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International News:
In Europe highly recognisable Richard Davison and Hiscox Artemis won the GP Special at Munich in fine style. Richard has for many years ridden in WOW Competitor saddles but recently switched to a WOW Club Dressage. We are finding here in Australia that this particular style is suiting more and more clients and horses hence finding it a little bit difficult to keep up with demand for them.
Watch Richard’s GP Special Winning Ride here on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWv4w--MRnQ
Recent conversion to WOW is British rider Wayne Channon and his stallion Lorenzo—winning at GP in Britain and Europe—see Wayne’s trial of a WOW Club Dressage on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPOXGBddza4 so soft, so pretty.....
Video of WOW Saddle being taken apart and put back together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAYjBpXI06M&feature=related |
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With the addition of our new WOW reseller in Adelaide we are also delighted to announce that outstanding SA based Young Rider Cooper Oborn also joins us. His resume is already impressive: · Australian Eventing Young Rider Squad 2009 and 2011 · SA Young Rider Eventing and Dressage Squads 2006 to 2011 · SA High Performance Eventing Squad 2010 and 2011 · Second in the CCI* at Melbourne 3Day 2011 · Champion YR Prelim SA State Dressage Champs 2011 · Champion YR Novice SA State Dressage Champs 2011 · Third in the YR CCI* Camper down 3Day 2010 · Fourth in the Australian YR Championships CCI ** 2010 In the near future Cooper hopes to progress to 3* with an eye on the 4* Event at Adelaide in 2012. |
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He rides and trains with Jamie Coman, Jono Farrington and Denise Rofe while attending clinics with such instructors as Brett Parberry and Rod Brown when they are available. Cooper is commencing a career as a professional in the Equine Industry taking every opportunity to further develop his skills in riding, training and horse management. Additionally he is completing a Commerce Degree at University. With an eye on long term goals, Cooper is seeking to develop a team of sound competitive horses at the 1* level and above while proving himself to be a consistent and competitive rider at all levels. The ultimate goal of course is to represent Australia Olympics, WEG, and other international competitions. Cooper is determined to be the best trainer and rider he possibly can be and achieve respectable results on multiple horses across all levels. |
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Prue Boundy, riding her beautiful big Warmblood, ‘Fanatic’ had a great week at the 13th Australian Master Games held in Adelaide recently. She won medals in each of the dressage tests she rode. Earlier in the week she competed in several Hack classes and won medals in 3 classes. Prue is so excited to be out competing again as she and Fanatic have had 2 years out of action. The Masters Games were always on her “bucket list”, but to achieve the results she did were beyond her wildest dreams. She attributes much of her successful comeback to her new saddle. She says, ’Fanatic’ has never felt so good, as he does under a WOW. My position is so much better also, something coach, Denise Rofe is very positive about. |
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The Starlight Children’s Foundation, through its ‘Make A Wish’ initiative, recently granted Joslyn Grover her wish to have a WOW Saddle of her own. She is pictured right with her horse ‘Gabi’ having taken delivery of her new saddle. Joslyn is looking forward to getting out to compete in the very near future. |
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WOW Saddles Australia participated in a number of excellent trade shows again this year including Dressage with the Stars, Sydney CDI, Sydney 3DE and Equitana. This is of course were we meet most of our customers – new and potential and of course our existing customers keen to make sure their friends also get to sit in a WOW. So many of our sales are a result of WOW Riders referrals. And for that we say Thank You! Equitana was enormous as always! We were very fortunate to have David Kempsell visit us from England. David is the inventor/designer/manufacturer of WOW, Korrector and Equiform. We were delighted to also welcome Paul Tapner. Paul is an Australian rider based now in the UK and a member of the WOW Team. Paul and his mount Inonothing were winners of the Mitsubishi Badminton Horse Trials in 2010. What a massive four days! Racing NSW and Richmond TAFE lent us their mechanical horse for our trade stand and he was an enormous draw card. Paul bought along some very exciting video footage recorded on his head cam on his helmet at Badminton and Pau. |
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This resulted in riders, on the mechanical horse, getting completely caught up in the moment and finding themselves galloping across country, ducking to avoid ‘over-hanging branches’, leaning back as they ‘went down’ banks and attempting to steer the ‘horse’ around corners. Outstanding! On a more serious note, David had bought with him a pressure sensor pad, which when placed on a saddle stand riders could sit on and see in real time where their seat bones actually are as well as their own asymmetries. With almost spooky clairvoyance David was able to tell them about the performance of their own horses. Riders then sat on a WOW Saddle and had the air in the Flair panels adjusted to show how correcting the balance of the saddle will influence the effectiveness of their own seat. Proved most enlightening for riders of all abilities! A very special thank you goes out to Ben Featherston and Mandy Dunn who contributed a huge amount of their Equitana time on our trade stand talking to people about why they love their WOW saddles. Above and beyond the call of duty but we are very grateful for your time. |
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Australian International Horse Trials 2011, Adelaide While we ran another successful trade stand at this wonderful event, the real highlight was the WOW Riders who performed and competed. Cooper Oborn had been intending to compete in the Two Star Event however his horse, Kirby Park Irish Joker, was sadly injured in a ‘hit-out’ event a couple of weeks prior. Never keep a good man down and Cooper was out on the arena riding the test ride for that event on a borrowed horse. Hannah Newland, another SA rider, rode the 4* Test Ride on Peace Train That left our very own Natalie Blundell on Algebra and Eleanor Osborne riding Mighty High to fly the WOW Flag in the 4* event – and FLY it they did! 35 catalogued entries made for a big talented field. Nat and ‘Sam’ were 9th after Dressage with less than 5 penalties between 1st and 10th place. Eleanor and ‘Lofty’ were 14th. Brilliant X-C rounds from them both saw them move to 5th and 7th respectively. The odd rail in the SJ rounds had an impact but Nat finished in 4th and Eleanor 8th. A most successful weekend for all concerned. Adelaide is the only 4* event in the Southern Hemisphere and just one of six annual events in the world. Pressure is high this year of course with many talented horse and riders vying for Australian Olympic Selectors attention. |
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Algebra being congratulated on his 4th place by grooms Chloe Cartwright of Yass, NSW and Elena Nuila from Provo, UTAH. Elena has recently been in Europe working for Chris Burton but flew out to support her favourite boy. Thank you Elena and Chloe—Natalie would not be able to do it without you. Photo: Sarah Smith |
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Sharon Cooper and Reg won their Jump Cross at Silverhills. Sharon is relatively new to riding and since getting into her WOW Saddles for dressage and jumping her progress with Reg has been on full throttle. |
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Jono Farrington, SA based Showjumper and Coach, has recently converted all his performance horses to WOW, specifically to the WOW Club Jump. Their first event for the year recorded the following outstanding results:
Metro Show Jumping Australia Day Show Sat 27th- Sun28th Jan
Bellhaven Secret (Cowboy): 2nd - 1.20m. Super Pony: 1st - 1.05m. Photo left Foxhill Aphrodite: 3rd - Grand Prix
We say thank you also to Georgie Robinson for her lovely photo of Super Pony and Jono.. Georgie is 12yrs old—clearly has a career mapped out with this sort of talent! |
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Cooper Oborn who uses WOW Club Jump and Dressage on all his own and client’s horses was awarded South Australian Young Event Rider of the Year and Young Dressage Rider of the Year at the recent Equestrian South Australia Awards Night. Well Done! Outstanding! |
