Seasons Magazine
Dedication Pays Dividends for Dressage Devotee
Wendi Wiliamson is one dresage rider to watch – with some big goals in her sights she is already making a mark on the New Zealand competition circuit.
With a work ethic that would rival most multi-sport fanatics. Wendi combines her family life (she has two children aged 6 and 7), with a full time career as an environmental engineer along with dressage - competing three horses, Watergate at Advanced, Lexurious at Level 2 and DejaVu MH at Level 1. “Dressage is a sport to me not just a hobby. I really enjoy achieving each rung that makes up the long ladder on the way to Grand Prix. I love the discipline and the mental as well as physical challenge of the training.”
Wendi’s dedication to the sport is evident, she trains her horses each morning before work and says the horses get little time off each year. “They need to keep being worked in order to retain their muscle tone and during the off season to learn new movements and improve on aspects of their schooling.” She admits juggling it all can prove challenging at times but says her family is very supportive.
Wendi stumbled on horses accidently. Coming from a non-horsey family it was an old school teacher in Taranaki (Maureen Drylie) that got Wendi involved when she gave her a horse to ride and compete on. From there Wendi says she was ‘bitten by the bug’. Initially Wendi used to event but was introduced to dressage when living in Australia. “I was keeping my horse at an agistment yard in Terry Hills that was full of dressage horses and when I came back to New Zealand I did a few horse trials but found I wasn’t that keen on galloping anymore – so turned to dressage - I think having the kids assisted with that process!”
Wendi has just finished another impressive competition season on Watergate – winning the World Dressage Challenge at Prix St George level and picking up Reserve Champion at the Horse of the Year. “These were real highlights as we were new to this level of competition and competing against some very seasoned campaigners at this grade.” Along the way the pair also won a number of champion and reserve champion titles at regional competitions. The season culminated in a trip to the Sydney CDI and while Wendi says they didn’t go as well as she would have liked it to it was a great learning experience. “It was a fantastic experience and showed me what I have to do to step up to that level. I was pleased with Watergate – he probably lacked some energy and this is something we will work on.”
“This season I am aiming Watergate at the top level of our sport - Grand Prix. It is an incredible journey to train a horse from nothing to Grand Prix. The achievement of training your horse to canter across a diagonal doing 15 one times changes is a challenge and thrill”. Wendi trains at regular intervals with Coralie Williams and Andrea Raves and takes part in the national squad training sessions held twice a year with Hubertus Hufendiek from Germany. “It is great to train with someone of this calibre as it shows you the level of intensity they work at in Europe and this really helps a lot and makes you lift your game.”
Watergate is a NZ Warmblood that was originally owned by Wendi’s vet Phil Robinson and although he wasn’t purpose bred she says he is showing the ability and temperament to achieve at the higher levels and they are now setting the London Olympics 2012 in their sights. “I think to train well you need to have goals, and the World Equestrian Games and Olympics are the pinnacle of our sport. I love watching the new dressage star horse Moorlands Totilas – he is an absolute freak but he really gives you a goal of achieving, a vision of how dressage should look and is something to aspire to.”
Chaff
Feeding Out
