Zaneta Skowronska Claims Third Title in Career at Polish Championships during 2022 CDI Bialy Las

-- by Agata Grosicka for Eurodressage

The 2022 edition of Polish Dressage Championships were hosted at the Wierzbna Biały Las Equestrian center, located in the very south-western part of Poland, on 1 - 4 September 2022. It was the second consecutive Polish Championships and the first CDI organized in that location.

Vanagaite Wins CDI Big Tour

The clear winners of the show are the winners of CDI Grand Prix and the combination that has recently been on winning spree - Justina Vanagaite representing Lithuania and nine year old Belgian warmblood horse Nabab (by Sir Donovan x Crack C). Having made a historic country debut at Herning 2022 and having won recently the CDI Samorin the Lithuanian rider has clearly booked herself a spot at next year World Cup Finals. Justina is on top of Central European ranking and on the 78^th position in the FEI World ranking published last Monday.

Polish Senior Dressage Team which represented the country at Herning 2022 (18^th position after team test) and definitely wanted to fight for much better results at home, all turned up in Biały Las bar one Herning contestant – Aleksandra Szulc and Breakdance.

Skowronska, 2022 Polish Grand Prix Champion

This time the victory and the title of the Polish Dressage Champion went to Żaneta Skowrońska and Romantic P (by Rosenstein x Furst Heinrich) – the combination which also scored highest in Denmark.  The runner up were the 2021 Champions – Katarzyna Milczarek and Guapo (by Xarme x Cruzado Portugues), the third spot on the podium went to Anna Mierzwińska and Dean Martin (by Diarado x Polydor).

Żaneta Skowrońska chose two horses to compete in Biały Las – Romantic P and Love Me (by Locksley II x Walt Disney). She landed them on first two positions in the Saturday second semi-final and decided to go for Romantic P in the final as her more experienced freestyle horse. The choice proved to be right as she ended up winning her third Polish Champion title in her sport career, for which she needed 20 years! She was the Polish Champion in 2001 and 2002 – both titles won with Goldamos.

“I’m really happy,” said Żaneta, “of course throughout those years I received other medals – Silver and Bronze ones, yet this golden medal is very special for me for a couple of reasons. Firstly – my beloved horse Love Me is back in game after four year break due to injury, secondly – Romantic did a fantastic job here. After Herning it is all just amazing, I’m speechless. I’ve chosen Romantic for the freestyle today because he’s more experienced yet Love Me surprised me here in a very positive way. They’re both very close to my heart. My competitors - Katarzyna Miliczarek and Anna Mierzwinska made sure that the fight went on to the very end. I’m also very proud of my young riders – Zosia Kaczmarek who won the Children class and Tatiana Bierieżnow who won the Silver in YR class.”

Halsall on the inaugural CDI Bialy Las

The 5* FEI judge Clive Halsall commented on the results of the show:

“Żaneta’s got two really good horses. They both look like they can develop more and putting those movements together I can only see them doing better and better. That’s a lot of harmony in her riding and a lot of horsemanship. She set a standard quite high today. Justina did a great job here and she has a young horse that still develops and needs more mileage. When competition fromthe  outside comes it’s a great opportunity to raise your game at home and only when being with the best you improve and develop."

Halsall continued, "I must say thank you to Paulina and the team for putting up incredible competition continued Clive – Polish championships and CDI and being able to create true international environment. It’s a huge plus for Polish dressage. You need venues like this with good infrastructure and facilities."

"The Grand Prix class showed that you’ve got some quality horses coming through and more riders coming up. None of them look like they’ve reached the end of their journey here. They look as if they could get more points and do even better given the opportunities and little bit more development."

"The logistics now for competing abroad are so expensive that if you have a venue like this you can really nurture the talent and the coming ones and give them the experience they need.  Being in the competition environment like this it only helps develop their talent – putting together frees styles and things like that. Sometimes you might not have the best quality of horses and we have to work with what we’ve got. And if they can ride a less able horse in a very good way and then when the opportunity comes you may get better horses. You just have to make the best of what you have available.”

