Ellis Brook Training Centre

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Perth, WA
Ellis Brook Training Centre

Ellis Brook is nestled at the foot of the Darling Range, just 25 minutes from the
centre of Perth. Ellis Brook holds regular clinics throughout the year.
(5)

It caters for riders who want to improve their Dressage and
Jumping technique for competition or recreation. Ellis Brook is a well appointed centre with an excellent floodlit river sand enclosed arena, a full set of showjumps and a wide variety of cross country obstacles. Flanked by beautiful bushland in Ellis Brook Valley Reserve, the atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, with safety a priority at

all times. Wendy Barker is a highly experienced EA NCAS Level 2 Coach & Coach Educator. Having expertise in riding, coaching and judging - covers the 3 sides of the triangle. She is on the WA Dressage Squad & has trained 3 of her horses to FEI level. She is currently competing Prix St George & Inter I on Ellis Brook Lorenzo whom she purchased as a green 6 year old and brought on. She is fortunate to train with the very best trainers - Harry Boldt and Lone Jorgensen. Wendy is one of 2 FEI 4* PE Dressage Judges in Australia, and has judged and coached interstate and overseas on a number of occasions. Central in her approach to training is respect for the horse and developing trust.

14/11/2024

If you want fresh ideas on how to approach poles and small to medium sized jumps with good rhythm, balance and impulsion, grab a copy of the latest Hoofbeats Magazine.

Lots of other great articles in this edition!

Hoofbeats is available from newsagents, selected saddlery and stockfeed stores across Australia and New Zealand, and from https://hoofbeats.com.au/

21/10/2024

Many thanks to Jacqui Moon, Cynthia Bailey, Amy Morris and the rest of the Swan River Dressage Committee for organising a really friendly Members’ Championships yesterday.

!Thank you to my amazing husband John for all his help on the day, and to Barbara Carle for plaiting Max beautifully. Thank you to Hazel Hikins for great comments on Max’s tests, such a shame the pilot got lost once again!!!

Thank you to Jess Fortescue for riding Max 5 times over the last 2 weeks to keep him fit while my back slowly mends, and to Michelle from Bodyfixit for repairing my back enough to allow me to ride.

It was great to see so many horses wearing embroidered rugs and rosettes for all the EA classes!

Thank you to Acresafe for supporting the event and for my bottle of Prosecco. It was a super opportunity to ride Max indoors again.

29/09/2024

Remember to put in your entry for our very friendly Dressage in the Grove - entries close next Sunday - 6th October!

23/09/2024

The NT Team fielded its biggest ever Australian Interschools Championships Team this year – 14 riders and 15 horses (mostly pool horses), many riders competing in Dressage, Combined Training, and Jumping, so the days kept everyone very busy.

The Northern Territory asked World Cup Showjumper Becky Jenkins (Queensland) and myself to coach their Interschools Team in Tamworth this year. I thoroughly enjoyed being there to help the riders, and I know Becky did as well.

This very small NT Team of 14 punched well above its weight, and most impressively, was awarded the EA Interschools Award for teams of 50 riders or fewer. They were on the prizegiving podium every day, and won rosettes and ribbons in all disciplines!

Most of NT’s riders were riding borrowed (pool) horses, so they had just one day to get to ride a completely new and different horse before competition started, and for many, this was their first ever major championship event. This meant the riders were on a huge learning curve, and I was really impressed with the way they adapted their riding to suit their borrowed horse!

All the riders were fantastic – they were all so enthusiastic and supportive of each other. That made a huge difference since the heat and humidity in NT mean most NT riders are limited in how many events they can ride in each year at home, and most had little or no experience of competing at such a long and big event.

There were 490 horses stabled there, and 450 riders, so hats off to the organising committee from Queensland for running such a massive show! The Tamworth Centre is a very well-appointed equestrian venue with some super surfaces for the horses.

