EV Annual Awards Night

2015 Young Riders of the Year, Left to Right, Sam Jeffree, Samantha McMaster, Teaghan Chester and Emily O'Connell. Photo Credit to John Lynch

Young Rider of the Year

Eventing- Sam Jeffree
Proudly Sponsored by Racing Victoria, Off the Track Program

Sam started riding when he was 5 years old & his first pony was Called Moffat . He began at Maccesfield Pony Club when he was 7 and  couldn't wait to be allowed to start eventing when he turned 8. He has been coached by Will Enzinger since he started Eventing.
In 2015 Sam won Wandin CIC1* open, Yeringberg 1* Interschools, 1st Grade 1 PCAV State Champs, 2nd Ballarat CIC 1*open, (1st Interschool), and placed 4th & 8th at Melbourne International 3 Day Event in the 1* junior.
At the age of 16 Sam has both his horses placing consistently in open competition at 1* level. Competing for Hailebury he has qualified both horses to compete at the National Imterschools in September. As well as Eventing he has also qualified in the Advanced Dressage!

Show Horse- Samantha McMaster
Proudly Sponsored by Racing Victoria, Off the Track Program

Samantha grew up on a farm in Central Victoria and doesn’t remember learning to ride.
Her first horse was a palomino Australian pony called Honey, and together with sister Sarah on a similar steed, they were familiar sights as Bananas in Pyjamas at all the local gymkhanas.
Samantha became an active member of Euroa pony club and keenly progressed up through the eventing grades, competing at State Horse Trials in Grade 2.
Samantha's main passion has been Show horses though, and she began showing at the age of about 8 on Springwood Up Up and Away. She was very excited to win the Barastoc International Challenge Large Pony in 2007 on Langtree Regal Heir, who was also national champion partners welsh that same year. Sammi progressed straight to a hack due to her height, and soon after began the amazing partnership with DP Destiny. Together they have won EA Nationals, champion at Sydney royal, twice runner up at Grand Nationals, OTT State of Origin and Malcolm Ansell Saddlehorse challenge champions at Equitana 2014.
Samantha loves the challenge of taking a hack off the track and turning it into a showhorse, and enjoys teaching them to understand and respond to the new things being asked of them. She turns 19 on Friday and is doing first year science at Melbourne University with the view towards being an engineer. She looks forward to the coming show season with her new show hunter hack, her first OTT hack Atmosphere, and to doing the Garryowen for the first time on SLM Mercedes.
Samantha is extremely honoured to have been selected as EV’s Show Horse young rider for 2015 and looks forward to helping and mentoring young riders as well as being a positive role model for them.

Jumping- Teagan Chester

Teagan is a very successful Jumping rider who has competed up to World Cup competition on Ellesmere Derilyn. Teagan recently returned from Queensland where she had numerous successes and she has represented Victoria in Young Rider Teams on many occasions. Teagan is a member of the Victorian Young Rider Squad; she is also involved in the Sale & District Show Jumping & Dressage Club and helps them with the running of their shows, clinics and freshman days.

Dressage- Emily O'Connell

Another great young ambassador for Dressage has been awarded the Dressage Young Rider of the Year. Emily O’Connell impressed the judges with her mature and well balanced attitude towards the issues that face the Dressage rider.
Emily is a full time Science student at Melbourne University who has brought an “off the track thoroughbred” to win Advanced Champion at the Australian Dressage Young Rider Championships 2015. She credits much of her recent success to the time she spent overseas working for Judy Harvey, David Pincus and Anky Van Grunsven.
Emily is keenly interested in sports psychology and is supported in this by Dr Inga Wolframm from Netherlands. She also received support from Equine Dynamics (bodywork and physio).
We at Dressage Victoria congratulate Emily and look forward to working with her over the next 12 months.

EV Annual Sport Achievement Winners

EV Special Services

Malcolm Barns “A man before his time”

