Australian Dressage Pioneer Glennis Barrey Passed Away

Dressage

Australia

Glennis Barrey, a pioneer for Australian dressage in the 1990s, has passed away following a decade long battle against cancer. She was 62 years old.

Horseworld Stadium

Glennis-Gay Barrey (née Scott) had a love for horses from the start and a family that supported her pursuits.

Glennis' father Donald-James Scott turned a 25 acre block of land at Maraylya, NSW into a horse hub known as Horseworld Stadium. It was officially opened by Captain Mark Phillips in 1985. John Bruderlin bought into the business and further developed the yard as his teenage daughter, Jennifer, had a passion for showjumping. In the 1990s it was a state of the art yard equal to almost any top notch facility overseas.

This venue hosted many championships, not only dressage but jumping and later in its life, rodeos. It was used in the filming of The Man from Snowy River. The facility sold again in 2017 to The Hills Shire council for $17.6 million.

Career Making Horses

With Leonardo at the 1989 Trakehner show in Oakville

Glennis quickly climbed the ranks of the dressage world and had two career making dressage horses, the 1980 born Hanoverian Leonardo 68 (by Lungau x Duft II x Abhang) and the 1976 born Westfalian Livius 28 (by Löwensohn x Durban x Aljan), which she found in Germany.

These horses belonged to a new batch of imported sport horses which were more modern than the first arrivals from Europe in the 70s and 80s. Livius had been competed in Germany by Sabine Michelswirth, Ludger Fölling, and Heinz Brüggemann sr. before selling to Australia. Leonardo was first shown in Germany by Brigitte Eilers.

"We found Livius, who was only a $15,000 horse, because the exchange rate was so good in those days," told The Horse Magazine. "He was just a normal horse, he came out of a riding school, he was eight years old. All he could do was go above the bit and late changes. I didn’t like the horse, he had no character – he had always been owned by a man, so he was used to ‘normal’ treatment. I wouldn’t say he was badly treated but he was one of many in that stable.”

Training in Germany

In the late 1980s Barrey made her first of two trips to Germany to train with Bimbo Peilicke and Udo Lange.

"I left Australia three days after my 21st birthday. A couple of years earlier, when I was seventeen, my dad had driven me down to Gert and Mary Donvig’s to do a clinic with ‘Bimbo’ Peilicke with my old first cross Quarter horse, Hinkler. We thought we were pretty good, we’d done a few years of pony club dressage, done very well, and I had already done a Prix St Georges, so I thought this was pretty easy. I went down there and I was rather horrified, it certainly brought me down to earth. That’s when I first met Bimbo. Then Gert Donvig won a scholarship and went over to Germany with Ron Patterson, and they connected with Berndt von Knesebeck who acted as our agent when I went to Germany. He was absolutely brilliant, he did all the paperwork for us, and he lined up a horse for lease as I was staying there for three months and he organized competitions for us to go to. I went to Bimbo’s right from the beginning and I was living in the Emshof hotel."

She continued, "Unfortunately he got me the wrong translations to some of the tests, so I rode different tests to the ones the judges were expecting. Of course it was doubly difficult when I didn’t understand what they were saying – I only knew the word ‘voltes’ – so it was pretty difficult in the beginning, but I got through it all. I ended up staying for three years, and I bought Livius."

About training with Udo Lange, Barrey said, "in the beginning that was very good. But Udo got a lot of horses in and he seemed to think ‘she hasn’t got a lot of money’ and I felt I was just pushed aside. He found Leonardo for me. In some ways Leonardo was good because you can learn from all horses, Leonardo had a lot of promise but he was a strong stallion and in the end he just got more clever than me. He just worked his way out of working hard.”"

Pioneer

Glennis belonged to the tiny group of Australian dressage pioneers in the 1990s.

Her rise to success began in 1990 when she won the Pacific League World Cup title on Leonardo, but did not travel the World Cup final in s’Hertogenbosch.

Aboard Livius she was a member of the historic first ever Australian Dressage Team that competed at the 1990 World Equestrian Games in Stockholm. She finished 62nd in the Grand Prix in a field of 68 competitors. As a team Australia was 13th out of 15 participating nations. Her team mates were Rozzie Ryan (Stirling Wilton xx), Peter John Weston (Tutenkhamen), and Gillian Rickards (Peaches and Cream). She married Simon Barrey. In 1992 Glennis became the first Australian to actually ride at a World Cup final, placing 12th out of 12 at the Finals in Gothenburg aboard.

In 2005 she served on the EA Appointment panel in 2005.

Her third Grand Prix horse was Belcam Gaucho (by Grannus II out of Otrichta), which she showed at international big tour level in 2003 and 2004, followed by Trakehner mare GB Saffron (by Elfenglanz x Chestillion xx x Kiwi Lad) who became Australian Horse of the Year in 1996 and went on to be a broodmare.

Glennis' last international dressage horse was Classico II, an Australian warmblood by Calypso Classic out of HP Lavender. She showed him internationally from 2007 till 2010 at a handful of CDI's in Australia, her last being Sydney in April 2010. She won the Grand Prix Special with 61.625%

Trainer

Glennis retired from top sport and started up a business in Beechworth. She did some small scale breeding with GB Saffron, who produced Gary Lung's Grand Prix horse GB Winchester (by Weltmeyer) and dressage horse turned show hunter GB William (by Weltmeyer). Glennis also bred with mare Classique, the full sister to Classico II.

She returned to national competition but mainly taught and shared the wisdom and expertise she had garnered over the years as one of the few Australians competing in Europe.

Glennis was an EA Level 3 Dressage Coach inspiration to so many of EA’s current Coaches and Dressage Riders, who are now sharing their learnings on to the next generations of Australian riders.

"Glennis had a special knack for demanding the best from riders and she loved horses, devoting her life to understanding and training them," Australian Nicole Tough wrote. "She was the epitome of strength, courage and wisdom."

Glennis leaves behind her family and daughter Georgina Barrey (28), a Show Horse rider.