NT Team Manager Karen Ruzsicska did an amazing job, handling the ups and downs of the event with magnificent aplomb. NT Team Captain Bridie McKenna was just an amazing captain, donning NT’s legendary crocodile suit for prizegiving each night as well as outlasting every other captain on the bucking mechanical horse, and riding a fabulous clear round to place fourth in the 1.10m class yesterday on her own Hisashowman.

The 3 teams from the Eastern seaboard all rode their own horses, and each team had large numbers representing their state – 140 riders for Victoria alone, so NSW, Qld & Vic enjoyed a lot of success.

Some of the NT Team’s successes included:

Hayley - Reserve Champion Intermediate Prelim Dressage on Wellbrook Top Deck
Bailey – 3rd in the Primary 80cm & 4th in the 70cm Showjumping on Highland Calypso
Bridie – 5th in the Secondary 1.10m Showjumping on Hisashowman
Kiya – 5th in Secondary 90cm Showjumping on Sunland Amber Diamond
Georgia - 5th in the 90cm Secondary Showjumping on Whizkey N Diamons
Layne - 5th in the Secondary 1m Showjumping – Timmy - Mutimers Alchemy
Alia - 7th 80cm Showjumping - Que Bella
Brooke - Cavaleira Equestrian special prize for lovely horsemanship

Other stars for the NT were -
Caitlin on Celtic Falcon
Gabi on Music Man
Reece on Henry Hubert
Maya on Last Minute Decision
Lindsey on Rosedale Farm Willow
Grace on Nowimback Night Acre

04/08/2024

What a brilliant final day of Olympic Dressage we had today! Freestyle is my favourite, and there were so many absolutely wonderful tests today, I did not envy the judges having to separate them!

John took pics of some of his favourite horses and riders, but couldn’t take his eyes off 2 truly amazing tests to click his camera – Jessica von Bredow Werndl’s Dalera (Germany) Gold Medal Test (90.093%) and Isabell Werth’s Silver Medal Test on Wendy (89.614%) – both very special partnerships.

Carl Hester on Fame produced another unforgettable and truly harmonious Freestyle (85.161%) at his fifth Olympics (let’s hope he comes back in 4 years’ time to LA even though he said this was his last Olympics).

Lottie Fry did a great job on Glamourdale for Bronze (88.971%), even though she said didn’t expect to be in the placings after a few little mistakes snuck in. She said ‘Yesterday was a very long day for him, with the prizegiving, then a doping test, then the Vet Inspection earlier today, a long weekend for the horses…’ she said she didn’t watch the tests that followed hers, she was just happy with her ride, “I couldn’t be more proud of him”.

Becky Moody really wowed the crowd with her swanky Tom Jones music - extended trots to ‘Sex Bomb’ - on her home bred Jagerbomb, a really high risk program starting with a double canter pirouette on the centreline, immediately into tempi changes, and later going straight from 2 time changes into one time changes, but the risks were well-calculated, they all came off (except perhaps the very brief halts as the crowd went completely nuts at the end! This was a PB for the gelding (84.357%) who is only a 10 year old (GB)!

Dinja van Liere on Hermes 988.432%) (Netherlands), Daniel Bachmann Anderson on Vayron (84.850%)(Denmark), and Isabel Freese on her lovely Totilas (83.050%) (Norway) all presented some gorgeous parts in their tests.

John and I head home tomorrow, it is going to take some time to come down from the high of being here in Paris for an absolutely spellbinding Olympic Games! Fingers crossed that our Aussie Showjumping Team, Edwina Tops-Alexander, Thaisa Erwin and Hilary Scott have great rides in the Individual Jumping Qualifier so we can cheer them on in the Individual Jumping Final!

03/08/2024

Thank zgod we got here - roads closed cos of bomb scare - no bus! walked/ ran 5 kms to get here just in time for Jayden!!!

