Parbery on a roll at Nationals

Brett Parbery has staked his claim on the Grand Prix Championship at the Saddleworld Australian Dressage Championships after winning Friday’s Grand Prix CDI-W, held in the indoor area at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre.

On his way to victory Parbery and his horse DP Weltmieser achieved a personal best Grand Prix score of 70.820 – it is the first time this combination has earned over 70 percent in the Grand Prix.

Parbery’s success didn’t end there and he followed up his victory with Longvue Florenco in Thursday’s Prix St George by also winning today’s Intermediate I.

“I’ve got great horses so that helps but you still have to get in there and do the job,” said Parbery.

Of DP Weltmieser Parbery said the best is still to come.

“He’s a consistent horse so I think that we can be in that early 70s. I need to let him get better naturally, let him get stronger and he has to get more confident as he’s still a little uncertain in parts.”

With her score of 70.380% Mary Hanna riding Umbro finished second to Parbery in the Grand Prix. Maree Tomkinson riding Diamantina placed third with a score of 69.120%.

The IRT FEI Young Rider Team Test was won by Youth Recognition Squad member Elloise Devlin. The Queensland rider partnered with her home bred horse Brimstone Anakiwa to win this class for the second consecutive year. The combination’s score of 70.947% was a marked improvement on the 67.36% which they scored last year and was more than three percent ahead of second placed combination Tayla Desmet and Rodrigo III.

“I was thrilled with my test,” said Devlin. “Yesterday he was quite tense, he doesn’t like this (indoor) arena as much so today we went with a new tactic and warmed up in a different spot. He came out and he relaxed so I got awesome scores from the judges which was really great.

“It was such an awesome class with so many high quality riders in it. It is such an honour to compete and have the judges that we do and even more of an honour to win it.”

The Advanced Championship was won by Elliot Patterson and Boronia HG after the pair won the Advanced 5.2 and finished second in the Advanced 5.3. Deon Stokes riding Don Dancer was declared reserve champion and he also won the Equestrian NSW CDN riding Royal Oak II.

The Intermediate B class was won by David Mckinnon (Johnny Depp) who scored 67.750%. The withdrawal of Brett Parbery and PPH Zeppelin from this class left the door open for Mckinnon to take out the Medium Tour Championship and his second place finish in Thursday’s Intermediate A combined with his result from Friday’s Intermediate B helped to clinch the overall title. Nicole Tough was Reserve Champion.

Results