T&T selects quartet for dressage competition

Trinidad and Tobago will be represented by Patrice Stollmeyer, Mariel Lanser, Chelsea Thomas and Olivia Xavier-Harford when the T&T Equestrian Association (TTEA) hosts the first major international dressage competition for 2013, at the Saddle Valley Stables (formerly Hidden Valley Stables) in Santa Cruz, next Wednesday, (February 27), starting at 10 am. 

The quartet was selected following the final trial on January 26.

The event, the Federation Equestre Internationale (FIE) World Dressage Challenge, is a long awaited annual event, and there will be two visiting international FEI judges, Mariano Santos Redondo, president of the ground jury from Spain and Elke Ebert, a four-star judge from Germany who will both oversee the event.

The TTEA has organised a clinic at each of the stables for the benefit of local riders which will be conducted by Redondo and Ebert. It will be conducted by the visiting judges and will seek to continue the riders’ and horses’ development in the art of dressage. The clinic will follow the competition on Thursday February 28, and is for selected riders who place among the top ten adult riders and the four best placed children.

The aim of this FEI competition is to give the less experienced dressage riders who, under normal circumstances, cannot take part in international competitions and live in the more remote countries, the opportunity to compete internationally without having to leave their own country.

Competition is divided into 12 geographical zones, made up of between four and six countries. It offers five performance levels and two age groups (12-15yrs; 16yrs and older): Prix St George/Advanced/Medium/Elementary/ Preliminary. 

Trinidad and Tobago falls within zone 10, competing against Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Barbados, Haiti and Jamaica. Within the competition there are two classifications, individual and team, with the individual based on the results obtained by each rider throughout the competition, and the team based on the highest total percentage obtained by the three best riders of a country’s team.

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