One of the best parts of writing articles on competitors of the 2012 Australian Dressage Championships is that you discover that there are numerous up and coming riders who have the credentials and proven track record to become one of Australia's elite. Time and time again I have seen the name, Victoria Welch, appear on countless 'Result Pages' and also appear on numerous National Squad lists.
In 2005, this young rider started to win numerous Australian Championships in competitions from Novice to Small Tour. It was in 2010 that her results at the National Young Rider Championships was outstanding; winning the National Young Rider Champion in the Novice, Elementary and Intermediate I, not to mention the freestyle competitions or the Highest Scoring combination awards. She has represented Australia twice in the Trans Tasman Derby, won an Australian Qualifier for World Young Rider Championships (CDI-Y), and the list goes on.
She was on the Australian Young Rider Dressage Squad from 2005 to 2010 and more recently was on the Australian Youth Development Dressage Squad for 2011 and 2012 - pretty impressive for a 23 year old! A lot of this has been made possible because Victoria is lucky to have a mum (Libby Welch) who is an accomplished FEI competitor and trainer. She also has lessons with Leonie Bramall and Andreas Schoffner when they come to Australia.
With such an impressive history of competing, I was interested to know what she felt was her biggest achievement? " Winning the 2009 Youth Olympics Individual Dressage Gold medal and Team Silver medal was pretty cool," said Victoria with a grin from ear to ear. "Actually, 2009 was a great year, I was also the recipient of the Que Sera Hanoverian Young Rider Challenge. This year’s highlight was winning the 2012 Advanced tournament at both Brisbane and Sydney CDI on Glogau."
At this year's Australian Dressage Championships Victoria will be taking two horses: Bentanus, an 8-year old gelding by Brentano II out of Whoopy K, who will be competing in the small tour classes and Glogau, an Australian bred 9-year old mare by Gymnastik Star out of Kinnordy Grunau, who will be competing in the Advanced competitions.
As Australia is such a large continent, it's amazing the effort people go to to compete at events such as the nationals. Victoria has travelled from Queensland to Sydney a number of times. "We always have a lot of fun going to Sydney. The trip is long but we have a routine that we follow each time. The most important priority is to get the horses to and from Sydney safely and in good health. It takes us two days to make the trip, stopping every 3-4 hours to unload the horses and let them graze, rest etc. We usually take 2 friends to help groom, plus Lola the dog who likes to be part of the fun."
For 25 years, this family has run the very successful, Beechwood Stud, which specialises in performance horses as well as thoroughbreds. Although it is imperative that Australia imports high quality dressage horses, it is still great to see Australian bred horses doing well. When I raised this observations with Victoria, she had the best answer - "We've always had the saying “A good horse is a good horse no matter where you find them”.
Victoria has been lucky enough to train overseas. "I trained with Jorn Kubelke for a month in 2008 and Leonie Bramall for a month in 2009 in Germany which was fantastic. I had a ball! Hopefully I'll be able to do it again in the coming years.”
There are a number of horses that Victoria has trained to FEI level but this year is the first time she has trained a horse all the way through to Grand Prix - BJ Kaneto Casablanca. This horse won't be competing at this years Nationals but I'm sure he will be in the years to come.
From our brief conversation it was apparent that Victoria has no delusions of grandeur. "I know everyone says it but I really do want to thank the wonderful team of people behind Beechwood Dressage Horses, none of this would be possible without them."
Time will tell but it certainly won't be a surprise if this young lady becomes one of Australia's top international riders in the years to come - she's already doing so at a national level. I look forward to see what results she adds to her already impressive resume after the 2012 Australian Dressage Championships.
by Scott Pollock
Photos © Downunder Photography, JMS photography
Related Links
Australian Equestrian Federation Launches Young and FEI Pony Championships
Horse Owners Help Raise the Bar at the 2012 Australian Dressage Championships