on the left and I want to break that contact up and get him a little more on the right rein with a little counter-bending. Various times he will hit that again, that’s what he does, every horse has one side or another that they hold. If he does that, then I go back and go bending again. It’s not a big deal, but you’ve got to be meticulous and feel it. And not go, ‘Oh that will do!’ It won’t, it makes everything else half-hearted.” Does he always remain as relaxed as that?“No, he will come up when he is worried and tightens through the back and then I don’t have him up to the contact and it’s usually the competitions that do that to him. So he takes quite a bit of relaxation work to get him into the ring. We have done now almost two years of competition at Grand

Prix and I feel like now, I can actually ride him a little more and not sook him around if that makes sense. You know, now if he get’s worried, I feel like I can say, ‘Come on let’s get on with this, you know what you’re doing’, whereas before he got a bit worried, if you pushed him, he would worry more. We are basically getting the confidence in the test and in the big arena and I feel like we are getting there.” I think, what I first noticed about him, and again it was glaringly different from a lot of Grand Prix horses going around, was that he still had three pure paces… “Well, I admire people who can make the really flash trots, but I always find when I start doing that I end up with a horse on my hand and I don’t enjoy that. I want him to get stronger

and start to work over the back without too much pressure. I want to give pressure, but not so much that he worries about it. I think a worried horse in the arena is much worse. Everybody has got their way of doing it, I just can’t do it that way.” How did you get into this dressage thing?How I got into dressage? I have been doing it for a really long time, which is scary… My first FEI horse was a racehorse that broke down on the track and was given to me. I love training, so the competition is less important than the training to me. I come out here every day; I don’t need a show to go to. I love training them to Grand Prix and it doesn’t matter what horse. I enjoy what that horse

can give me. So I have had a few horses that have not been as good at Grand Prix, they can do it, but they are not big scorers. And that’s fine, because I have enjoyed the work. I mean, it would be lovely to have the money to go and buy a really flash one, but I am enjoying what I’m doing. Everybody is a bit different, aren’t they?” That’s sounds a little easy, ‘I got a broken down one off the track and I made it to Grand Prix’, I mean there’s just a little in between, it’s quite a long process. Who helped you with the first horse and where did you get the crazy idea of doing it?“When I first started, and this is quite funny and Miguel will remember this, I went to him with my pony club horse which was doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that, prelim to novice level. And Miguel said to me, ‘You are quite a talented rider, you will need a better horse.’ I said, ‘I can’t afford another horse, Miguel, this is it.’ We got that horse through to medium level, I think, but just locally. Then I had a Thoroughbred given to me, Texas, the one that was a bit broken down, and Miguel helped me to get it to the Grand Prix movements. But as he hit Grand Prix, all the things that were broken down from racing started to come through and we retired

him. At that stage I had Manhattan, again given to me, and he was two years old.” So he hadn’t raced?“No, he was huge. He was way too big to race. I went from training and competing Grand Prix to circle work again with Manhattan. Again I was working with Miguel, because he wasn’t an easy horse, and I had his brother as well that we got going at the same time. We got both those horses through and I needed money and we sold the brother, Chaos. He was doing Prix St Georges and Inter I quite well, and training Grand Prix. He went to Korea, it was sad, but he bought my stable block… Miguel was there through all of that - and they were very ordinary horses.”

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For all Vaughn made his name as an eventer, he, like the rest of the all-powerful Kiwi team of the time, started life as a showjumper, and it is to that first love that he

has returned as a trainer…

“In New Zealand, we all started as showjumping riders and all of us could jump Grand Prix – Mark (Todd) and Blyth (Tait) and I, were jumping 1.45 tracks, weekend after weekend, we had done that for seven or eight

years. I copied my style from Liz Edgar, remember her with Everest Forever? I thought she was classically beautiful… I was also lucky enough to be trained by John Cottle as a kid, he really was good. He’d trained with one of the old masters which made him into a classical rider. He took me under his wing when I was seventeen or eighteen, and I spent three months on the lunge without my stirrups and reins until I got a lower leg and seat, riding with my heel down… So I came out, re-invented as a young rider with a classical position.”

Story by Chris Hector & Photos by Roz Neave

Vaughn Jefferis was not only a World Champion Eventer, he was also a very stylish rider, and it was great to catch up with him at a clinic in NSW, in the jumping paddock of James Arkins and Ned Calcraft’s showjumping centre at Moss Vale.

Learning to JUMP!VAUGHN JEFFERIS

Look through the horse's ears and that will keep you straight

SHOWJUMPING


“I was always interested in becoming a classical rider, and now I train the same. If you watch the kids I produce, they are all beautifully classical riders. They sit perfectly, they ride beautifully, they have a lot of feel, but they are also gutsy kids – I don’t turn them into robots. I want them to be classically correct, but I want them to have their own instincts and be gutsy.”What turned you from showjumping to eventing?“I think when Todd jumped boat, Blyth and I had been friends as kids for years, and we were like, if he’s going to be famous, we used to beat him at showjumping all the time, that was an incentive to do it. If he’s going to be an eventing star, we want part of it as well. I don’t want to sound like an arrogant pig, I just knew it was going to be easy to be successful eventing, because I could jump the jumps, I was brave enough to go fast, so it was just a matter of learning to

ride on the flat and that was the hardest part for me. I got it in the end, but that was a lot of work and it wasn’t until I got with Carl Hester that I really nailed that.”

