Olympian Heath Ryan and Regardez Moi retained their crown as the national dressage champions, winning the Grand Prix Freestyle by the narrowest of margins on Saturday night.
Lochinvar’s Ryan rode well for a score of 71.550 per cent, which was 0.1 of a per cent ahead of Sydney competitor Rachael Sanna and Jaybee Alabaster.
The win topped an exciting weekend of competition for Ryan at the National Dressage Championships, which were held at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre from Thursday to yesterday.
Ryan rode in the Grand Prix on Friday afternoon against tough competition from Victorian rider Mary Hanna and her newcomer Tango V. Ryan scored 66.167, second to Hanna’s 66.667.
Hanna is fresh from a year training in Germany and brought the horse home with her.
Ryan and Regardez Moi scored the national title as a combination of their best two scores.
Ryan’s wife, Rozzie, was close behind in the Grand Prix freestyle, placing third on DP Christopher with 66.050 per cent.
In the freestyle, highly trained horses ‘dance’ to their rider’s individual choreography and music.
The dressage world is now looking towards the World Cup finals in Los Angeles next year.
The Australian qualifiers for the World Cup will be held in Victoria in December and Ryan said the weekend’s results pointed towards a hot contest for a finals spot.
“For us with these young horses, it gives them an international run and with how close these horses have been this weekend it is shaping up to be a fascinating competition,” Ryan told the Mercury yesterday.
“The Kur (freestyle to music) will be the culmination and it looks like it will be a blinder.
“There are a whole lot of up-and-coming horses in Australia at the moment.”
The national championships were a far cry from 12 months ago when the equestrian world was crippled by equine influenza.
This resulted in the cancellation of last year’s championships, severely jeopardising Australia’s Olympic hopes.
“We are in full-on recovery mode now,” Ryan said. “It was certainly a difficult time and didn’t do us any favours in terms of the sport moving forward … but we have competed at the Olympics and right now we are at a standard higher than we have ever been before.”
Canadian judge Cara Whitham commented at the at the completion of Friday’s Grand Prix that: ‘I had Heath placed first”.
“He rode bravely, his extentions were good his piaffe and passage were good.
“His changes were a weak point. It was a beautifully presented and a bravely presented test.
‘Tango (Hanna’s horse) is a super talent, very willing but with a few rough edges. He is a real talent for the future, a lovely horse.’
Following the freestyle Whitham said: “A good strong competition especially the top three horses.
“The decision in the freestyle was very close between Jaybee Alabaster and Regardez Moi with the strength of the piaffe, passage and pirouettes favouring Regardez Moi.”
The extended Ryan family was given another reason to celebrate at the weekend, with Heath’s brother Matt named in the top 100 Olympians of all time list, which was compiled by the Australian Olympic Committee’s historian Harry Gordon.
Matt, who is now based in England, captured two Olympic gold medals at the Barcelona Games in 1992, winning both the individual and team three-day events.
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