The Crawford Hill Jewellery South Island Dressage Championships are underway at the Dunstan Horsefeeds NEC in Christchurch today.
This is the pinnacle Kiwi Arena Rake Premier League dressage event on the South Island dressage calendar with 138 combinations contesting a wide variety of categories including recreational (non-graded), pony classes, young dressage horse classes, para equestrian and graded classes from Preliminary to Grand Prix.
Melissa Galloway is having her first start back home in New Zealand since the Paris Olympics.
“It’s very exciting to be back competing on NZ soil! It’s of course very strange, this will be the first competition without Joey which is a little hard, but I am excited to have two of my other boys here and it gives them a chance to shine. I have Integro in the Grand Prix – this will be just his second start at GP. He is still green at this level but I am excited to have him back out! I also have a very special horse Beaufort DW here in the level 5. This will be his first ever start so I am excited to see how he handles it all. But most importantly I just want to have fun and enjoy being back out doing what I love most with my horses”
The event is also the final qualifier for the South Island Super 5 League and the Zilco Musical Freestyle Series; all the results going into the event can be found on EvoEvents https://www.evoevents.co.nz/series under the tabs DNZ SOUTH ISLAND SUPER 5 Series 2024-2025 and DNZ SOUTH ISLAND ZILCO Series 2024-2025
Just two combinations contest the Superior Rubber Surfaces Grand Prix which begins at 16.50pm tonight. Melissa Galloway is first in the arena followed by the local combination of Wisdom WDS & Amelia Greening. Amelia leads the Super 5 series on 8pts from Lucy Cochrane & Gymanji on 7, however Lucy is now NI based and cannot earn further points. Judges include Queensland FEI 4* Connie Bookless and NZL List A’s Margs Carline & Suzanne Inglis.
The Canterbury Equestrian Prix St Georges, already completed, attracted seven starters with the win going to South Canterbury’s Philippa McLeod and Donneregal on 65.39%
Riders are also accruing points for the 24-25 Dressage Top Ten Leagues, FineLine Horse Floats Masters, AMS Saddlery Pony Young & Youth Rider Performance League, Tackshop.co.nz Dressage Rising Stars, EquiMatch Pony and Young Rider Rising Stars Prestige Dressage Futures Prize and the ESNZ TIES Dressage Series so there is much at stake this weekend for top ranked series combinations.
Follow the event Facebook page here
Wendy Hamerton | ESNZ Dressage Sport Manager