Growing up in pre-war Melbourne, Malcolm engaged successfully in many sports, but despite his parent’s concerns, his passion was to own a horse.
Several of Malcolm’s early horses had problems, which he somehow managed to survive. These horses taught him lessons that stood him in good stead for later challenges.
Dorian was one of his first very successful horses. With Dorian, Malcolm won the rare Dressage events at the Royal Melbourne Shows, B grade Showjumping and in 1957 the Melbourne 3 Day Event at Oaklands Hunt Club amongst a group of famous competitors. It must be noted here that Dorian was a serious rouge who bucked everyone off. How they trained Dorian to be rideable is a story in itself. To complete the success across all our sports Malcolm also won Gentleman Rider at the 1962 Melbourne Show and thus secured an invitation to ride in England.
His trip to England eventually extended to competing and training in Germany. Malcolm studied and sat the instructor’s exam at Warendorf, coming top of the class ahead of all the Germans and other foreigners. I would think he was the first Australian to do this.
On his return to Australia in 1963 he became chief instructor at Oakwood Riding School until 1966 when he returned to England with two of his own horses. He ran into administrative problems by asking the EFA for a licence to compete in England to which they didn’t respond. When he did get to compete in Germany the Dressage tests ended with a compulsory jump.
He did further study in England and sat more exams in his pursuit of greater knowledge to bring home. Malcolm worked his passage home with his horse Hawa Mahal by looking after 13 horses on a ship that had previously lost both horses and grooms overboard in rough weather.
To confirm his status as a champion of all our sports in the early 1970’s Malcolm won “Horse of the Year” 3 years straight on Lure. He became well known for his role as “the instructor” for the emerging band of Dressage enthusiasts. He insisted that they read widely and stay true to the “Training Scale”. This is the period when Dressage as we know it today was starting in Victoria and Malcolm was the europhile at the centre.
His group lessons at Oakwood in those days are stuff of legend. Malcolm taught groups of as many as 10 riders at a time in the 40 x20 arena, challenging them to execute more and more demanding movements while maintaining correct distances and never complaining. He was determined to knock these rough Aussies into some sort of shape that might one day resemble European Dressage.
For a pioneering instructor like Malcolm, there can be no greater achievement than to spawn the careers of dozens of younger instructors. I would feel safe in saying that there is hardly a person in this room who has not been taught by Malcolm or by an instructor who was themselves taught by Malcolm.
In many ways Malcolm set the Dressage benchmark and has continued to preach the need for us all to aim for higher standards. All of this has been executed with a very strong sense of whit which like his amazing career, is unforgettable.
Dressage is now Equestrian Victoria’s biggest sport and this is in no small part due to Malcolm Barn’s pioneering career.

Administrator of the Year

Sue McKay and Deb MacNicol are both members of the Equestrian Victoria Event Management Group. They have been involved in multiple events across all disciplines. Their event management skills and general knowledge of all things equestrian are invaluable. 

Volunteer of the Year
Jodie Van Breugel
A huge congratulations to Jodie Van Breugel and Helen Heagney from the Equestrian Victoria Show Horse committee for being nominated to be crowned EV Volunteer of the 2015!
These two Show Horse committee members were very deserving for the prestigious award and it was pleasing to see them both nominated and recognised for all their hard work and dedication. Both ladies have donated an extraordinary amount of time and effort to bettering our sport, on the behalf of the EV Show Horse members and committee we sincerely thank Jodie Van Breugal and Helen Heagney for all their hard works.
It was decided by the EV Board that for 2015 Jodie Van Breugel be crowned the 2015 EV Volunteer of the Year!
Congratulations Jodie.
Here is a list of just some of the amazing work and contributions Jodie has made to EV:
Barastoc organizing committee since 2010
Show Horse committee 2013 to 2015
EA Show Horse Nationals 2014 music director
EV HOTY Barastoc organising committee 2015
EV Amateur Show organiser
EV show horse clinics director 2015
Ticketing for the dressage festival 2014
Ticketing for dressage with the stars 2015
Ticketing for Melbourne Three Day Event 2015
Judging at multiple EV affiliated shows as we as stewarding and help organise at others.
Organising committee for the 2016 Barastoc 2016
Music director and event committee for EA nationals 2015.
Please take time to congratulate and thank our very deserving nominations, without their support our events wouldn’t run.

Judy Croagh
Judy commenced her volunteer work nearly thirty years ago in the pony club movement in Tasmania.  She moved to Victoria and has continued her involvement in equestrian sport initially at PC level and then moving into EV Competititon.

Her passion for Eventing evolved when she was the District Commissioner for Ballarat Pony Club.  The club had no cross country course and Judy was pivotal in raising funds and developing the facilities in Victoria Park, in particular the cross country course. This has been the focus of her volunteer work for over a decade.

During that time Judy has steered the Friends of Ballarat Eventing Association from a non existent sporting group to an active eventing association capable of running an FEI CICThree Star event and running a minimum of two training clinics each year. She devotes countless hours of her time at the venue overseeing the development of the grounds, the facilities and the Xc course. She has personally been pivotal in the completion of a three star course and development of the Victoria Park
equestrian facility at Ballarat.

