FEI World Dressage Challenge

On Saturday, 4 June 2016, the Walvis Bay Equestrian Centre hosted the annual FEI World Dressage Challenge. The format had changed this year and instead of only competing against 4 or 5 countries, our Namibian riders now competed for world- wide recognition. The standard of the competition had also been raised tremendously, which meant that only a few riders dared to attempt to ride these challenging tests.
The judges for this years’ FEI Dressage Challenge were Mrs Lesley Mawhinney from South Africa and Mrs Brigitte Davidow from Namibia. The general feeling amongst the riders was that they judged strict, but fair and that they received positive, constructive criticism which they could learn from for next year.
The show started with Franziska Leinberger on Camelot in the Prix St Georges test. These difficult tests are very seldom ridden in Namibia and it was a great honour to have Franziska here in Walvis Bay. Unfortunately Camelot was having a bit of a bad day, and Franziska retired during the competition. For our young and upcoming riders, this was however a real spectacle, as they don’t get to see that sort of dressage live very often. Franziska still rode an even tougher test later during the day, which drew a number of spectators to the arena.
The Namibian Team consisted of four riders with their horses, namely:
Nadine Flemming on Seeis Eymet competing in the Elementary Class
Karin Schommarz on Frischgewaagd Saltano competing in the Elementary Class
Anike Maritz on Baron von Sphinxblick competing in the Elementary Class Gesche Gilchrist on Seeis Dansuelo competing in the Medium Class
All four riders did well and received good scores by the judges. We now need to wait until all other countries have finished their competitions to see where the Namibian team, as well as the individual riders will stand at the end.
The results for this competition were as follows:
Elementary Class:
1. Nadine Flemming on Seeis Eymet
2. Anike Maritz on Baron von Sphinxblick
3. Karin Schommarz on Frischgewaagd Saltano
4. Tamsin Louw on Sphinxblick Kim and Elizabeth Rossouw on Büllsport Constantin
6. Elizabeth Rossouw on Okakambe Fury
Medium Class:
1. Nadine Flemming on Seeis Shelton
2. Anike Maritz on Baron von Sphinxblick
3. Gesche Gilchrist on Seeis Dansuelo
4. Kathrin Schaefer-Stiege on Büllsport Mister X
A competition like this could not be held without sponsors and helpers. The Walvis Bay Equestrian Centre sincerely wants to thank all the sponsors who supported this event. This was a fundraiser for the new jumping arena. Our riders have been excelling at their different levels in jumping and dressage, but in order to be able to jump higher, the ground of the arena has to be especially prepared and that is very costly. THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO ALL OUR SPONSORS AND HELPERS.