In a night of glitz and glamour the top NSW equestrians of 2012 came together celebrating their successes and thanking those who helped them achieve so much.
The first eventers to hit the stage were Georgia Cottle and Jaymee Tinney who won awards in the Interschools section. Georgia (pictured above on the left of the winners) was junior champion, which takes in results from across the board of interschool equestrian sports, while Jaymee (pictured far right) was the eventing champion. Their awards were presented by The Hon. Graham Annesley MP.
Neale Lavis and Bunty Thompson present Jordyn Faint with her award for
Pre Novice Junior Rider of the Year
The specific eventing awards were presented by those sprightlly young gentlemen Mr Neale Lavis, OAM and Mr Wyatt (Bunty) Thompson. Bunty rode at the 1956 Olympics while Neale won gold and silver medals at the 1960 Rome Olympics. It was wonderful to have them at the Awards night, still representing their sport many decades on - long may they continue!
Anna Moxham (above) wins the eventing Young Athlete of the Year
Shane Rose (pictued above) had a great night with some of his owners: Ted Ledner, Margaret Ledner, Lee Hokianga and Jamie McDonald (Karin Perkins and Christine Doan who are also in the APH Moritz syndicate were not able to be at the Awards Night).
Eventing's volunteer of the year was Allan de Courcy Ellis
Allan de Courcy is well known in NSW as the calm and collected cross country starter at many events across the state. He takes his job seriously, knowing that the start of your cross country round is possibly not the place to crack jokes - unless of course you are someone like Shane Rose! "Some people like to talk to you before they set off while others just don't like to say anything," said Allan "so I just let them do what they want to do and send them on their way. I love eventing and I love the people involved in the sport, which is why I'm happy to spend lots of weekends saying 3,2,1 go!"
This is where Vicki is comfortable - doing ten different things at once!
As we told you early this week Vicki Burgess (above) won the Services to Sport Award for eventing, which was well deserved by someone who does so much for eventing, not just in NSW but across the states. "I was humbled and embarrassed," said Vicki, who is always happy to be working away behind the scenes. Because of Vicki's position as secretary for Eventing NSW it was pretty tricky for the excutive of ENSW to keep her nomination secret, but those invovled did a great job and now Vicki can relax knowing that she won't have to stand up on that stage again for a while!
As Shane Rose collected his Award for Rider of the Year he made a moving speech which we caught on video below.
Congratulations to all the winners and to the organisers who put together a great evening!
