Wendi Williamson wins dressage titles
Photo from Simon Scully Photography.
Wendi Williamson of Waimauku has won multiple national and Australian dressage titles, including Equestrian Sport New Zealand (ESNZ) Rider of the Year 2024.
The Williamson Water and Land Advisory, Principal Contaminated Land Consultant and Company Director has had an incredibly successful season in dressage – just missing out on participating in the Paris Olympic Equestrian event.
Equestrian comprises three disciplines there, with men and women competing on equal terms.
In the jumping discipline, riders and horses are timed as they jump over obstacles, with time penalties imposed for each obstacle toppled. Agility, technique and harmony between horse and rider are essential.
Dressage is the most advanced form of horse training, where horse and rider perform a series of artistic movements to music. Judges evaluate the ease and fluidity with which they move around the course.
The third discipline of eventing resembles an equestrian triathlon. It combines the two other events - jumping and dressage - with a third: cross-country, which consists of a long course combining solid and natural obstacles, drawing on the athletes’ endurance and experience. The horse and rider with the most versatile skills win the three events.
The equestrian events run until August 6.
At the Land Rover Horse of the Year show held March 5-10, Wendi won the Grand Prix Championship and picked up an Olympic qualifying score of 74.4% in the Grand Prix Special test.
Wendi also received the Lowry Medallion for 2024 Rider of the Year, won with her horses Don Vito MH, Fugato SW, Ducati MH and Danseur MH. This is a points prize for the rider gaining the most points at the Horse of the Year show across all disciplines.
The Bates Saddles National Dressage Championships in Taupo from March 21-23 is the pinnacle event on the New Zealand Dressage calendar, with 190 horses and 160 riders representing the cream of the crop in New Zealand from mid-Canterbury to the Far North.
The major prize, the Burkner Medal for the Grand Prix Championship was won by Wendi riding her 11-year-old Hanoverian gelding Don Vito MH. This is the third time Wendi has won the Burkner since 2017 and her fourth time winning the Tironui Trophy for the Grand Prix Freestyle – the first rider to do so since 1976 when the trophy was first presented.
Taupo was also an Olympic qualifying event, with Wendi scoring a stunning 77.94% in the C Pack FEI Grand Prix Freestyle to Music CDI 3* on Don Vito MH. The pair came oh-so-close to securing another qualifying score with 73.362% in the Grand Prix Special tracking for potential selection for the one Paris Olympics spot allocated to New Zealand Sports Listings (NZL).
At The Sydney CDI on May 1-4 Wendi and her horse Don Vito MH made a clean sweep against Australia’s best, winning the CDI3* FEI Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special and Freestyle. The Waimauku Kiwi combo started their event with a bang, taking the CDI3* FEI Grand Prix out on 71.065%, backing that up with 72.149% in the Grand Prix Special and finishing on a high with 75.175% in the Grand Prix Freestyle.
“Don Vito was just amazing,” she says of the gelding who has been with her since he was a foal.
“He had gone very well at Nationals (before they left) but this was completely different. “He was so much more together and powerful. It was definitely another level.”
Don Vito MH is still young and getting stronger, which means he is now able to maintain rhythm and balance with explosive energy for longer.
Elke Ebert, the German judge at The Sydney CDI, who had also judged at the FEI World Cup 2024 final, certainly seemed to like what she saw, awarding nines for the entrance halts at the beginning and end of the test, as well as eights for extended trot, passage, 2x tempi changes, and extended canter.
The extended trot is Don Vito MH’s favourite move and the crowd seemed to be awed by the as you could hear the ‘wows’ and see cameras flashing, which really lifted Don Vito MH even more.
“I feel really assured that the horse is good enough and that we are good enough because it’s not just the horse. I feel there is definitely more to come too,” says Wendi.
To top off an amazing season, Wendi recently won the prestigious ESNZ Rider of the Year award that was open to all equestrian riders in New Zealand, not just dressage. Wendi’s horse Don Vito MH won the ESNZ Horse of the Year award. He is owned by Wendi and Jon Williamson and bred by Matthews Hanoverians.