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After competing at the NSW Pony Dressage Championships with my purebred arabian gelding, Craigrannoch Park Destiny, I was approached by Nell Marshman to write an article for the Arabian Horse News. I was delighted to be given this opportunity and decided it would be a great opportunity to also write about Destiny's half sister, Craigrannoch Park Aria who is now competing dressage for Riding for the Disabled. Here's what I had to say:
I have been competing with Arabians and Arabian Derivatives for about 27 years in various disciplines including halter, hacking, dressage, costume and harness and have also been involved with various committees during that time although over the past 8 years I have been devoted to dressage with the occasional donning a period costume to compete in a Concourse de Elegance (harness event). I currently have 3 horses in dressage training, 1 green broke, 1 at Preliminary Level and my now 17yo Arabian gelding, Craigrannoch Park Destiny (Cherox Iqtamma x Hammamas Egyptian Pilgrim).
Destiny had a slow start ot his perofmrance career. After being broken in I decided to turn him out for a while to enable him to mature mentally and physically. He was then lightly shown in halter and performance, winning several titles including National Champion Senior Arabian Gelding and top 5 East Coast Under Saddle.
At the age of 9, Destiny's training and career took a new turn when I started competing dressage. The initial transformation from a basically educated hack to a dressage horse, in a mental and physical sencse, was the hardest and most time consuming part of his education. I kept him at the lower levels of Preliminary and Novice for several years before taking the plunge into Elementary. By this stage things were really starting to fall into place. Destiny was competing in open competitions at the time and I was delighted to win Reserve Champion Open Elementary at Alexander Park Dressage Championships with a score of 73%. Destiny was later EFA Registered and offically measured for Pony Dressage.
It was at this time that I started getting lessons from Christine Crawford. At my first lesson Christine said to me "what do you want to achieve". I said "I want myself and Destiny to progress up the levels as far as we are capable of going". Christine could see Destiny's potential and said "by the end of the year you will be doing Advanced" and that is exactly what we did.
Thanks to the help of Christine, I have now progressed to Prix St Georges and Intermediate 1 and we can be spotted at most of the lcoal events around the Hutner Valley with mum and her pony Con (Kaludah Concerto).
Mum and I make a little team helping each other at home and at competitions, learning our tests and tacking up etc. so when mum said she wanted to compete at the NSW State Pony Dressae Championships I had to accompany her. I entered Destiny in the small Tour, afterwards realizing that I couldn't carry a whip! however Destiny and I performed at our best in the SIEC indoor arena scoring 61.3% in Prix St Georges and 59.9% in Intermediate 1 winning the champion small tour.
Destiny was the first horse I bred myself. I remember saving up the money for the service fee and now together we are training the Grand Prix movements, the movemetns that Warmbloods are purpose bred to do! Yes, it has taken a long time to get here and I have had many set backs along the way but I never gave up. I am very proud of what I have achieved with Destiny, mainly from a training point of view. I have won many titles along the way however it's the training that really drives me.
It also gives me pleasure to tell you about Destiny's older half sister, Craigrannoch Park Aria (Picadilly Tarenia x Hamamas Egyptian Pilgrim).
Aria has been a most trustworthy little mare. I competed her under saddle from the age of 3 in various disciplines including hacking, dressage, costume, trail riding and even a season of fox hunting, which turned out to be riding to hounds as we never saw a fox. It really was quite an experience riding with a pack of baying hounds and very intimidating for the horse but Aria took it all in her stide. The scenery and atmosphere on those early winter mornings were exhilarating. I recall my first "stirrup cup" - the gathering and glass of sherry before setting out on the hunt. Being a cheap drunk I decided to stick to orange juice for the rest of the season!!
After moving onto younger horses, my mum decided that she would like to have a go at competing (rather than being my groom) and Aria was perfect for mum to learn on. She commenced having lessons and competing in hacking and local dressage competitions, the highlight being the 2005 Masters Games where she won 7 gold and 1 silver medal.
After mum moved onto a new pony, Aria was retired to the paddock however after discussions with Isabel Taylor, it was decided to test Aria's ability for Riding for the Disabled. At the age of 19 and after two months spelling in the paddock Aria was brought in, tacked up and passed the preliminary try out in flying colours, and so it was decided to donate her to RDA as a dressage horse.
RDA are thrilled to have an educated, honest and safe horse and it gives me great pride to think this little mare that we bred and trained is giving joy to three special riders, Jordan Brown age 12, Debbie Telfro age 21 and her main competitive rider Michelle Dalmazzo age 24.
Aria is a perfect RDA mount. She is 14.2hh, dressage trained, execeptionally light on the aids and she adjusts herself to her riders ability. She has given Debbie the confidence to ride without assistance and has given Michelle the opportunity to move from B grade up to A grade, a huge confidence boost for her while Jordan is hopefully awaiting the news that he will be accepted to compete at Sydney Royal.
Without doubt and despite all the accolades mum and myself won with Aria, the crowning moment in this mare's career was winning Grade 3, Section A, State RDA Reserve Champion with Michelle at SIEC.
Aria is aboslutely adored by everyone at RDA. She is so well cared for by the volunteers and I am happy in my decision to donate her to such a worthy cause and would encourage others to also consider the RDA for their super safe retirees as they are short of suitable competitive horses.
Suzanne Laidler
Me riding Destiny in the Prix St Georges at Hunter Valley Dressage
Mum riding Aria at the 2005 Masters Games
Michelle riding Aria at 2011 RDA State Championships
See what our members are doing out there. Send in pictures and results of what you have been acheiving. Other achievements other than equestrian will be most welcome.
