UAE's Al Redha leaves her mark

Lynn Al Redha, the UAE's representative for the dressage championships in the 2006 Asian Games, left her mark on the first day of competition in the Purebred Arabian Dressage Championships being staged at the Emirates Riding Centre.

Lynn competed on Monday with the winning team, Touch Of Class, on her black stallion Tartan Special at the elementary grade.

Each team consists of four riders, which must include a junior rider and a test ridden at three levels: Preliminary, Novice and Elementary the highest level of the three.

Following her victory Lynn said, "Actually this was one of the more complicated elementary tests and I enjoyed it.

"It was very close between the first and second teams and the pressure was placed on the last rider," Lynn added.

A serious competitor at an international level, Lynn said she rides a team competition exactly the way she rides her individual classes and that, "is to win."

A team player to the core Lynn added, "I like the way each team member helps each other and it becomes a true team with the juniors participating as well."

The winning team, Touch Of Class, also included junior rider Emma Sticka on Chester and senior riders Celeste Pretorius on Cheyenne and Lilian Sternvad on Zorelli

Lilian Sternvad, Dressage Coordinator, said she was pleased with the season, which produced a good number of evenly spread entries.

"We had a little problem with the rain around December time as the stagnant water rendered a few of our arenas unusable for quite a period. It is our dream to establish an all weather professional dressage arena, which we can use throughout the whole season. If we can secure some serious sponsorship we hope this can become a reality next season," she explained. For over 10 years the Emirates Riding Centre has hosted the official national affiliated dressage competitions. Yesterday evening, however, the event featured the first ever UAE national championship competition, exclusively for purebred Arabians.

Operated to British Horse Society (BHS) standards, each season ends with a finale championship for the four horses and riders who accumulate the highest number of points during the season.

Courtesy of Dubai Racing Club (DRC) the event also boasted one of only 26 FEI international judges in the world, Dr Barnabas Mandi, who judged all four classes.

Results

Purebred Arab Horses' Championships

1. Christel Langlois (R.S. Kahraman); 2. Toni Porteus (Sugar Creek Willy); 3. Sacha Robehmed (Sahara Storm); 4 Cecilia Binaud-Verger (Maisan).

Champions Choice Junior Championships

Emirates Bank Senior Championships

Union Properties Team Championships