Britain’s Jade Ellery Wins Global Dressage Festival Junior CDI In Debut On Porsche’s Eloy
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
WELLINGTON, Florida, Feb. 24, 2017–Jade Ellery of Great Britain made her CDI Junior Rider debut on Porsche’s Eloy Friday winning the team competition at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival.
The 18-year-old Jade and Eloy scored 71.216 per cent in their inaugural CDI competition outside her home base in Spain in the first step of her campaign to earn a start on Britain’s team at next summer’s European Junior & Young Rider Championships.
Canada’s Ava MacCoubrey on Pablo was second on 68.874 per cent, Natalia Bacariza Danguillecourt on Rihanna Ymas third on 68.694 and Antonia Arl of Belgium on Equestricons Belstaff W fourth on 68.063 per cent.
Jade is competing the 13-year-old Hanoverian gelding that Diana Porsche rode on Austria’s junior championship team in 2014 and at Young Rider events on both sides of the Atlantic the past two years. Diana on Di Sandro is No. 1 on the Under-25 world rankings and in her second winter on the Florida winter circuit.
Jade competed Valette in Spain last winter, but it did not go as well as she hoped.
However, she was stabled with Dutch trainer Leida Collins-Strijk who was also coaching Diana Porsche who was focusing on Di Sandro. Arrangements were made for Jade to compete Eloy until the Europeans this summer.
Jade’s introduction to horse sports at an early age got off to a rocky start.
As a six-year-old she was knocked unconscious in two horse accidents.
“I got so terrified I didn’t want to even touch a horse,” she recalls.
Five years later a remark by a trainer that she would never be able to ride motivated her to take up riding again. She went to Pony Club and took up jumping.
When her family moved to Spain from Cornwall in England, she wanted to keep jumping but her mother suggested dressage, a discipline she had ridden.
“I loved the art of it,” Jade said. “I never got back to jumping.”
After riding Vallette in a handful of CDIs in Spain, she met Leida and Diana, whom she described as “very kind and generous,” let her compete Eloy beginning late last year.
She came to Florida with Leida, a regular on the Wellington winter circuit and whose family owns a training center here.
“The goal was to build my confidence in international competitions and get more connection with the horse,” she said.
“It has made me a lot more confident. I used to get a lot of nerves and my mind would block. After doing a few national shows here I’m more mentally prepared. Today, I was more aware of what I had to do in the test.
“I’m more relaxed and enjoying myself. A lot of credit goes to Leida who has been so helpful, and the team that has played a really big part in management of the horse.”
Jade will be here until April then return to Holland with Leida seeking to produce enough high scores to have a chance to make Great Britain’s team for the European Championships next August.
Her focus now is on the Europeans–and her A-level exams that come up in May and June.
College is not on the horizon for the moment.
“I’d like to try and compete and come back next year and try to get on the British team for Young Riders. Ultimately, I’d like to ride at the Olympics for Britain.
“Obviously it’s a lot of hard work and years of practice, but I just want to be working and training with horses.”
Correction: An earlier version stated that Jade’s mother said she would never ride again. The remark was made by a trainer, not her mother.
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