MAY 2022 THE RIDER /49 Winnipeg’s Ariana Chia Posts Personal Best At CDI3* Ocala, Florida


Championships, twice com- peting in the Junior division and once, in 2012, in the Young Riders’ division. Now partnered with Fider- flame, she has successfully reached the highest level of the sport. Lane, also 30, came


Ariana Chia riding Fiderflame scored a personal best of 70.213% in the CDI3* Grand Prix Special on April 16, 2022, at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, FL. Photo Credit: Q2 Photography


Jennifer Ward / Starting Gate Communications for Equestrian Canada


Ocala, FL., April 19, 2022 – Ariana Chia of Winnipeg, MB, was Canada’s top placed athlete in the Grand Prix Special held as part of the CDI3* World Equestrian Center international dres- sage competition held in Ocala, FL, from April 13 to 17, 2022. Competition began on


April 14, with a total of 26 entries contesting the CDI3* Grand Prix. Megan Lane of Loretto, ON, emerged as the top Canadian performer, earning a score of 68.587% to place 10th overall riding Zodiac MW. Chia was close behind, placing 13th in the CDI3* Grand Prix after scoring 68.304% with Fiderflame. In Saturday’s CDI3*


Grand Prix Special, it was Chia who came out as the top Canadian, scoring a per-


sonal best of 70.213% to place fifth riding Fider- flame, her 12-year-old Old- enburg gelding (Fidertanz 2 x Abanos). Lane also broke the 70% barrier, earning a score of 70.106% to finish immediately behind Chia in sixth position with Zodiac MW.


“It was absolutely


amazing, it really just all came together,” said Chia of her Grand Prix Special per- formance. “We’ve been on the verge of breaking 70% all season and it was a nice, clean test. He’s getting more confident in the piaffe and passage and that’s been the goal all season. That was a highlight of our test, and his changes were great. The overall feeling was so nice. I’m so happy with him. “I’ve had him since he


was just a baby and done all the training on him,” contin- ued Chia who, as an 18- year-old, found Fiderflame in Germany when he was


six months old. “I backed him and started him myself. It’s been my lifelong part- nership.” Chia debuted Fider-


flame in the Fédération Equestre


Internationale


(FEI) Six-Year-Old division in 2016 and the pair has been steadily climbing the FEI ranks ever since, mak- ing the move up to the top level of Grand Prix in 2021. “This is only his sec-


ond year at the Grand Prix level, and the whole goal has been to get him more confident and comfortable with all the movements and getting him fitter,” contin- ued Chia. “Now I feel like he’s strong enough to do a good warm-up and still have some horse left, especially on a hot day like today.” Chia, now 30, is a


great example of an athlete who has followed the path- way to success. She made three appearances at the North American Youth


Al Shira’aa has signed up as the title sponsor of the Hickstead Derby for a further three years


showjumping community in the United Kingdom for al- lowing us to be part of these fantastic shows on the British showjumping calen- dar, and to the Bunn family for their heritage in this sport, creating a fantastic showground for owners, breeders, horses, riders and


lighted to support the annual Hickstead Derby,” said the Sheikha. “As an owner and proud breeder, supporting these historic classes in Great Britain allows us to be placed firmly on the Euro- pean map, showcasing the fruits of our production and the quality of British bred- horses. “I am thankful to the


the class in 2017, the new agreement will see them re- main as the main sponsor until at least 2024. “Al Shira’aa is de-


founded by HH Sheikha Fa- tima Bint Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and it has sta- bles in the UAE as well as in the UK. Having first sponsored


Al Shira’aa was


Lizzie Bunn commented: “As we look forward to the 60th Derby, I am proud to see the showground that my


spectators. With the absence of this thrilling class for the past two years, I hope everyone enjoys this year’s Derby as much as we do,” she added. Hickstead Director


Al Shira’aa by visiting www.alshiraastables.com.


father created, and its most famous class, still flourish- ing. I would like to thank Al Shira’aa for their ongoing support of the Hickstead Derby, and look forward to working with them in the years to come.” Find out more about


up through the Young Rid- ers’ ranks as well with five consecutive appearances at the North American Youth Championships from 2008 through 2012. She has rep- resented Canada at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the 2014 and 2018 World Equestrian Games, and the 2015 Pan American Games where she was a member of Canada’s silver medal team. “As the season has


been going on, he’s been feeling better and better, and this show is proof of that,” said Lane of her partner, Zo- diac MW, an 18-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Harmony’s Rosseau x Amethist). “He felt really honest, he was trying, and it was some of the best work I’ve had in the ring. I think his piaffe and passage were really strong and the trot tour in general felt really good.”