02/08/2024

In the Olympic Showjumping, it was tough to get through the Team Jumping Qualifier to the Team Final. Twenty teams were vying for the 10 team spots.

To make the cut, the qualifying score was 20 penalties, and to their credit, all 3 riders in our Aussie Team came in under the very tight time over the big, technical course. The Team accrued 36 jumping penalties between them, so sadly, they did not make the Team Final.

We now wait, hoping Edwina Tops-Alexander, Thaisa Erwin and Hilary Scott will all make the cut for the Individual Jumping Final for Australia next week.

It was another very hot humid day yesterday - we had a wonderful 6 hour tour of the Palace of Versailles Gardens - rode the 3.6km Grand Canal (first time I've been on a bike for a long time!) and to the absolutely charming Estate of Trianon - built by Marie Antoinette ass place of refuge from court life with her close friends.
On golf carts we saw amazing fountain displays engineered hundreds of years ago, enjoyed some of the 20 unique amphitheatres hidden away in of the 20,000 acres of parkland, and picnicked with the lovely group at Emperor Napoleon's spectacular 'weekender' Palace of Trianon.

31/07/2024

So delighted that Australia qualified in the top ten Dressage Teams!

Congratulations to Simone Pearce and Destano today for achieving the fantastic score of 70.171% (72.065% from the Judge at F) and to Will Matthews and Mysterious Star for a wonderful score of 69.953% (71.196% from the Judge at F), adding to Jayden Brown’s Quincy B’s great score of 68.991% (70.761% from the Judge at H), from yesterday to book Australia a spot for Saturday in the Team Dressage Final!

All 3 of our riders rode beautifully and produced really harmonious tests – such a pleasure to watch!

Some of the other highlights were Jessica von Bredow-Werndl’s top scoring 82.065% on Dalera, Carl Hester and Fame’s 77.345% test, Catherine Laudrup-Dufour’s second highest scoring test (80.792%), as well as Lottie Fry’s 78.913% test on Glamourdale and Isabell Werth’s 79.363% test on Wendy.

We’ll be cheering from the stands on Saturday as the Aussie Team ride the GP Special -

• Jayden and Quincy at 10:00am
• Will and Mysterious Star at 11:55am
• Simone and Destano at 1:55pm

The other teams who qualified are – Finland, Austria, France, Belgium, Sweden, Netherlands, Great Britain, Denmark and Germany. Five teams did not qualify – USA, Canada, Spain, Portugal and Poland.

30/07/2024

Wow it was a hot one today - 35 degrees in the shade, and much much more in the sun! Many many spectators filled their hats up with the cold running water (provided for water bottle refills) and simply poured it over themselves repeatedly as it was very hot in the stands.

The horses in the dressage seemed to cope well, but it would be interesting to know if the riders changed how long they felt they should warm up for, or if they felt the heat had an impact on some scores.

Jayden Brown was our only Aussie rider today, he started well, we were excited as it was looking like he was going to get 70% and more, but Quincy B is only 10 years old, and in the transition back from extended canter, there was a misunderstanding and instead of one flying change, he did several. In the one time changes he had a second expensive mistake. These 2 disruptions brought his score back to a final mark of 68.991%, such a shame as he did some lovely work.

29/07/2024

It was such a thrill to watch Chris Burton ride Ben Hobday’s Shadow Man in the morning in the Team Showjumping (they were clear, with 0.40 time penalties as the time was very tight), then in the afternoon to an Individual Silver Medal for Australia! [In the Individual Jumping, they added nothing to their morning total of 22.40 - 22.00 Dressage Penalties and the 0.40 from his jumping.]

Any penalties for the Individual Jumping in the afternoon are added to the penalties accrued in the Team Jumping in the morning, so at the lunch break, Chris was lying just 0.60 behind Germany’s Michael Jung who was on 21.80. Michael Jung is a dual gold Medallist from the London Olympics, and won Gold and Silver from Rio. Credit to Michael, he rode a flawless Individual round. Chris also rode a magnificent Individual round, meaning both riders ended up finishing on their morning scores, with Michael winning the gold!

