Singleton Dressage Club Dressage Day

A family affair … Emma Whitley and her pony Amaranda Stormy gets some last minute tweaks from mum and dad.

Andrew air – Andrew Buckley on the imported PRE stallion Joselito de Arroyo in the advanced.

Haberfield Anasatisa and Indira Ash

Annika Ash on her new lease horse Don Darci at their first dressage day

Bethany Joyes on her own 24yo saddlebred Canyonleigh Aphrodite

Bree Tillitski

Kara Delaney, third-generation Byalee Stables rider

Jeff Merchant on his own fresian cross mare Lady Godiva

Byalee Aadonis and Dimity Lourey in the official preliminary

Sofiana Bates and her own Radiant Bailey

Heath Ryan and his eventer Bornze Boy eyeing off the competition

Jessica Clark on the stallion Desert Storm at their first competition together as a combination

Sophie Leonard on Roseriver Little Star

Next-gen Byalee Stables rider Kara Delaney all smiles in her prep test on Byalee Dusty

All smiles –Third-generation Byalee Stables rider Kara Delaney was all smiles after her first-ever dressage test on 37yo Byalee Baby.

Anni rescue – Anni Nightingale was one of 13 judges to volunteer to help run Singleton’s first competition for the year.

Third-generation Byalee Stables rider Kara Delaney ecstatic to enter the arena on 37yo Byalee Baby

Tanya Winstanley and Harvest Picasso

Courtney Larard warming up on Candiman

Jess Somerville on the stallion Loxley’s Hit

Kellie Webster spent nine hours manning the gate to allow us to proceed

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Singleton Dressage Club

AND JUST LIKE THAT … WE WERE BACK!

Singleton Dressage Club was one of the first clubs in NSW to run a post-COVID competition (if you could call it post-COVID) on September 13, in the midst of an ever-changing landscape.

We began planning the day when the world looked promising, then Victoria happened, then individual COVID tests caused havoc with committee meetings … we were ordered to cease community sport, then it was allowed if it was regional … out of area judges and riders were banned, then the officials weren’t! We were planning to go totally paper-free, but our Nominate representative was coming from Canberra and had to cancel or spend two weeks in quarantine to get home! It was an extremely successful time for the committee but we were determined to run the competition if at all possible and not only did we pull it off, but a number of other clubs in the area promptly announced plans to follow suit! The Hunter New England health area is now one of the luckiest in the State with three or four more competitions in the current month. Fortunately for us, the area is a far-ranging mostly rural region with lots of listed judges (even A Level), making our job easier!

And once plans were made, our competition-starved riders were quick to enter. Even with an extension to entry numbers and a quick ring around for more judges, we were still fully booked 10 days before the closing date. A record! And when the day arrived, it was like a party – everyone was smiling, everyone played by the rules and there was much cheery waving and thanks shouted out truck windows as the day ended.

Thanks to our vice-president Kellie Webster manning the gate at Singleton Showground, the obligatory COVID forms were exchanged for wristbands to show compliance and our EA-provided COVID pack was put to good use with sanitiser dotted around the ground. Some judges went penciller-free, others brought their own pencillers and for the rest, there was a one penciller per judge rule to minimise COVID risk.

We enlisted the help of our COVID-safe accredited coffee van, Lave Coffee, who helped us out by catering for the judges’ lunch in staggered times, again to ensure social distancing for our officials.

Thank you to all of our competitors for arriving, riding and promptly leaving again and for observing social distancing!! Horses certainly help with that!

There were certainly some hairy moments out there with horses feeling the effects of cancelled competitions, but also some amazing highlights with scores up to 82+%. Overwhelming was the strong sense of camaraderie from the riders who were just so grateful to finally be at a competition!!! You don’t realise quite what you have until you miss it.

We are so glad that we worked so hard to make it happen. With a bit of luck, it will get only get easier!

ANN-MAREE LOUREY
President

Singleton Dressage Club Dressage Day

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