“We could see that eventing was the way to go. Todd had been the 84 Olympic gold medallist, and I was sitting at home watching and thinking, this could be us! Pretty much the next year, we all went eventing. Most New Zealand kids do a bit of showjumping, a bit of eventing, a bit of everything, polocrosse, so we all decided to go eventing and that was the start of it, and because we were so ruthlessly competitive, and we were all fairly good, in the end it was just a matter of who was going to win today.”There was also a supply of very very nice Thoroughbred horses…“Blyth and Mark are from racing backgrounds, my grand-father was a good racing trainer, so I grew up in that world. I’d ridden in amateur races as a fourteen-year-old, racing

was part of our history, and in New Zealand, there are a lot of Thoroughbreds. There was never any doubt that’s what you needed for a four-star horse, and I still think that today. If you can get a Thoroughbred that can move, and he is careful enough, he is still the best option, because it is a galloping competition at the end of the day, isn’t it? I love the Warmbloods and I don’t mind a little bit of a Warmblood mix, the modern type of event horse, but for the kids I train, I am still looking for a Thoroughbred horse that can do the job.”

Vaughn’s great eventer was Bounce – the horse that took him to a World Championship…What was it like when you met up with Bounce – was it love at first sight?“Love at first sight… I went to see him for the girl. He’d been a bit of a rogue, a bucker as a youngster, so the first

person only had him for five minutes. We went to see him and I loved him straight away, but we were buying him for the girl. She did a nice job on him but she got him to the stage where she wasn’t going to go any further, and she offered him around. She offered him to Mark, but he didn’t want to pay any money, Blyth rode him and didn’t get on with him, and I came back to her, and absolutely loved him.”

“He had lost confidence, so I spent time getting him going again. I took him back to basics and we just built a strong partnership from there.”When you arrived at the WEG in The Hague in 1994, was that your first Championships?“I’d ridden as an individual at the first WEG in Stockholm on Enterprise, but I was basically just trying to win my way onto the team and I knew with Bounce, he was the horse that was going to put me on the map.”

Now work on straightness through the poles and over the little jump, and then through the poles on the other side, stay rhythmic and straight

SHOWJUMPING


Christine explains, “We have been working very hard on the dressage in the last two weeks leading up to Melbourne. Every day he has improved a little bit

more. We also went for some gallops and jump sessions and then last week Jess had squad training with Brett Parbery and Rod Brown. I don’t think there is anything else we could have done in the preparation.”

“Now it is about keeping him happy and relaxed. So this morning (Friday) Jess gave him a gallop and a jump session. We do arena familiarisation and a dressage lesson this afternoon. On Saturday we will walk the course and measure the track. Her dressage test is in the afternoon, so depending on how the horse feels and how he is going, we will have one or two dressage lessons in the morning. With Trumby it is really about having the rideability and making sure that he is schooling all the movements well. It’s that balance of keeping him tuned enough and happy enough.”

For the first time in years, the Three and Two-Star dressage is will be held outside at Werribee. The new arena for the dressage and showjumping is set up on the polo fields, surrounded by tiered grandstands, a two-storey VIP marquee, a video screen, a boom lift (Note by the author: this is important), judges’ boxes, colourful banners and a white

picket fence – in other words, there is lots happening. Would Christine and Jess have preferred to have the dressage in the indoor arena?

Christine tells us, “Every other event is run outside, so personally I would rather be outside. In saying that the new arena on the polo field is pretty spooky. There were a lot of tense horses in the Two-Star. This afternoon we will work him as close to the competition arena as possible, so he doesn’t think that being over here is a big deal.”

Come Friday afternoon Jess uses her time for arena familiarisation wisely, taking Trumby around the competition and the warm-up arena past all the hidden tigers. Trumby is very cool and relaxed and does not seem fazed. Having said that, it is late afternoon, the day’s competition has finished, most people have gone home and Werribee is a very quiet place.

Christine gives Jess a dressage lesson on the big sand arena adjacent to the competition arena. A good lesson should never be rushed and the pair are working on making Trumby as supple as possible before attempting any test movements. Christine has them trotting ten and twenty-metre circles, incorporating plenty of shoulder-in as well travers and leg-yield on curved and straight lines.

In the first part of the series Jess and Christine told us about how they worked on Legal Star’s dressage and the tricks they used to create event atmosphere at home to prepare for next competition. Now the time has come; it is the weekend of the Melbourne International Horse Trials and THM catches up again with Jess, Christine and Legal Star aka Trumby. So what has happened since our last meeting?

Jessica Manson and Christine Bates

A Teacher / Student Case Study, Part IIStory and Photos by Ute Raabe

EVENTING


“A little shoulder-in and then straight again. Work the inside flexion and the roundness as you send him forward. Now collect him a little, shoulder in, now go forward again.”

The same applies to the canter work, twenty-metre circles and lateral movements. “A little outside bend in the canter. Now change to counter canter. Work the bend in the counter canter. Leg-yield across the diagonal, but make sure that you have the shoulders leading, not the hindquarters.”

The CCI Three-Star test requires medium and extended trot and Jess picks a diagonal to send Trumby forward. Christine corrects, “Don’t get in front of him with your upper body in the medium trot. Keep the rein contact even. Stay tall. Don’t ask for too much in the medium trot so you don’t lose the rhythm and he skips.”

Trumby has three good paces, but he is not an extravagant mover. If pushed too much in the extended trot, he is likely to lose regularity, so Christine works on Jess triding a very accurate and consistent test.

The trio are back for two further short flatwork sessions on Saturday morning. My dressage brain is concerned that the amount of work will leave Trumby too tired for the actual test, but Christine tells me not to worry.

“The idea is that we keep bringing him out here, doing short sessions and keeping him relaxed and chilled. This morning when we rode him there weren’t many people out here riding and there wasn’t much atmosphere. So I wanted to bring him out again. Also, now the wind has picked up and it is likely that it will be windy during the test in the afternoon. Each ride he has become better, hopefully when we come back for the test, he will be spot on.”