Chris said of Shadow Man, “I’m blessed to get to ride a horse like that, I spotted him years ago. I always knew he was good, I tried to buy him twice, isn’t he a machine, isn’t he a delight… I honestly can’t believe it!”

The backdrop for the equestrian stadium is truly majestic with the Grand Canal leading all the way back to the magnificent Palace of Versailles.

Tomorrow is Day 1 of the Grand Prix - can't wait!

Jayden Brown and Quincy B are sixth in the Group A Start List for Australia
Will Matthews from WA and Mysterious Star are third in the Group F Start List
Simone Pearce and Destano are sixth in the Group G Start List for for Australia

Carl Hester and Fame are tenth in the Group A Start List for GB
Lottie Fry and Glamourdale are first in the Group E Start List for GB
Becky Moody and Jagerbomb are ninth in the Group D Start List for GB

Isabell Werth on Wendy are tenth in the Group E Start List for Germany

28/07/2024

There certainly were plenty of changes in the Team and Individual rankings after the Cross Country today!

Chris Burton and Shadow Man are definitely medal contenders in the Individual, they’re lying third on 22.0, with Michael Jung (Germany) in the lead on 17.8, so just 4.2 the difference, and Laura Collett (GB) lying second on 18.03, so a mere 3.5 the difference, that is less than a single rail coming down (4 faults)! We’ll be cheering for them.

Shane Rose and Virgil are on 37.4, adding just 2.8 time penalties to their Dressage score - an incredible feat for a guy who couldn’t remember anything after a serious concussion, & couldn’t walk 4 months ago, after a horse fell on him when jumping! He’s currently lying 23rd, as Shane said “Virgil you are a star! Let’s hope Virgil is a star again tomorrow!

Kevin McNab had a great ride for most of his Cross Country, then retired Don Quidam before he finished, owing to an injury to the horse. To his credit, he put his horse’s welfare before his own potential success. This meant Australia accrued very costly penalty points, to end up on 294.3, along with other teams including Italy (on 229.1), Germany (on 278.9) and Poland (on 391.1).

In the Team rankings, Great Britain is lying first on 82.5, France is nipping at their heels on 87.2, and Japan is lying third on 93.8, with Switzerland fourth on 102.4 and Belgium fifth on 111.0.

Team USA, in spite of ex-Aussie Boyd Martins’ very competitive score of 32.1, finished the day in ninth position, on a Team Score of 128.5, behind New Zealand, Sweden and Ireland.

Remember that Chris Burton was also shortlisted for the Australian Showjumping Team for Paris, in fact he was close to a hair’s breadth from selection on 2 of his horses.

John and I can’t wait to be in the stands in Versailles to watch the Eventing Showjumping tomorrow!

We are hoping Chris can give the spectators a masterclass in showjumping in both his Team and Individual Showjumping rounds.

28/07/2024

Today is Cross Country day for the Paris Olympic Eventers!

The Cross Country starts in 30 minutes.

There's been a fair bit of rain over the last few days, so the going may well get heavy, and be a factor, impacting on time, especially for the horses that are later in the day. Fingers crossed Australia will be able to move up from their current Team ranking of 8th, being 25.9 penalty points behind GB in the lead, 17.4 behind Germany, lying second, and 9.3 behind third placed France.

There are likely to be some changes in the Team and Individual rankings after the Cross country today, at present the team rankings are:

All 3 riders for Great Britain’s Team are in the top 11 scores, so Britain starts the day with a lead of 7.4 penalties. Laura Collett for Great Britain on London 52 is leading the field on 17.3, a record score in Olympic Eventing Dressage!

Michael Jung for Germany was awarded a few 10s, and is close on her heels on second position on Chipmunk FRH on 17.8, just 0.5 behind...

