Dressage-News

BAWLEY POINT, Australia, Feb. 24, 2020–The 65-year-old Australian Mary Hanna posted a lifetime high score in riding Calanta to victory at Willinga Park’s Dressage by the Sea CDI4* Monday.

Mary, a veteran of five Olympics spanning almost a quarter century, scored 76.205% on the 13-year-old KWPN mare two days after winning the Grand Prix.

Melissa Galloway a New Zealander whose first ever Big Tour competition was a year ago, placed second on Windermere J’Obei W on a personal best score of 75.565%. It was only the third Grand Prix Freestyle for Melissa and the New Zealand-bred nine-year-old gelding and the first competition outside her homeland for the 26-year-old Melissa.

Fellow Kiwi John Thompson on JHT Chemistry was third on 75.025% in only the second Freestyle and fourth start for the eight-year-old Australian-bred horse.

The previous career high score for Mary Hanna was 75.950% on Umbro at Orange, Australia five years ago, according to a review of records by dressage-news.com.

Calanta and Syriana, the two horses she competed here, are the highest ranked Australian combinations on the world rankings.

Mary, who for several years had split her time between Australia and Europe, relocated herself back to Australia last fall to campaign for her sixth and what she thinks will be her final Olympics, in Tokyo in July.

In recent years she has trained with Swedish Olympian Patrik Kittel, who is based in Germany with his Australian wife, Lyndal Oatley, an Olympic and world championship rider on Aussie teams. Since Mary’s return to Australia, training has been maintained by video over the Internet.

At the age of 61 at the Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 she became Australia’s oldest Olympian.

The highest score for an Australian is 79.330% set by Kristy Oatley on Du Soleil in Salzburg, Austria in December 2018.

Results:

CDI4* Grand Prix Freestyle

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