“Normally you probably wouldn’t do quite so much, but he is very fit, he is predominantly Thoroughbred and as tough as nails. He hasn’t had a run since Sydney, so he is ready to run.”

Ready to run he will need to be as I find out when I join Christine and Jess for a course walk over parts of the 5.7km cross-country track. Even though Jess is an experienced rider, she will walk the course several times with her coach Christine over the weekend. Christine points out some of the tricky fences that may cause issues come cross-country day.

Our first stop is at the Horseland H2O (Fence 5AB). Jess explains that this combination is not as straightforward as it looks. “The first water is pretty early on, it is the first test. It is quite a big jump in, but in saying that it is also quite friendly. As long as you get a nice jump in and have three strides to the B element, the duck, it should come up quite nice. Trumby is pretty good with water, it is just a matter of getting a nice distance to the first fence.“

Christine adds, “Our only concern with him is that with big nice jumping fences, he is such a brave bold horse, he goes on a mission and becomes too strong. The jump-in here is pretty forgiving, but the next fence is a bounce. So Jess needs to keep him under control and on the leg early on as there are lots of combinations throughout the course.”

Christine has ridden the Werribee course many times, winning with Masterprint in 1999. What does she think about the course this year?

“I like the course, I like the changes they have made and the course designer, Ewan Kellett has done a good job. The fences are consistently up to height. It is a little more of an attacking course, as a rider that’s how I like to ride it – keep coming at the fences. The course is quite long and there are combinations right up to the second last fence. There are three big combinations towards the end of the course, so you have to ensure that you haven’t run your horse too hard at the start and have plenty of jump and rideability left at the end.”

"Work the inside flexion and the roundness as you send him forward."

EVENTING


At first glance Deborah’s foreign good looks and straight back fool you into thinking she’s some European expat here to show us how it’s done! “My parents were immigrants but I was born in Australia. My family wasn’t into horses; nevertheless we had five acres and a pony to keep down the grass. So of course I started jumping on it when I was 12 or 13, I was a late starter.”

Deborah owes her classical training approach to the time she spent abroad in her twenties with one of Germany’s famous Dressage families: “I had a summer with Hans and Sabine Rueben near Aachen. I was supposed to go back to uni but I hadn’t planned on liking it that much, so I came home to sort out my visa and went back.”

The second time round Deborah based with former Queensland Dressage rider Peter Weston. Once upon a time Peter represented Australia at the WEG in Stockholm and since opening a training barn in Germany he’s helped many of Australia’s young riders.

Deborah also spent time at former Canadian Olympic Team Rider Leonie Brammal’s barn where she experienced more of what the International dressage scene has to offer: “The trip was such an eye opener. It’s a big industry over

there. There’s so much going on around you that you just absorb it through your skin, you don’t even have to be sitting on a horse sometimes.”

Back at home, Deborah’s struggling with a consistent set of eyes on the ground: “Unfortunately I’ve been having a bad run with trainers at the moment, all of the awesome ones I start going to move overseas. I was with Kelly Layne and then Ben Conn but they’re both gone now so I just get help from friends like Emma Flavelle and Jayden Brown when I can.”

Aboard her Queensland Elite Squad mount, Flashdance (Rituel/Flemmingh), Deborah has achieved wins and places from the young horse ranks up to Inter I: “I got him as a four-year-old from New Zealand. He was roughly broken in and now he’s FEI so it’s been an awesome journey.”

Now 11 year-old, Flashdance lives up to his name in both movement and temperament: “He’s always been hit and miss. When we’re hot, we’re hot, and when we’re not, we’re not. The next thing for me is riding a Grand Prix test. Unfortunately a couple of months ago he sustained an injury but he’ll be back next season. I’m not going to push him, I’m just going to get him right and when we’re ready to come out we will.”

At the Brisbane CDI Debra was riding a ring-in from her husband’s team of show jumping horses, together they finished mid-field with a 7.1 in the young horse class: “Highlands Capitano is a four-year-old we bred at home. He’s by Casseus which is an old school showjumping line but he’s an awesome little guy to work with so I thought I’d do some flatwork with him. He’ll go and do show jumping for the rest of the year but he might do some five-year-old classes, we’ll see how he goes.”

Deborah and her husband Rhett make the perfect team: “He’s my groom extraordinaire when I compete and I do the same for him at the showjumping comps, so it goes two ways. All the dressage horses do a bit of jumping and hill work too. It’s good to get them out of the arena every now and then.”

Nevertheless, the dressage arena is where Deborah’s heart lies: “I like the technicality of it and when they start to dance at the upper levels it’s magic. I just want to keep bringing home bred horses through and enjoying the journey with each horse.”

Words by Shannan Makauskas & Photos by Downunder Photography

The Australian dressage scene is filled with familiar faces and the winners scarcely change. But at this year’s Brisbane CDI Dressage Championships a few combinations stood out who are yet to make their mark. Meet some of our emerging talents and one who is making a comeback.

DEBORAH OLIVER

UNSUNG TALENT AT THE BRISBANE CDI

Deborah Oliver and Flashdance

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Like many young girls, Kaitlin nagged her parents for a pony until they could deny her no more: “They finally gave in and bought me ten lessons at the local riding school. They’ve regretted it ever since.”

Dressage is an expensive undertaking but Kaitlin, now 22 years-old, is committed to pursing the sport: “I work full time at Team van Den Berge. I started going out there in the school holidays and when I had my gap year I thought I’d just go out there and clean stables. I never left!”

