Young Riders dominate Dressage at #EGF15

Young Riders have dominated the Equestrian Grand Final for Dressage with the Young Rider team taking out the team’s event and youngest competitor Morgan Duell winning the individual Championship.

The second and final round of the 2015 Equestrian Grand Final for Dressage saw horse and rider combinations complete the Intermediate I Freestyle to Music. Crowds were treated to a quality afternoon of dressage in the middle of Adelaide, South Australia as the #EGF15 runs alongside the iconic Australian International Three Day Event for the first time.

Victorian rider Duell paired with mount Florinzz and performed a polished test which received a score of 69.417% from the judges to rank her first in the Freestyle. This combined with her second placing in Thursday’s Prix St Georges class saw her finish the Grand Final on equal points with South Australian rider Heather Currie who was first in the Prix St Georges and second in the Freestyle. Duell was declared the individual champion due to having the higher score in the Freestyle.

“You always go into a competition and hope (for the best). I just wanted a nice clean test and we got the best result that we could so I’m stoked," said Duell.

“Normally when we compete we don’t really have that much of an atmosphere so coming here to Adelaide has been so good and to have people happy to see you is really good."  

It was a double victory for the youngest rider in the field as she also celebrated winning the team championship with her team members Stuart Archibald (Vic) and Cooper Oborn (SA).

“It’s great as Young Riders to have the exposure of being named the winning team in the Equestrian Grand Final for Dressage,” said team captain Archibald.

“All three of us are pretty ambitious riders so hopefully this is a taste of things to come.”

Oborn said the crowd and atmosphere was a great motivation.

“It definitely makes you strive to be better and really go for it,” he said.

The Equestrian Grand Final continues at the Australian International Three Day Event with the Gow-Gates Exhibition Eventing on Saturday following the CCI4* Cross Country. And In the evening there will be a warm-up class for jumping riders ahead of the IRT Jumping Final which will be held on Sunday prior to the CCI4* Showjumping. 

Photo: Julie Wilson