Catching up with Caitlin Radford at the 2016 Dressage Champs

We had met the Tasmanian rider almost a year ago, in December, at the Dressage Festival in Werribee, focusing on her Olympic hopes. She is today competing at the National Dressage Championships in Sydney.

'Jay' (Callum Park Starbucks) was feeling rather fresh this morning, we rode in a snaffle. The test looked a lot better than I thought it felt – which was good – and we got a 65.9% which was fair for the test, and then we did the individual which felt heaps better. We put him back in the double and he was much happier. Much more on my aids which was good – and we got a 66.9%. I’ve only really been riding this horse for about a year now. We owned him longer but he injured himself when we first bought him, so he was out for quite a while.

I’m year 12 this year so I have to go home and do exams after this, so it’s been a busy year. We did the Sydney CDI which was up here and then we had Interschool Nationals here a couple weeks ago which went really well, we won National Inter 1 Champion and National Reserve Prix St Georges Champion so that was a good show – and now we’re here!

In 2017 I’m planning on coming up here to the mainland and just sort of focusing on riding for a year. I’ll probably go to my coach, Susan Elekessy at Callum Park. I’ll base there and bring Jay up and stay there and compete up here for a while which will be nice

It will definitely feel like a big step up to be able to compete in more major competitions on the mainland. And of course just keep working on finding all the buttons and hopefully work our way up from there.