Four years later, Kailtin is glad she stayed: “Their way of training is very encouraging, they’re very positive with the horses. It doesn’t matter if something goes wrong as long as you have a go. I’ve been really lucky, they let me ride a lot of different horses from breakers up to FEI and I don’t think I could be in a better place to get the experiences I’ve had.”

Kaitlin spent her years as a young rider with a challenging horse: “He had a few issues so we had to retire him and I didn’t have anything of my own. Then Tor and Mel dropped into Remi Stud on the way home from a competition and saw the last two-year-old of the crop out in a paddock. They brought him home for a trial and I bought him the next week.”

With Tor and Mel’s guidance, Kaitlin and Remi First Fleet (Fishermans Friend/Remi Limited Edition) have transformed into one of Queensland’s best combinations. They’ve won and placed their way through the young horse ranks. Along with being crowned the six-year-old Champions at this year’s Brisbane CDI they won the Queensland State Novice Championships last year: “He has a really good temperament, he’s very willing and fun to ride. We have our first Advanced start coming up so I’d like to qualify for Nationals and then we’ll work towards training him to FEI.”

A winning combination of posture and presence makes former hack rider Kristian Akehurst and the Arabian Warmblood Mi Sirtainly Sir (Sir Donnerhall/Fashionista) stand out: “I still love the hack shows but dressage is more of a challenge. There’s always something to improve on.”

Kristian’s been riding horses for more than twenty-five years and is completely self taught. Now part of the team at Mulawa Arabian Stud he trains with Australia’s highest placed 2010 WEG Dressage rider, Brett Parbery: “He always brings out the best in horses and people. The only hard part transitioning from hacking to dressage is going from short tails to long tails. That’s the one thing I can’t cope with,” he laughs.

Such drastic transformations are just the beginning: “Everything about my riding has changed in the respect that I’ve gone from hot little hacks to something you have to actually ride and not sit on. I could ride before but now I have to work. In dressage everything has to be on the aids and at the marker, you don’t have a choice or they beep the horn,” he jokes.

After winning the four-year old class at Dressage with the Stars and this year’s Brisbane CDI, Kristian is looking forward to continuing their winning streak: “He’s a pretty handy little horse. I’ve been riding him since he was broken in at three. He’s got excellent trainability, he’s a great mover but he’s just got a real brain. I like breaking them in and starting them up but I’d like to give FEI a whirl one day. We’ll see what happens.”

Harvey Besley is one of Queensland’s most promising emerging talents. Growing up in Rockhampton on the family cattle farm gave him an early start in riding with a

KAITLIN DOONEY

KRISTIAN AKEHURST

HARVEY BESLEY

Kristian Akehurst and Mi Sirtainly Sir

Kaitlin Dooney and Remi First Fleet

DRESSAGE


Ihad my big, orange, warmbloods; Karingal Jamirquai (Jerry) an 8-year-old gelding and Celerity

Park Faberge (Fab) a 6-year-old gelding. We were heading to Caboolture to compete at the National Young Rider Championships and then the Brisbane CDI. I had just finished all my exams at university and couldn’t imagine a better way to spend my break than competing with my two best friends.

I think the lead up to the trip is always the most stressful part, after checking and rechecking, (and then rechecking again) that I had rugs, feeding equipment, grooming gear, saddlecloths, saddles, bridles, boots, clothes (especially the good ol’ undergarments because I have a good habit of for-getting the essentials!) and everything else I could possible think of, I managed to squeeze the car door shut, mum took the driver’s seat and we were on our way to sunny QLD. It was Sunday night, 12 hours, two bathroom breaks, an unpleasant maccas stop and one audio book later, that we drove into The Queensland State Equestrian Centre (QSEC).

It was good getting up there for two days prior to competition, I always try and give them enough time to settle in, see all the new sights and get acclimatised, so Monday

and Tuesday were spent working around our arenas, going for little walks and giving everything one last polish before com-petition started on Wednesday morning.

By Tuesday afternoon the stables started to fill up and the atmosphere picked up, we had a NSW team meeting headed by our Chef d’ Equipe Jenny Carroll to cover some ground rules and announce the teams. NSW had just enough members for three teams and I was lucky enough to be put on two of those teams. Fab was put up as the medium horse and Jerry’s test would be the Prix St George, I was confident in my boys but there is always added pressure when you’re riding not only for yourself but for your team. It was great to get together and catch up with some familiar faces and welcome the ones nearer the QLD border we don’t often get to see.

Wednesday Jerry had the Advanced classes and Fab the Elementary. Four tests is pretty normal for a competition but I had woken up with a dull achey body and blocked nose. Yep, I was sick. Typical! I got my super mum, whose talents are endless and like my dad is a chiropractor, to give me an adjustment, whipped up a green Smoothie and made a big jar of peppermint tea with honey to sip throughout the day, I wasn’t too

worried, it’s pretty rare that I actually go to a big competition and feel one hundred percent, plus I had my mum who is nothing short of amazing and seriously, how can anything go wrong when you’ve got your mum around! We got going pretty early as Jerry’s first test was at 9:20 and the boys breakfast and beautifying process can take quite some time!

A crisp morning with heavy frost left me not wanting to ditch my warm jackets for a riding coat but as soon as I got into the saddle (A very exciting new Equipe saddle that I had just received from Trailrace) and started

From Windermere, a little place next to the famous vineyards of the Hunter Valley, it’s a mere 863 km’s to what will be our home for the next two weeks. Eight hundred and sixty three kilometres doesn’t seem much in the scheme of things but when you are driving two 17-hand athletes and their respective possessions, the logistics become a tad more tricky.

