Four years of hard work will pay off for Broulee student Isabella Wall, when she represents the state at the Australian Interschool Championships in Toowoomba next month.
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Isabella, currently completing her HSC at St. Peters Anglican College, will ride in both the senior novice and elementary dressage events.
After growing up in Sydney, Isabella moved to Broulee five years ago, and it was then that she started training for the dressage.
Isabella will ride 12-year-old Phoenix at the event, a buckskin gelding that she purchased after her move with money that she had been saving up since the age of six.
“Since seeing The Man from Snowy River, she (Isabella) has always dreamed of owning a buckskin coloured horse.” Said Isabella’s mother Emma.
“We did everything wrong in the horse world: bought a horse unseen and based on colour.”
However, the union between horse and rider wasn’t always a perfect one.
"He (Phoenix) has been a challenge,” said Emma. “They were both uneducated, but a local lady Hetty Munda has been mentoring and teaching them from scratch for the last four years.”
“She is so lucky to have had the dedication from Hetty.”
Considering the challenges involved with dressage, to have the horse ready in a short four years is a great achievement for Isabella.
And although this is an amazing achievement, there are some challenges involved.
Isabella will need to organize transport for both herself and Phoenix for the 14-hour trip to the Darling Downs region.
And the timing could be better for Isabella’s school calendar.
“The event falls following her trail exams, and two weeks before the commencement of her final exams.” Emma told us.
And Isabella will be wanting a good HSC score, as her love of horses looks set to shape her career after school, as she hopes to study veterinary science.
The Interschool Championships run from the 26th to the 29th of September.
According to Equestrian Australia: “In Dressage competitions, horse and rider perform a series of predetermined movements, known as ‘figures’ or “movements” in an arena of either 20x60 metres or occasionally 20x40 metres.”
“The arena has 12 lettered markers placed symmetrically indicating where movements are to start and finish and where changes of pace or lead are to occur. In all competitions, the horse has to show the three paces: walk, trot and canter as well as smooth transitions within and between these paces. At Grand Prix level very collected movements such as Piaffe and Passage are required.”