Australia’s Chris Burton on 14 year old Shadow Man is lying equal third on 22 penalties. Chris followed Michael Jung into the dressage arena, and the crowd cheered wildly as Michael Jung left the arena, “Normally he’s a very relaxed horse, but he was on his toes [after that],” said Chris, but then Shadow Man came back to him, “showing what a lovely gentleman he is”, giving credit to Ben Hobday who trained the horse from the get go.

Shane Rose on Virgil (who is 19 years old) is lying mid-field (38th) on a score of 34.6 for Australia. Emblematic of his incredible grit and determination, Shane has made a remarkable recovery from horrific injuries 4 months ago when he had a young horse fall on him. He sustained 19 fractures to his pelvis, femur, ribs and elbow as well as severe concussion. He was wheelchair bound to begin with, and had to do a huge amount of rehab, including learning how to walk again. Already a 3 time Olympic medallist, Paris was always Shane’s goal, and this really motivated him to do his utmost to get there. “I was happy with parts of the test … it was disappointing he kicked up in the second change … they gave us a very short amount of time to get into the arena, and the stewards were in my way, so I started on the back foot…dressage is not my strong suit in this horse, so I’m excited for the next couple of days,” said Shane.

Very close behind Shane on 34.8 penalties is Australia’s Kevin McNab, (lying 41st of the 64 riders). Along with Shane Rose and Andrew Hoy, Kevin was part of the silver medal winning Eventing Team in Tokyo.

Chris Burton won a Team Bronze at Rio in 2016, finished 16th individually in the London Olympics in 2012, and has won 3 5* Events including Burghley Horse Trials won Adelaide 2009, 2013, and Gatcombe 2015, as well as the Event Rider Masters Leaderboard Winner in 2018 and 2019 (CCI4*-S series), and after being selected for Tokyo Olympics, had to withdraw because his horse had a minor injury.

1. Great Britain 66.6
2. Germany 74.1
3. France 81.2
4. New Zealand 83.0
5. Japan 87.4
6. USA 88.9
7. Switzerland 89.6
8. Australia 91.5
9. Netherlands 93.7
10. Belgium 100.6
11. Ireland 102.7
12. Brazil 103.4
13. Sweden 104.3
14. Canada 106.4
15. Poland 109.9
16. Italy 152.3

Security continues to be a high priority for the Games, we saw many groups of 6 mounted police horses in Paris, in Versailles, many gendarmes, but we haven't seen any mounted police yet.

23/07/2024

Charlotte DujardinIMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Dujardin won team and individual gold medals at the London 2012 Games on horse Valegro
Published
23 July 2024, 15:38 BST
Updated 37 minutes ago
Charlotte Dujardin, Britain's joint-most decorated female Olympian, has pulled out of Paris 2024 after a video emerged showing her "making an error of judgement".
The six-time dressage medallist said she was under investigation from the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI) and would "withdraw from all competition while this process takes place".
The 39-year-old also said she was under investigation from the British Equestrian Federation and British Dressage.
"What happened was completely out of character and does not reflect how I train my horses or coach my pupils, however there is no excuse," she said in statement.
"I am deeply ashamed and should have set a better example in that moment."
Dujardin said the video was "filmed four years ago" and she was "devastated to have let everyone down".
BBC Sport has not seen the video in question and it is currently unclear what the nature of the investigation is.
Sources have told BBC Sport the video was submitted directly to the FEI.

09/07/2024

John and I thoroughly enjoyed being part of another fantastic Hartpury Festival of Dressage in beautiful Gloucestershire when we arrived in the UK just over a week ago, thanks so much to Phillip and the team for inviting us back once more!

The program is huge – it encompasses the CPEDI3* for which I was part of the Ground Jury, the CDI3* including some really super Grand Prix and Inter I Freestyles, Premier League Prix St Georges to Grand Prix, Premier League Young Horse and Young Pony 4, 5, 6 and 7 year olds, as well as FEI Young Rider and Pony Tests.