GRACE KAY REPORTS FROM THE QUEENSLAND DRESSAGE CIRCUIT

Travelling North...

DRESSAGE

Photos by Downunder Photography, Jenny Carroll, and Grace Kay

Seems like only yesterday... Grace has been part of the NSW team for ten years now


DRESSAGE

Photo: Downunder Photography

Grace and Karingal Jamirquai

to walk Jerry to the warm up, I thought we would be in for a great ride. He was relaxed and walking happily, alert and attentive but not eye-poppingly-awake like he has been known to be! It was nice warming up with friendly faces all around. Dressage is well known among equestrian athletes as being a bit ‘snooty’ and ‘elitist’. Sure there may still be bits of it around but what sport doesn’t have elements of that? I think anyone who was warming up on that gorgeous morning would have to agree there is a notion of camaraderie that is found in the young rider circles that is filtering through to all levels and making our sport an altogether more enjoyable environment. I know I myself have been guilty of getting so caught up in perfecting my work with the horses that I’ve shut other people off in the process. Working with all these bright faces of all ages and levels however really lifted my slightly dulled (probably thanks to the inability to breath through my nose!) spirits. At 9.15 we did our customary clean over, except this time it wasn’t just Jerry’s nose that got wiped! We went through the moves mentally, breathed, and were ready for the first test of the competition. We had a great ride; accurate, calm, expressive and neat. I was really pleased. Charlotte Craig and her handsome gelding Dantroon had also just ridden their first Advanced test for the weekend, we tried for a photo together and failed miserably. Jerry was acting like a prima donna and there was just no way he could stand near anyone else for a photo, 30 seconds later walking back to the stables however, Dantroon and him were best buddies. No wonder they say never work with animals or children!

It was a pretty quick changeover with Fab on an hour and ten later so I didn’t get to go along and support any of the other riders, but smiles were being given freely and all reports from parents running back and forth were good so far! Fab is still pretty young. I wasn’t too sure what to expect on the day but there must have been something in the water because he was relaxed and warmed up really well too. I had given plenty of extra time just in case we had a little baby moment but it wasn’t needed. Fab ended up doing two of the nicest Elementary tests he has done. The first test didn’t score as well as I would have liked but hey, that’s dressage. He still ended up with an 8th placing which is a decent effort. The second test however he was rewarded and placed 2nd, just pipped at the post by fellow team member Sarah Farraway. The Elementary classes were great for NSW with our 3 team riders, Sarah on her two lovely horses, Camilla Dawson and myself, taking up 4 of the 8 placings!

By this stage with one test to go, I was starting to feel slightly flat, and flat certainly isn’t what

you want when you need to pull

off a

cracking test. So into the car I go for some of that peppermint tea (it’s good you should really try it) and a nanna nap. Mum is, as usual, being amazing at everything and turns up with a salad and strict instructions to eat, nap and rehydrate. I carried out all of my orders and was ready again for Jerry’s second Advanced. The second test for me is usually the one I worry about, Jer is often slightly tired physically and a bit crabby mentally so it’s a fine line we walk to get a good result. He must have had his big boy pants on for this competition though be-cause he behaved beautifully and tried really hard which was, I can assure you, a relief! Another lovely test with just a few mistakes and I was feeling confident. He had won his first Advanced on 70% and I thought this test shouldn’t be far behind. It wasn’t to be though and we scraped in a 66% for third. Still a good placing and I was hopeful for Champion or Reserve but with two other girls in the running, one on a 1st and 3rd and the other two seconds, I missed out on a

double count back, ouch. Whilst disappointed in the result the boys did super jobs and I couldn’t help but smile at presentation when everyone from NSW placed in all of their classes. Go Girls!

Day two of the Young Rider Nationals and it looked like

we would be in for another beautiful day. Today was

the Prix St G e o rg e


The buildings may have looked in need of a coat of paint, but it was amazing for us to walk up to the main building and see the date it was built – 1788

– the same year that Australia’s first fleet reached Sydney Harbour, and the new colony was established. Twenty-five years on, those buildings are looking very flash indeed, with the help of millions of euros from the European Common Market, and Dr Müller is still looking sharp, still filled with his vision for the stud, even as he approaches the end of his career…When you started out as the director here at Neustadt-Dosse, you were the youngest landstallmeister in Germany, now I believe you are the most senior, and your stud has gone from one of the poorest to one of the most magnificent…“I started my career here in 1975, I was 29 years old. We were at this time in the GDR, the centre for horse exporting. In one year we sold between 500 and 600 horses from three to eight years old, many of them, about 80% went to the ‘other’ part of Germany. Now we have a new time, we have taken some new stallions from the other part of Germany, and we have been very successful. I think perhaps our greatest success was winning the World Championships with Poetin, then she was sold for €2,500,000 to Mr Schockemöhle, that was another success for us. Our stud is now very respected in Germany and internationally.”

“It was turned into a foundation in 2001 so it was possible to receive a grant from the European Community for re-construction and new buildings. Over the last five years, we have used €40,000,000 – it has been a very nice time.”Where-ever I go in Europe, I hear the same thing, breeding is down, is this affecting you?“For sure, but for us not so much. We have talked with the ten state studs of Germany, and all the state studs find horse breeding and the coverings of the mares, is going down. For us, it was not so bad, we have very good stallions – Quaterback is covering over 200 mares, and now Belantis, our new champion, is doing the same. I hope that the time when horse breeding goes down is a little bit over, and in the next years we see some growth. In the last year, we sold many horses in Germany, also a very fine stallion to Russia for a good price, and also one very expensive horse to the United States – it was a very talented dressage horse.”“Quaterback is now eleven years old, and he is now the sire of 56 stallion sons, licensed all over the world. The quality from him is very good – in trot and very good in canter. When he won at the Bundeschampionate in 2006, the judges said they should have given him 12 for the canter, we are sorry that it is only possible to give 10. He has very good foals, we send semen all over the world. That is our bank, and we wish him a long life so that we can make a little bit more money.”

