Wagga is home to a new national champion after Sharon Potter starred at the Australian Dressage Championships at the weekend.
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Potter claimed her first national title after taking out the Advanced Freestyle division with warmblood mare Bradgate Park Delilah in Sydney.
Potter qualified for nationals after taking out the NSW title last month and took on the 35 dressage horses from across the country.
After booking their place in the final after a win and a fifth in the preliminary classes, the Wagga combination went to a new level in the decider.
They finished with a score of 71.875 per cent to win the Freestyle to Music division in convincing fashion.
They finished more than two percentage points clear of their nearest rivals.
Potter was thrilled with the performance.
“I’m extremely happy,” Potter said.
“She was in really good form leading up to the state championships that we won and continued her training really well leading up to nationals.
“Normally she is the type of horse that always gives 150 per cent, you know she is going to give her all and she did that again.”
The title win is the result of a lot of hard work for both horse and rider.
The pair have been together since the mare was six months old and have been competing since she was four, the minimum age horses can compete.
Four years later they have risen to the top of the Advanced Freestyle division, but Potter believes there is still plenty to come before Bradgate Park Delilah really reaches her peak.
“She is now eight and still quite young to be going what she is doing at such a high level,” she said.
“It is really excited for her future, as she is only a young mare doing some really special stuff.
“I have done everything with her since the time she was broken it so it has been her and I all along.”
Most dressage horses don’t reach their peak until they are older, so naturally Potter has high hopes for the black mare.
“Not all of them make it to the top, they have to have the right brain and trainability is the foremost to everything,” she said.
“You need them to want go out to train and try for you but the better ones who make it up to the top a lot of the times they could be 12-14 years old when they hit their peak at Grand Prix level.”
Following her success in the Advanced Freestyle division, Potter has now set her sights on continuing Bradgate Park Delilah’s impressive rise through the ranks.
The mare has already been training to perfect the Grand Prix skills, the highest level of dressage, and Potter is hopeful she can take the step up.
“She is training all the Grand Prix movements now but needs to get stronger and more consolidated,” she said.
“Hopefully this time next year we won’t be too far off doing our first Grand Prix.”
Potter was also impressed by how Bradgate Park Delilah handled the pressure on the big stage at Horsley Park at only her second attempt.