Lane is aiming Zodiac


MW, who was her partner at the 2018 World Equestrian Games in Tryon, NC, for another World Champi- onship appearance this sum-


Canadian Olympian Megan Lane and Zodiac MW, owned by Deer Ridge Equestrian, contested the CDI3* Grand Prix division at World Equestrian Center – Ocala, FL. Photo Credit:Q2 Photography


mer in Herning, Denmark. The pair have been part- nered together for 10 years, after Deer Ridge Equestrian purchased Zodiac MW as an eight-year-old at a sales barn in Holland. “It’s so amazing being


at this venue because it has a major games feeling,” said Lane of competing at the re- cently built World Eques- trian Center - Ocala. “It’s reassuring to feel what he would be like to ride in a place like this with the at- mosphere and the scale of everything. It’s been really


exciting and a lot of fun.” Fellow Canadian Pia


Fortmüller, 36, of Priddis, AB, also contested the CDI3* Grand Prix division riding Frieda, an 11-year- old black Hanoverian mare (Fuerstenball x Rouletto) that she has been training since Frieda was two years old. The pair


scored


67.130% for 17th place in the Grand Prix and returned to the Grand Arena on Sat- urday to place 12th overall in the Grand Prix Special with a score of 67.192%. Frieda made her debut at the


Grand Prix level in FEI- sanctioned competition ear- lier this winter during week three of the Adequan Global Dressage


Festival in


Wellington, FL, where she and Fortmüller won the CDI3* Grand Prix with a score of 70.457%. For full results from


the CDI3* World Equestrian Center - Ocala, which was hosting its first FEI sanc- tioned event of the 2022 season, visit results.eques- t


r i


Olympic medallists make Hickstead return


Olympic gold medallists Carl


Hester and Charlotte Dujardin are among entries at next week’s I.C.E Horseboxes All England Dressage Festival (12-15 May) at Hickstead. Charlotte Dujardin, a multiple


Pidgley, and the pair are due to com- pete at Hickstead in the under-25 Grand Prix as well as the Intermediate II.


Carl Hester has entered his Tokyo ride En Vogue in the LeMieux


sage at Hickstead site, and now we’re thrilled to see them back here at the main Hickstead showground for the second running of the I.C.E Horse- boxes All England Dressage Festival.” Admission and parking are free


at this event, which gets underway on Thursday with a day of national classes before the start of the Premier League action from Friday onwards. Spectators can opt to upgrade their ticket to give access to the Laurent Perrier Club, which offers excellent views of the competition as well as its own champagne bar and deli café. For those who can’t make it to


the show, the action from the Cold- stream Equestrian Arena will be livestreamed


on both


ClipMyHorse.TV and Hickstead.TV, as well as being available to sub- scribers of Horse & Country TV. For more information and timetables, visit www.hickstead.co.uk.


The I.C.E Horseboxes All England Dressage Festival takes place from 12- 15 May (c) Julian Portch


world record-holder, former Olympic, World and European champion and Britain’s most successful dressage rider of all time, is due to compete in the Prix St Georges and Intermediate I classes. She is bringing two horses from her hugely exciting string of equine talent, Alive And Kicking and Hilius.


All eyes will be on one of Char-


lotte’s most famous former rides – her Tokyo Olympic mount Gio. The bronze medal-winning horse was re- cently sold to young rider Annabella


Premier League FEI Grand Prix class, the feature competition on the Satur- day, as well as the I.C.E Horseboxes Premier League FEI Grand Prix Spe- cial on the Sunday afternoon. He’ll face a strong line-up of competition, including last year’s Hickstead Grand Prix victor Anna Ross, and Gareth Hughes, who was selected as the re- serve rider for last year’s Olympics. “What a great line-up we’ve got


for this year’s event,” says Hickstead Director Lizzie Bunn. “Carl and Char- lotte were regulars at the former Dres-


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