Beautiful warm days and fantastic dressage were the hallmarks of competition and camaraderie at the 2015 Saddleworld Brisbane CDI, which took place from the 16th – 19th July, at Caboolture.  

The main focus of a CDI event is finding new champions and identifying the combinations that will go on to be contenders for future Australian Olympic and WEG teams.

44 Saddleworld stores from all over Australia were proud to participate as the main name sponsor and four Queensland stores gave further support through their personal involvement to ensure that the Saddleworld trade stand and retail presence was something special.

	The Saddleworld Trade stand at the 2015 Saddleworld Brisbane CDI

The 4 day program contained many innovations, in particular – the Saddleworld Novice Club Team Challenge – which was introduced to encourage participation and clubs ran qualifying events leading up to July.

The event has been hailed a great success as it attracted club teams from all over Queensland and one from NSW. Each team supplied volunteer help for the event and this solved many logistical issues and ensured that the event had a strong spectator following. The organisers were very pleased to welcome a team from Townsville as they had travelled 1400 kilometers to be part of the competition.

The Event Director Cathie Drury-Klein said. “The development of Dressage is greatly enhanced when riders have the opportunity to take in the performances of the best combinations.  This was the thinking behind introducing a Novice Challenge and we were pleased to be able to encourage these riders to come along and learn from their experiences at the Saddleworld Brisbane CDI. The entries were strong and it is widely acknowledged that we have some really talented combinations coming through the grades.  We expect this class to become a permanent fixture and thank everyone for their involvement and enthusiasm … with a special thanks to Saddleworld for their generous sponsorship!”

The winning combination in both the Novice 2.1 (Saturday) and 2.2 (Sunday) of the Saddleworld Novice Club Team Challenge was the “in-form” Queenslander, Emma Flavelle.   She rode the NSW bred Bradgate Park Demi for great scores of 72.130% in the 2.1 test and 70% in the 2.2.

The complete results can be found at HERE

MC Ricky McMillan (Australian Olympian) explained that as well as sponsoring the Saddleworld Novice Club Team Challenge, the 4 participating Queensland stores had combined to donate a fantastic PDS Carl Hester Grande Dressage Saddle to one lucky club.   This prize could be used to further dressage in the winner’s area.

	Ricky McMillan talks to the proprietors of 4 of Saddleworld's Queensland stores

Ricky was joined by Emily Wonka (SW Ipswich) Ros Lipp (SW Toowoomba) Kimberly White (SW Nerang) and Madonna Hedberg (SW Gympie) for this special part of the Saturday evening’s entertainment.  Many club members gathered in the magnificent indoor arena to learn that each club entered had been allocated a number and all numbers went into a box.   Andrew Stephens was asked to draw a ticket to reveal the winner - No 8!  The Toowoomba Dressage Club held the No 8 ticket and the squeals of delight indicated what this windfall would mean to the Toowoomba club.

	Ricky McMillan talks to Toowoomba Spokesperson

A spokesperson for the Toowoomba club said. “Thankyou Saddleworld, this is fantastic boost to dressage in our area.  At this moment, we are not too sure how we will best to use the prize, but we think that a raffle to raise money would be a good possibility.

After the completion of the 2.2 test which was ridden on Sunday, the Saddleworld Novice Club Team Challenge trophy was awarded to the Caboolture Dressage Club who will have their name engraved on the perpetual trophy. The representatives from Saddleworld made the presentation.