Germany’s youngest, now oldest, state stud director, Jürgen Müller reflects…

The Brandenburg stud at Neustadt-Dosse, was part of the former GDR – the eastern part of the divided Germany – and when we first visited, in 1989, the Berlin Wall had only come down a few months earlier, but the area still looked very poor, especially since we’d come from the luxurious look that is (parts at least) Hamburg.

Story by Christopher Hector & Photos by Roz Neave

BREEDING

Dr Müller and Poetin II


Are there certain mares that he is best with?“Now that he is eleven, we know what is the best mare for him, the longer the stallion lives, the better you know what he needs. He needs some blood from the Thoroughbred and also from the Trakehner line. He needs very solid mares who are clear in the head and have a very good character – all his offspring have very good movement, for example last year in the Bundeschampionate, in the five-year-old class, there were five young horses by him. They are light to ride, but the rider must be good, his progeny are no sleepy heads.” Your stud is a little different, you have many mares of your own, does that make it easier for you?“I think so. We have 35 mares on our farm, and we breed with them – but horse breeding is very expensive, and for

us it is not so easy to explain to the politicians that we need to breed these horses. That is traditional for Neustadt, and many people come to visit us, last year there were 50/60,000 visitors. Neustadt is world heritage, we were founded in 1778… and it is very good for our area. We give thanks to the Prussian King that he made these very fine buildings, the stud has been breeding for 225 years.”Can you tell me about the mother line of Belantis – is this one of your traditional mare families?“This a very traditional line. The first mare was Paulina, we bred with this line for many years, she was born in 1937 – it is our well-known ‘P’ line that produced Poetin and Quaterback. The grandfather is a Holstein stallion, Expo’se, and this stallion was ridden very well by Mr Flamm (Christian Flamm who

The State Stud at Neustadt Dosse was founded in 1788 by the Prussian King and the stud has been breeding horses since then, but now is a World Heritage site and has 50 to 60 thousand visitors a year

BREEDING

Poetin, World Champion, then sold for 2,500,000 euros. Her mother, Poesie, was also the dam of the Samba Hits.


So Ooh La La, they are jumping under the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but in Kilcoy we are Oi Oi Oi,

dancing on the bar in the Stanley. Yes, the Global Champions Tour is in full swing in Europe, but there is great fun and competition happening on the ‘Queensland Run’ here in Australia!

The stars and calendar have lined up such that for four consecutive midwinter weekends there is quality

showjumping to be had in the south-eastern corner of Queensland. It starts with the Gatton Agricultural Show, which incorporates the Equestrian Queensland Show Jumping Championships on the second weekend of July… Then on to the Glen Haven Park Sunshine Tour at Kilcoy Showgrounds on the next weekend. Back to Gatton for the Prydes EasiFeed World Cup Qualifier

to finish off the month… and if your horse power is still firing there is the FEI Australian League World Cup Show Jumping Qualifier in Caboolture. Ask the riders what they are doing here, and they offer a similar simple story: ‘It’s 12 degrees and raining in Melbourne, and here it’s 22 degrees and sunny.’ It makes sense to pack the truck and migrate.

The jewel of this line up is the Glen

SHOWJUMPING

Story by Terri Kolb & Photos by Oz Shots Photography

From left to right below: Paula Hamood finishing second in the Glen Haven Park Gold Tour riding Airtime Z GHP; Brook Dobbin and Silvo, winners of the Ian and Di McCauley Gold Tour Final; The winner of the Junior Tour, Mitchell Peulic riding Majestic Sun; The ultra-stylish Olivia Hamood riding GH Avion in the Gold Tour Final; Chris Chugg and Black Currency flying to a win in the Bronze Tour Jo Weller Memorial; Jessie Cearns and Good Golly Miss Molly presented with the win in the Icepack 2000 Amateur Tour

THE GLEN HAVEN PARK SUNSHINE TOUR


Haven Park Sunshine Tour, produced by the Hamood Family and their dedicated band of supporters. Paula and Olivia Hamood are of course the amazing mother-daughter riders with husband and father David and grandfather Brian, the ultimate behind-the-scenes men. In its fourth year, this show offered over $40,000 in cash and prizes. New for 2014 was the European inspired tour format – these series of classes give the riders a chance to qualify on the Friday and Saturday at their respective levels for the finals held on Sunday. In Arena One, adorned with the flashy Prydes EasiFeed archway, starting height for the Bronze Tour is 1.25 meters; this class is restricted to horses with under 40 points on their cards. The Silver Tour has a starting height of 1.35m, while the Gold Tour sets the bars for 1.45 combinations.

The tours continue in Arena Two where Ian Hamilton designed the course, with an Amateur Tour, a Junior Tour and the Finch Farm Youngster Tour for four, five and six year old horses. Even in Arena Three there is a tour for 12 and under riders… While the tours afford clarity to the program, there is the chance to step outside of one’s tour to compete in specialist classes, as in Young Riders, a speed class or the six-bar.

Thus the classes on Thursday provide a bit of a warm up, while Friday and Saturday riders focus on finishing in the top 40 of their tour to qualify for the finals on the Sunday. The focus is also on the social line-up starting on Friday, with all-you-could-

eat gourmet wood fire pizzas and rocking out in the VIP marque to the excellent band, Meridian. The folding tables see a bit of dance action, but they are after all folding tables; luckily showjumpers have good balance. The main dance floor is packed with everyone going off and the band is obviously digging the gig they secured in this tent in a country showground (and thinking, where did all these beautiful young women come from?).