The Festival started with the CPEDI Veterinary Inspection on Monday 1st July, and finished on Sunday 7th July. The atmosphere is always incredibly friendly, and this year the weather was cooler than the last couple we’ve been part of, so the temperatures for the horses and riders were good, there was the occasional shower of rain, much so much better for the horses than temperatures around 33 degrees Celsius which we had when I was here in 2022!

We had 2 Australian Para riders competing, Melissa Cannon on Quentino 43 (with scores of 67.615%, 64.026% and 68.050%) in Grade V, training with Spencer Wilton, and Sharon Jarvis on Furst Crusader (with scores of 66.806%, 65.486% and 65.500%) in Grade IV. Both riders were competing in Grades where other competitors have won multiple gold and silver Paralympic medals, so they both did well in tough competition.

I was busy judging for the CPEDI3* for the first 3 days, then I was fortunate to write for FEI Judges for the CDI3*. This year I was very lucky to write for Isobel Judet, Kristy Wysocki and three times for Elke Ebert, all of whom will be judging in Paris in a few weeks.

It is always brilliant to catch up with friends we’ve worked with at Hartpury for many years, especially Amanda and Nick Rodgers, and Veronica and Greg Steward, who work so hard throughout the event as FEI Stewards.

We stayed at historic Hatherley Manor Hotel which has a very healthy population of moles creating many molehills each night in the lawn in front of the Manor, as the pics show!

28/06/2024

Tips from Ten Top Trainers - Harry Boldt, Christopher Bartle, Ferdi Eilberg, Lone Jorgensen, Di Jenkyn, Manolo Mendez, Edgar Lichtwark, Rozzie Ryan, Vicki Thompson and Jayden Brown - lead article in the latest Hoofbeats Magazine.

Celebrate the 45th birthday, grab a copy from your newsagent, selected saddlery or stockfeed store - available across Australia and New Zealand, and from https://hoofbeats.com.au/

30/05/2024

Getting those extra marks There are so man

20/05/2024

Lungeing - Training & Coaching Tips & Exercises - Zoom Webinar on Wednesday 22nd May
On Wednesday 22nd May, 6.30pm WAST we are holding a Webinar on Lungeing - Tips & Exercises for coaches & riders.

We’ll be covering:

• Lungeing freshly OTT horses
• EA Rules on lungeing
• Fitting lunge gear correctly
• Skills EA Coaches need for assessments
• Lungeing a rider to improve the effectiveness of their aids
• Exercises to improve rider position
• Auxillary equipment – pros & cons of triangle reins, side reins, chambon, sliding side reins, Pessoa system, bungee cord, double lunge lines – required for Level 2 EA Coaches
• Lungeing difficult horses
• Poles on the lunge
• Safety when lungeing & lungeing a rider
• Many exercises for riderson the lunge

We'll also be looking at some great ideas to improve position from the great Sally Swift.

You can register for this session on Nominate using this link –

https://nominate.com.au/EquestDN/Admin/Default.aspx and

Alternatively, call Wendy on 0409 065 304.

We’d love you to join us for another interactive webinar!

03/05/2024

A beautiful tail is the finishing touch on every performance horse. If you want to create or keep a beautiful tail, buy the latest 'Hoofbeats Magazine' for may valuable & well researched tips, such as:

- Hold your horse's tail well away from his legs when you hose him so he doesn't end up with a lot of damaging salt in his tail.
- Don't de-knot a wet tail - wet hair stretches & breaks 7 times more than dry hair.
- Keep his tail a little shorter over summer so the sun and wind damage are lessened, and so he doesn't catch longer hairs on fences, stables and his washbay as he swishes at flies
- and many more...

Address

Perth, WA
6110

Telephone

04 0906 5304

Website

http://www.ellisbrooktrainingcentre.com/

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