The wonderful facilities at Boneo Park were beautifully decked out for the second Boneo Park Equestrian Festival last Saturday, sponsored by Credit Suisse. The young director of Boneo Park, well-known dressage rider Fiona McNaught, had invited the equally young World Equestrian silver medallist Laura Bechtolsheimer to present this year’s Masterclass and it was an excellent choice.
Unfortunately the attendance seemed rather low – last year the event attracted over 600 people and the seats in the indoor arena were packed for the 2010 Heike Kemmer Masterclass.
Maybe it was the cooler weather (poor Laura would have returned to an English winter with very little suntan) or the price of the tickets but it was a shame that not more people took the chance to watch this young but extremely talented and sympathetic rider in action.
In the afternoon five local riders Kerry Mack, Nina Boyd, Fiona McNaught, Maree Tomkinson and Caroline Wagner participated in an unofficial Grand Prix Freestyle competition. Maree entertained the crowd with not only her lovely test but also a bit of repartee with the judges as she was interviewed at the end of her test by MC, Roger Fitzhardinge. In the end, Maree’s comments must have paid off as she won the class with 68.5% (she had told the judges she was expecting over 69%!). A stallion parade also added to the afternoon’s entertainment and then there was a short break before the Masterclass for the visitors to enjoy some local wine while the Gold Pass holders enjoyed some refreshments in the quad surrounded by beautiful horses and had a chance to meet Laura.
I had been lucky enough to spend some time with her earlier in the week and found her to be extremely likeable, entertaining and passionate about her horses and her riding. She also loves eventing and hunting – this is no dressage princess! Following in her father’s footsteps (her father and coach, Dr. Wilfried Bechtolsheimer trained eventing riders before training dressage riders) she helps British-based New Zealand event rider Dan Jocelyn with his dressage training and in return Dan helps her with her eventing! Laura started out in eventing at Pony Club before she became intrigued by the technicalities of dressage but the love of “letting off steam” by galloping and jumping hasn’t left her. Dan tempted her to get back into eventing by letting her ride his experienced event horse Silence a few times until she succumbed and bought her own eventing horse, Billy ( Bally’s Boy) in 2009. She has recently done her first Novice classes on him (“Annoyingly I was eliminated at one event because I got lost on the cross country!” she laughs) and hunted him this winter when her dressage competition schedule was a little lighter.
Her all-round skill as a rider showed when she rode one of Fiona McNaught’s horses at the end of the Masterclass. With her long blonde ponytail bobbing around, she looked as comfortable as if she was training at home rather than in front of a rapt audience – relaxed, and smiling, she performed effortless half-passes and tempi changes on a horse she had only sat on a few times. Personally, I would have preferred to watch Laura ride all evening rather than watch her teach the other riders but I guess that isn’t the point of a Masterclass. It would have been quite fun to have Laura ride a couple of our well-known event horses too! So maybe we’ll just have to get her back and organise a Masterclass with a few eventers – I have a feeling it could be a hoot! Some more great photos below by Toni-anne Collins from the day and there are also more photos on our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/AnEventfulLife