The prestigious Singapore Sling event, sponsored by Fiona and Peter Hammond from Singapore, was won by Clem Smith riding Kartoon De Breve. Emily Patterson and Noble Eros topped the Young Rider Grand Prix. Notorious speedster, Merrick Ubank riding Aladino, who is sponsored by Prydes himself, took out the Prydes EasiFeed Speed Championship.

After the day’s competition on Saturday, minibuses whisk competitors into Kilcoy to the Stanley Hotel where they are well looked after by proprietors Hans and Shiree Kranenburg. After a feed and bev, the first order of business/entertainment is the Calcutta to auction off the entrants in the Gold Tour Final. Groups of riders fetched between $130 to $700. The auction proceeds went straight into the prize pool and this grew to over $2,500. Thus, the astute buyer could bid on a group of riders and potentially be well rewarded if one of their charges were to finish first, second or third in the final. The auction is a little bit rowdy, but this is to be expected with a room full of competitors, their teams and families.

After the Calcutta, an announcement is made that the start time for Sunday morning’s classes would be put back an hour and this was followed by loud happy noises, and may have contributed to the dancing on the bar late into the night at the Stanley.

An overnight thunderstorm freshened up the grounds for Sunday’s Tour finals. In Arena One where David Sheppard was building, the Bronze Tour Jo Weller Memorial was won by Chris Chugg and Black Currency, with second place getter Katie Roots riding Venture Bound acknowledging that, ‘Yes, Chuggy was too difficult to catch on this day!’ An emotional presentation and remembrance speech describing Jo’s life and enthusiasm for the sport was delivered by Bill Tanwan. By now the humble Kilcoy Showgrounds was packed with spectators and looking quite elegant with all the marquees from the trade fair and everyone unabashedly enjoying the perfect Queensland sunshine and the jumping. David Cameron and Dylanta produced the goods to win the Peachester Lodge Silver Tour Final. The Ian and Di McCauley Gold Tour Final track proved tough enough so that the top four faulters were taken into the last round. Here, Brook Dobbin and Silvo were first, Paula second riding Airtime Z GHP, and Vicki Roycroft on Congo Z in third place, Paula again on Nero GPH in fourth, Billy Raymont and Stardom fifth, Clem Smith on Guru sixth, Tim Amitrano on Danae seventh, and Olivia Hamood with GH Eternal Flame eighth. Of note:

SHOWJUMPING


Lizzie Wilson-Fellows, dressage rider and owner of Lets Performance Horses, is seeking an exemption to compete in the Australian Dressage Championships.

“Unfortunately my horse, Lets Jazzabit had a bad reaction to the first and second Hendra shots

last June, when I chose to vaccinate him as I was hoping to go to the Brisbane CDI. He got a very stiff neck, depression, then high temperatures up to 41.9 and stress colic. This horse is by Jazz out of a Sandro Hit mare, he was imported and came second at DWTS and at the Sydney CDI as a six-year-old, and so I certainly do not want to risk having to do the vaccinations again, just to do this competition. I have applied for an exemption with full support of my vet.”

“Any mention of Hendra makes my blood boil as so many people are so misinformed and are happily pumping a trial vaccine on a temporary permit into their horses.”

“I value mine too much to take the risk again and quite frankly I smell a rat. The racing industry isn’t doing it and

the DPI was not even aware of this by-law. I really hope all the riders stand firm and I think any vaccinations being done should be personal choice. To catch the virus from a horse you have to ingest bodily fluids like the vets, who died after they performed an autopsy. I can’t see myself or any member of the public performing one at SIEC, can you?”

“Hopefully I will get an exemption but if I don’t I wont be going and it will be interesting to see what happens.”

“I am not anti-vaccinating in hot spot areas, but all the horses that have contracted the virus have been paddock bashers, not as well looked after as we look after our precious performance horses and, if the facts are correct on how Hendra is contracted, then all that is needed is correct PPE equipment to be worn whilst attending to a sick horse, not vaccinating the entire states of Queensland and NSW.”

Two weeks later Lizzie’s case has not yet been resolved. “Unfortunately at this stage my exemption process is ongoing as they now require blood tests and reaction notification forms which considering my vaccinations were done over 12 months ago are proving hard to get especially as this morning I have found out my vet didn’t file a reaction report. It’s all very stressful when trying to spend time chasing up these things just to have the joy of going to the Nationals with more over inflated prices.”

HENDRA DIVIDING THE NATION

Though regarded one of the most successful vaccination breakthroughs in recent

history, the take up of the vaccine against the deadly Hendra virus has been reported as slow. In June 2014 the ABC states in a Bush Telegraph report that eighteen months after the vaccine was made available by Zoetis, only an estimated eleven percent of horse owners nationwide have vaccinated their horses, and vets and authorities are increasingly worried.

On July 1st, Equestrian Australia released the Hendra vaccination by-law, requiring anyone wanting to compete at EA and FEI events to have their horses vaccinated. The new rule is set to apply from 1 October 2014 to allow event organisers and horse owners a three-month period to a) get used to the new rule, b) change the show rules and c) make an appointment with the vet. There is

another four-week reprieve for events taking place in October that already had their schedule published.

The by-law makes it a prerequisite for event organising committees to complete a questionnaire, the Equestrian Competition Hendra Biosecurity Checklist, during the initial planning stages of their event to determine if their event requires classification as a Hendra Vaccinated Event (HVE).