She has also expanded her volunteer efforts into Eventing Victoria becoming a proactive and committed member of the Eventing Committee.  Judy has worked tirelessly working with EV officials in organising educational seminars and developing opportunities for their professional development. She takes an interest not only in the administrative aspects of her role on the Eventing Committee but is always the first person to role up her sleeves and work at every event or activity Conducted by the group.

Her enthusiasm, energy, leadership qualities and "can do "attitude are truly inspiring.

She is a worthy winner of the Volunteer of the Year Award.

Official of the Year

As a keen rider in her own right in EFA eventing and showjumping and strapping for her daughter in the late 1990s Chris was keen to assist with the growth of Eventing in Australia.  Chris has a passion for helping others and ensuring a level playing field for all in the sport with a focus on education and opening up opportunities for Stewards to increase their knowledge and skills.  Highlights for Chris in her Stewarding Career have been the involvement with:
2007 – Stewarding Kentucky World Equestrian Games, Badminton Horse Trials
2008 – Appointed as Chief Steward for Eventing (Australia)
2010- Kentucky 3DE, Wiesbaden (Germany), Pau 3DE (France)
2012 - Eventing Steward at London Olympics, Weston Park, Burghley Horse Trials
2014 – Eventing Steward at World Equestrian Games – Normandy
Local and NZ events such as SIEC 3DE, Quirindi, Adelaide International Horse Trials, Melbourne 3DE
Another highlight for Chris is the comradery and friendships with her Steward teams with whom she loves spending time with.

Chris has been driving the increased profile and education of Stewards and opening up opportunities for Stewards to work both locally and internationally and is passionate about all aspects of Eventing and bringing through new stewards into the training programs.  She also has a keen interest in breeding with the first few of her horses commencing in Eventing with success.

Coach of the Year

Maree is undoubtedly the definition of hard work, determination and self discipline. These are all the qualities she has in her own training but also passes onto her pupils. Maree is extremly supportive to her pupils and is avaliable 24/7 to help out. Maree teaches her riders the finer aspects of dressage riding.

Event of the Year

Dressage and Jumping with the Stars 2015 is an event that many riders and spectators look forward to every year. The best judges, riders and horses flock to Werribee Park for a week of excitement. DJWTS also gives riders the opportunity to be educated by overseas judges in the Masterclasses held each year.

Club of the Year

Sale and District Show Jumping and Dressage Club have been operating for 30 years, with members with a range of different riding ability. Sale has grown rapidly in the last 5 years; they now host 3 major events a year. They run the Victorian Showjumping Championships, a warm up show in September before the Australian Championships and most importantly a world cup qualifier, now one of the richest and most prestigious Grand Prix events in Australia. Sale also runs freshman days during winter and clinics that involve all members. With an extremely strong member base and a mixture of youth and experienced riders sale is thriving with only bigger and better things to come.

Young Athlete of the Year

Tayla Desmet competes and trains 2 horses. She rides 3-4 times a week or everyday during school holidays. Tayla is passionate about health and fitness of herself and her horses. Tayla is coaches by Nick Wall. She also competes in cross country running and is a member of the Melbourne Girls Grammar Athletics Team. Tayla is a very dedicated and disciplined athlete.

Athlete of the Year

Katja has had a very successful 12 months.
She won the Exhibition Eventing at Melbourne Show in September.
She placed 4th at Adelaide International 4 star in November.
A week later she became the first female to win the Exhibition Grand Final at Equitana.
She won the CIC 3* at Albury Horse Trials in April.
In May she represented Australia as part of the team at the Oceania Eventing Championships in Taupo New Zealand where we were successful defeating the New Zealanders on their home ground.
In June she placed 2nd at the Melbourne International 3 day Event 2015
Katja has managed to produce her homebred horses consistently to the highest level of eventing.

Horse of the Year

Cosmo is a 12 years old, bay gelding owned by Katja Weimann
He is a  Warmblood X Thoroughbred
Sire: Triathlete
Dam: Wynvale Rose Against Odds
BP Cosmopolitan is in 3rd position in the FEI Eventing Horse World Ranking List 6th in Melbourne VIC CCI3* in June 2014
4th in Adelaide international 3 day event CCI4* in November 2014
2nd in Wandin VIC CIC3* in March 2015
1st in Albury NSW CIC3* in April 2015
2nd Melbourne International 3 day event 2015