Worlds qualifier hailed success

Friday 27 April, 2007
Worlds qualifier hailed success
The last of the Paralympic Qualifying rounds for this year's World Para Dressage Championships, which was held at the University's Equine Centre on Saturday 28 April, has been hailed a great success by competitors and the judge. All were impressed by the organisation of the event itself and the facilities.

Amongst the fifteen competitors taking part was reigning World, European, and Olympic Champion Lee Pearson, who won two classes. Riding Spock, a school horse form the Institute of Rural Sciences, Welsh rider Amanda Say came third in grade 1b behind Lee Pearson, and another Welsh rider, Paula Clarke from Llandovery, won the grade 3 competition.

Carol Green, Equine Centre Manager, said;
“This was an excellent day and we have received some great feedback from competitors and the judge, who travelled to Aberystwyth from Wiltshire. The judge was so impressed with the organisation of the event that he is willing to visit again, which is great as persuading a top level judge to come to Wales is one of our difficulties.”

“Attracting one of the five paralympic qualifying rounds has been a real coup for Aberystwyth and it was great to see riders such as Lee Pearson, who also competes in able bodied classes at the top level, here.”

The was a Dressage event with each rider scored on how their horse performed specific tests such as the walk, trot, canter and halt. Rider wanting to qualify for the World Championships, which take place at Hartpury in July, needed to achieve a score of over 70% in two qualifying events.

This was the first time that Wales has hosted one of the qualifying rounds for the World Championships.

UWA riding success
The event follows success for the UWA Riding Club team who recently won the show jumping element of the BUSA (British Universities Sports Association) National Championships and finished third overall.

Individually, Bea Meitiner, BSc Equine Studies, came 9th overall and 8th in the dressage. Katherine Allen, BSc Equine Science, came 5th in the Show Jumping. Also contributing the team success were Lisa Saycel, Law, and Jessica Johnson, MSc Equine Science.

The Competition took place in Lincoln between the 11th-13th April. Team members had to ride an unknown horse in a dressage test and complete a course of jumps judged on style.