Only days after the EA announcement the Equestrian QLD Board held their bi-annual meeting with the sport committees. An invitation was also extended to event organisers and clubs. The outcome of the meeting was a unanimous decision by the State Board, sport committees, event organisers and stakeholders including a representative of the Show Guild of Queensland and Queensland Endurance Riders Association. The

consensus was that the EA Hendra by-law was, quote “unacceptable and unworkable”.

Across the border, Equestrian NSW, who was involved in the drafting of EA’s Hendra by-law, endorsed the final version. In a press release NSW CEO Bruce Farrar said, “ENSW remains committed to a practical and effective Hendra by-law and will continue to support EA in its efforts to protect our members, their horses and the community from what is a serious biosecurity threat.”

If the Federation and its State Branches are unable to come to an agreement, then what about the people affected the most – the riders, the vets, the organisers… will entry numbers for events such as the Australian Dressage Championships suffer? We have asked a selection of people about their experiences and points of view.

LIZZIE WILSON-FELLOWS

Ute Raabe compiled the opinions...


I have just returned from Queensland where I have done a run of three excellent jumping shows, two at Gatton (Gatton Ag show and Gatton World Cup show) and in the second week, Glenhaven Grand Prix. Six of the seven horses on my truck are not yet Hendra vaccinated, and I felt no concern whatsoever. One of the horses being CONGO

Z, who I have recently purchased for a considerable sum of money, and whom I absolutely adore. Why? Hendra is yet to affect either an EA registered or a sport horse registered horse in this country. And it has been around, that we are aware, for more than 20 years.

Ironically the seventh horse on my truck, MASTER FOOTLOOSE, who belongs to my working student Will Mathew, experienced quite a severe reaction to the Hendra vaccination which resulted in him having such a stiff, sore neck that he was unable to put his head down to eat for nearly a week. And he still has calcification lumps in his neck at the injection sites. Alarmingly it appears from the reports I’ve had that horses seem to get a greater reaction to subsequent shots. And this is a vaccination that is still, to put it politely, a work in progress.

Now at this point, let me state I have no problem if people wish to vaccinate their horses, but to have it forced down our throats, as EA are wishing to do for the enormous cost involved for such a ridiculously minimal risk, is a joke. What’s next? Ban Eventing? It kills more horses and people than Hendra ever will. I have had similar reports of adverse reactions to the vaccine from other knowledgeable clients

and friends who I know directly, the Mackillop family, Krissy Harris and Sue Middleton, which casts enormous doubt on the drug company Zoetis’ claims of only 2% or less of horses getting reactions.

So being in the thick of where Hendra has had it’s greatest casualties, Queensland, I wondered why they have chosen to take a stand that is so contrary to the EA by-law that is to take effect from October 1st. The most interesting thing I gleaned was that, yes, 4 people have died from Hendra, but had any of those people (including two vets) had half the knowledge of the virus that we have now, NONE OF THEM WOULD HAVE DIED. Hendra is a virus that is extremely hard to spread. It is not airborne like Equine Influenza, and requires quite a lot of physical contact with an infected horse’s excretions to spread. This is underline by the most recent cases of only one horse on a property being infected while many others that also reside on the same property were not touched.

So why is EA taking such a strong, radical stand? Other equestrian sports, such as reining and cutting, are oddly enough, only asking that horses going to Queensland for events be vaccinated. This by-law will make it extremely difficult for many events to run, thus stifling what EA is meant to be promoting, which is improving the standard of our sport in our country.

In conclusion, I emphasize that I am not anti vaccination, but until the vaccination is PROVEN safe to administer without adverse reactions I will not be vaccinating against something that my horses have the most miniscule chance of contracting. EA should and must delay implementation of this totally unjust by law until facts can be assessed by people who do not have vested interests in promotion of the vaccine. This must be a choice of the individual horse owner, and not influenced by the appalling scare tactics of the current advertising campaign by Zoetis.

President of Equine Veterinarians Australia (EVA) and Australian Team Vet for Eventing, Dr Nathan Anthony: “Equine Veterinarians Australia commends EA’s implementation of the Hendra virus vaccination by-law. Hendra virus infection poses real and life threatening risk to horses and people and it is

now completely preventable with vaccination. Equestrian events carry a greater than usual risk of fatality from Hendra virus because of the large numbers of horses that are intensively gathered and the many people that interact with them.”

“The Australian Sports Commission requires funded National sporting bodies, such as EA, to adhere to a set of clear and coherent national rules, policies and systems that provide protection to members, volunteers and service

providers. Government agencies such as Biosecurity Qld and Work Health and Safety have documented that ‘Vaccination is the single most effective way of reducing the risk of Hendra virus infection.’ EVA believes that current Hendra biosecurity risk mitigation measures that are put in place by event organisers are not robust enough, and that vaccination provides a superior level of risk management and it is considered best practice.”

“There are now approximately 40,000 horses in Queensland and nearly the same number in NSW that are fully vaccinated, with the numbers growing every week. Equine veterinarians in Queensland have reported that the uptake of Hendra vaccination amongst Equestrian Queensland members is amongst the highest of any industry group. EVA members believe that Equestrian Queensland members who have not vaccinated their horses are in the minority. They, by their own choice, put themselves and their horse at risk, but they also inadvertently put other competitors and volunteers at risk.”

“Our FEI veterinarian members advise us that the risk of event disruption from sick unvaccinated horses at large EA events is real and worrying. Vaccination is the best way to

NATHAN ANTHONY

THE GREAT DEBATE

VICKI ROYCROFT


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Horse Magazine Spt 2014