It isn’t often that Andrew Cooper is lost for words but we got the feeling on Sunday that he was a little blown away when he received the Anna Savage Award for ‘Best and Fairest’
The Award commemorates the tragic death of eventing rider Anna Savage who died in a fall during the cross country phase of the Naracoorte Horse Trials in 1997. At the time Anna was listed on the Elite Eventing Squad and was working towards Olympic selection for Sydney 2000. She had successfully represented Australia on numerous Trans Tasman teams, and had also travelled abroad representing Australia at international events.
A Foundation was set up to honour Anna and celebrate her achievements as one of our country’s finest equestrian athletes and a favourite competitor amongst her peers.
At each of the three CCI events in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney competitors in the CCI 3* and 4* classes are awarded votes against the three set criteria of competitive excellence, horsemanship and sportsmanship. The votes are taken from the following judges at each event:-
Senior Australian member of the Ground Jury
Senior Veterinary Delegate
Technical Delegate
Chief FEI Steward
Chairman of National Selectors (eventing)
Riders Representative (if present)
We love interviewing Andrew as he is already for a chat but maybe on Sunday the Award did the talking for him!
