The FEI WBFSH Dressage World Breeding Championship for Young Horses is underway!

The World Young Horse Championships in Verden, Germany, start today with the first class being the six-year-old qualifier. The combinations representing Australia are:

5yr Old:

• Rebecca Rooke & Pour Andrig de Barroue

• Maree Tomkinson & Friday IV

6yr Old:

• Simone Pearce & Dancier Gold

• Simone Pearce & Diamond First

7yr Old:

• Simone Pearce & Quando Unico

Start lists and results can be found here, while all the action can be streamed via Clip My Horse TV.

The team at Dressage Masterclass had a chance to catch up with Australia based rider and representative, Maree Tomkinson, ahead of her performance Thursday morning (local time).

Maree has travelled from Melbourne, Australia, all the way to Germany with her mare Friday IV, an Australian home-bred Furstenball offspring out of Maree’s career-making dressage mare Diamantina IV (by Diamond Hit).

What makes Friday special to you?

Friday is out of Diamantina, by Furstenball, so we bred her and I guess that’s what makes her very special as she is Diamantina’s daughter. The idea of getting to represent Australia on her daughter and a horse that we bred is super special.

She’s a really energetic little horse, she’s only about 16hh but she has a fantastic work ethic and three really wonderful paces. Great walk, great trot, great canter and very good character. It is exciting to see what she can do.

Does she share any characteristics of her mother?

The hindleg for sure, all Diamantina’s babies have her wonderful hindleg and the good gaits, especially the walk and the canter, but I don’t think she looks particularly like Diamantina and she definitely doesn’t have her character trails she’s a really honest, uncomplicated little horse and has a terrific work ethic.

She’s not nearly as complicated as Diamantina was in the character and she’s very energetic to ride and Diamantina wasn’t always like that she could be a little lazy at home and then a very different horse at competitions.

What are you hoping to achieve at the World Young Horse Championships? What does success look like for you?

I don’t have any strict goals as to what I hope to achieve. I hope that Friday and I are able to put our best foot forward and that I finish at the end of the test thinking that will do Friday. I hope she puts her best foot forward and is honest and correct and shows the quality of the gaits I know she has. I don’t have an expectation of a score or placing or anything like that, my expectation is to do a PB, just to do the absolute best that we can and before I look at the score on the inside I am happy with what we have done.

Thank you to Dressage Masterclass for allowing us to re-publish this Q&A. You can find out more about Dressage Masterclass Academy here.

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