Kowalski, Under 25 Champion

Filip Kowalski who won the U25 class riding Bel Fleur (by Boston x Warkant) and definitely represents the generation of young Polish dressage riders hungry for “being in the competition environment,” both in Poland and abroad,.

He commented on his victory:

“There are many things I’m satisfied with now at the end of the season, I like the fact that it all looks consistent now in general, not random elements. My last nine performances were at the stable level of 69-70% despite of earlier hiccups and minor mistakes. I’m not quite happy with my results at the Europeans in Hungary, yet I still have one year in U25 class to work and improve. I learned my lesson and here, a week later, I’m already trying to implement some corrections. In general I think that we as a team have improved significantly comparing to last year championships. I can see progress in all of us. It would be great if we managed to qualify as a team for the next Europeans.”

The runner up in this category was Aleksandra Lesner and Force (by Johnson x Quattro) and the Bronze Medalist – Klara Woznicka and Go Go Borneo (by Belstaff x Feiner Stern).

Young Generation Goes for Gold

The young generation of Polish dressage riders are those in the center of attention of the whole Polish dressage society, as they may eventually get a chance to successfully compete in the international dressage arena.

The winner of the Young Riders class was Maria Stelmaszczyk and Galapagos (by Quaterback x Argar). Maria can easily claim that so far 2022 has been the best year in her sport career. The silver medal went to Tatiana Bierieznow and her elegant mare Romantica (by Swarovski x Rotspon), and the bronze medal went to Julia Rozeslanska and Polish bred Saturn (by Lampart x Sauna).

The Junior class was the most numerous one with as many as 13 riders competing. It was Natalia Plata and Dolcetto (by Don Frederico x Wolkentanz) who took the clear win in the first semi-final and kept their dominance through all the tests scoring 75,042% in the Final. Natalia and Dolcetto are one of the most successful Polish dressage combinations competing internationally. The runner up in the class was Taja Zoll competing with two horses – Blacky (by Mikel x Marvel) and I’m a Dreamer van het Bloemenhof (by Dream Boy x Weltino) and the third one was Caroline Pawluk with Fatum (by Furst Hohenstein x Furst Heinrich).

The Children’s class was won by one of the most talented and the youngest Polish riders - Zofia Kaczmarek and her mare Lady Legende (by Gaspari x Riverman) who scored in the Final test 75,500%. The silver medal went to Juliana Przybyla and Foton (by Clavius x Fundament) and the bronze medal to Hanna Moczkowska and First William-P (by Ron William x Texel).

Bialy Las Is the Winner

And last but not the least – the clear winner of last weekend Polish Championships is the location itself which booked a spot on the map of Central European CDI’s.

The organizing committee is represented by Paulina Przybylska:

“Its’s the first CDI and the second Polish Championships organized in Biały Las. We’re happy with the number of entries from abroad, it was more than we expected. We’re also easy to find, our location is also an advantage. I’m also very happy with the positive feedback from Lithuanian riders -Sandra Sysojeva and Justina Vanagaite, their attitude and the fact that they raised the level of the game.

"We had as many as 16 riders in the Senior Championships category which is a lot.  It’s been a long way since 2005 when we started building Biały Las. We never expected back then that we would go that big. It took us quite a while to teach local community about the horses being here. We invited local authorities to come and see the show and to be the part of it. Once their engagement grew, it became easier to promote dressage in the area."

"In the beginning we never thought about creating and promoting our place as an international equestrian center. Organizing Polish Championships were like top of the game for us. Then we took a risk of organizing a CDI simply because it accompanies the Championships. We took our chances and now with the positive feedback from the riders and guests we know we’ll give it a second shot next year. Now we have to set up the date. With the support of many companies which want to promote dressage in Poland we know we can make it. It’s a learning process for me as an organizer of such an event. I already know what I would like to improve next year. “

-- Text by Agata Grosicka / Photos © Lukasz Kowalski

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