Victoria Triumphs in Orange

Ever since the colony of Victoria’s separation from NSW in 1850 a struggle for supremacy has smouldered. Sport, politics or even weather, we never stop comparing. Dressage has been no different. For much of recent times NSW had the horses, the riders and the numbers to keep Victorians quiet about comparisons. But this has all changed. In the WEG Dressage team all the Oz based riders were from Vic and a number of recent CDI results have been in our favour. This week’s Orange CDI, contested on NSW home turf has produced a Victorian 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd.

It doesn’t get much better than that, except that Mary Hanna (Umbro), Maree Tompkinson (Diamantina) and Caroline Wagner (Tango) also achieved Australian record scores and PBs.

This is all very exciting for the other FEI riders in Victoria who have such strong benchmarks against which to measure themselves. This possibly accounts for the very strong field of Grand Prix riders being assembled for the forthcoming Dressage & Jumping with the Stars. Twenty plus horses in the GP signals a growing depth to match the new standards being set by Mary & Umbro this season.

Well done girls! From all at DV.