Remember the week of the awful red dust storms? That was the week that Nicole and her fellow competitors were at Sydney International Equestrian Centre to contend the 2009 Equestrian Australia Para Equestrian National Championships! Nicole writes about Para Equestrian for OntheBit.com.au...

The dust was not going to hold up any of the riders in our preparations for day one of the competition. Twenty-six competitors all up came to compete at these National Championships, which is also the first event held under the new management of EA. Riders & their support crews travelled from NSW, Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland, South Australia & one rider Rachel Stock even came over from New Zealand to compete using a loan horse.

Thursday 24th September - Comp Day 1
A great start to our campaign with Nom and I winning our FEI Para EQ Gr1b Team Test today with a score of 72.55%. 2nd place went to Grace Bowman (SA) on Kirby Park Joy & 3rd to Susanne Seipel (QLD) on her gorgeous pinto Menora Wildfire.

Nom and I were also then 1 of the 3 combinations that made up the NSW Team for the State Teams event which NSW very excitingly won & are now the 2009 EA Para EQ National State Team Champions ! My NSW Team mates for this were Rob Oakley (Gr1b) on Peaceful Warrior & Jan Pike (Gr1a) on Sanskrit Park Mattahorn. Jan also won her test today with a great ride.

Thursday was also a great day for others who were all competing in their grade’s Team Test as well. In the Grade 4 Section A Team Test, Kate Doughty (VIC) won the test riding her beautiful chestnut Heatherton Park Al Capone with Hannah Dodd (NSW) on Lucifers Dream in 2nd & Karen Lever (NSW) on Colonials Pure Majic in 3rd.

Grade 4 Section B was won by Hannah Kohlenberg (NSW) riding Thafma, with NZL rider Rachael Stock also riding Karen Lever’s Colonials Pure Majic placing 2nd.

In Grade 3 Sharon Jarvis (WA) took out 1st riding her Dutch Warmblood Applewood Odorado as well as 2nd place on Centura Donnerquest & Anne Skinner (VIC) riding Aubaine Cossack placed 3rd. In Grade 2 Fleur Litster (WA) riding Edlen Silver Sails won her test with Ingrid Bayley (QLD) & Ace of Diamonds in 2nd & Aimee Blakiston (WA) on Double Kahlua in 3rd.

Friday 25th September - Comp Day 2
Yet another interesting day with a few minor complications but Nom performed well for me & listened to nearly everything I asked & we won our FEI Para EQ Gr1b Individual Championship Test with another fantastic score of 73.33%!

Saturday 26th September - Comp Day 3
The final day of competition & this was our Freestyle to Music Test. I was very proud of Nom who worked beautifully for me. Today he just did everything I asked, our shoulder in & trot half passes were great & the overall test went super that I had people coming up to me with tears in their eyes saying they loved it. So I was extremely proud of Nom & how far we've come together.

We won our FEI Para EQ Gr1b Freestyle to Music Test with a score of 75.8%. Plus one of our international judges gave me an 81.11% for our Artist Marks Section, which I'm so excited about as that's a personal best for me... plus our freestyle score was 6.1% ahead of 2nd place so that was exciting too.

Freestyles are always great to see & it was good to see riders & friends coming to watch in between their own tests, not only today but all week. The freestyles saw some great scores today too. In Gr3 Sharon Jarvis scored 76.39% with Applewood Odorado & 71.5% on Centura Donnerquest placing 1st & 2nd.

Kate Doughty in Gr4 scored a 73.26% for 1st with Hannah Dodd in second on 68.79%, Hannah’s test was one of the crowd favorites along with Sui Watts (NSW) riding Bolagamy Accession who placed 7th in the same test who had the entire crowd enjoying her test & cheering her on after her test when she enlightening us with her huge smile whilst patting her horse & waving as she left the arena. This was Sui’s first time competing in the National Championship’s & she had a good first event receiving 2 x 3rd’s & a 7th placing at the event.

To top off the last day of competition was the National Grade Champion Presentations which I'm very proud to announce that Nikshar Nomination & I are now the 2009 Equestrian Australia Para Equestrian Grade1b National Champions.

We were also the only combination at the National Championships to consistently score 70+% in every test ridden at the Championships.

So the Overall National Grade Championships went to:

Gr1a National Champion: Jan Pike (NSW) & Sanskrit Park Mattahorn

Gr1b National Champion: Nicole Kullen (NSW) & Nikshar Nomination
Reserve Champion: Rob Oakley (NSW) & Peaceful Warrior

Gr2 National Champion: Fleur Litster (WA) & Edlen Silver Sails
Reserve Champion: Ingrid Bayley (QLD) & Ace of Diamonds

Gr3 National Champion: Sharon Jarvis (WA) & Applewood Odorado
Reserve Champion: Sharon Jarvis (WA) & Centura Donnerquest

Gr4 National Champion: Kate Doughty (VIC) & Heatherton Park Al Capone
Reserve Champion: Hannah Dodd (NSW) & Lucifers Dream

All five National Champions won all 3 of their 3 tests at the event. A fantastic effort!

I hope you enjoyed this bit of a summary of my results & the Championships, & if you’d like to know anything in more detail feel free to ask & I’ll tell you all about it :)

N.K

Check out Nicole Kullen's website here

Pictures courtesy of Photo Finish CC
Top: Nicole Kullen riding Nikshar Nomination
Above right: Presentation to NSW for winning the 2009 EA Para EQ State Team Championship. NSW Team members were Jan Pike (Gr1a), Nicole Kullen (Gr1b) & Rob Oakley (Gr1b). Also in photo is Jan Geary (Judge) & Miles Murphy (CEO of APC).
Above left: Gr4b rider Sui Watts (NSW) riding Bolagamy Accession who was there competing at her first Nationals. She was a crowd favourite with her freestyle test..