The 2010 – 2011 dressage season drew to a close as the final day of the UAE National Dressage Championships took place Tuesday night at the Emirates Equestrian Centre (EEC).

The final Individual Rider Classes were held in Preliminary Seniors, Novice, Elementary and Advanced Medium Classes.

The opening class for the evening was the Prelim Seniors Class. A well matched round with the qualifiers all on a very competitive level, it would have been a tough call to pick the winner.
 

Riding a lovely confident test on her Swedish bred mare La Filippa E, Liza Bagely proudly took the spoils with a score of 65.2%. Denise Vertigen stepped up to take the runner up prize with a close score of 64.1% on the showjumping bred Dutch stallion Kipling.

The classes of Novice level and above consist of two parts: a set test followed by a Kur. The Kur is a Dressage to Music test, designed and choreographed by each rider to display the training and paces of each horse. Both scores are tallied to decide the winner of each level.

The Novice class was a close competition, after the first round the scores between the leading riders was a matter of a mere few points.

The competition was still open between the four finalists going into the Kur. With a music variety of classical, Irish river dance and an interesting Jamaican and Chelsea Football Team anthem combination saw the crowed toe tapping along to the competitors tests.

Philippa Mains maintained her lead to win the class on the ever improving thoroughbred gelding Grand Move, just beating EEC instructor Diane Crabtree on the talented school horse Decision Delay with scores of 69% and 67%, respectively.

Riding the talented Oldenberg gelding Quattro Nuevo for owner Natalie Christodoulou, Tina Visuri won the Elementary class with conviction. A total combined score of 68.8% Visuri led the class with a convincing margin after the set test and held the lead with her Kur.

Reserve champion position was battled out between EEC riders Sarah Smith and Lesley Jones. Smith gained the lead after a super Kur as she rode her smart thoroughbred ex-race horse All Made Up to a punch tune which caught her up after an uncharacteristic error of course in the set test.

The highest class for the evening, the Advance Medium class, had an interesting assortment of breeds. A staggering giant of a warmblood, a Lusitano Stallion and two unusual breeds in the sport a pure bred Akele Teke and a New Forest Pony.

Proving you don’t have to be a classic warmblood to win at this level the unusual suspects showed the way.

The Championship won by young rider Karin Lindbom riding her Akele Teke mare Mer Mer, and Reserve Champion went to Manuela Gruss on her hard working New Forest Pony Niklaus. It was a tough class with all scores quite close between the qualifiers.

An unfortunate spook saw Luis Santos’ ride Cuarzo nip his tongue, resulting elimination due to the blood rule, disappointing as the pairs Kur had been a spectator favourite.

The UAE Dressage Challenge Cup was won by the highest scoring rider, a very thrilled Dianne Breeze. This Perpetual Trophy is awarded to the rider, Novice level and above, scoring the highest total score over all in the National Championships. Breeze spent the final night tentatively waiting to see if her score would be topped on the final day.

Beaming while accepting the trophy Breeze commented “I’m really pleased with him (Belissimo Vita), it’s his first season competing and he has settled into the UAE so well.”

All the spectators and competitors alike would agree that the last three nights of competition were a fitting conclusion to the fantastic 2010/2011 season of dressage in the Emirates.

The new competition season of dressage will commence in November 2011 after a well-earned summer break.