Aus Vaulting Team for WEG Announced

Nicola Turner, Monday, 26 July 2010

It will be a world class Vaulting team that represents AUS at WEG

Congratulations to Team Phoenix, who have been selected to represent Australia in the Vaulting Teams Competiton at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, 2010.
Team Phoenix consists of the following Vaulters:

•Lee Briggs
•Sally Briggs
•Rebecca Hillman
•James Hocking
•Sarah Leadbeater
•Jo Lee
•Lani Maher
•Jess Mazlin
•Ruth Skrzypeck

Congraulations also to Krystle Lander, who has been selected to represent Australia in the Individual Female Vaulting Competiton at the World Equestrian Games, Kentucky 2010.
The Chef d'Equipe will be Tristyn Lowe.

A world class Vaulting Team to represent Australia

Team Phoenix from Canberra’s own National Equestrian Centre (NEqC) will be the first vaulting team to represent Australia at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games to be held in Lexington Kentucky, USA from 25 September - 10 October 2010. There will be around 60 countries represented at these World Equestrian Games and eight world championship equestrian sports competing. These sports include Dressage, Jumping, Eventing, Driving, Endurance, Reining, Para Dressage and of course, Vaulting. This event is being held at Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington and they are expecting over 500,000 spectators over the sixteen days of competition. These games are held every four years and are the equivalent of an Olympic event for equestrian sports.

The sport of Equestrian Vaulting is often described as a combination of gymnastics and dance on a cantering horse. This graceful yet demanding sport is performed in many countries around the world, with over 200,000 participants in Germany alone.
Historically, it is one of the oldest sports in the world, and was very useful in war, when one went into battle on a horse and where strength, agility, balance and harmony on the horse could make the difference between ‘loss of limb and life’. The sport lost fashion with the advent of the car and has only re-emerged in its’ modern form since the 1960’s in Europe and late 1980’s in Australia. There are currently approximately 200 vaulters participating in Australia, but Vaulting is steadily gaining recognition and momentum as a sport.

As a competitive discipline both gymnastic and dance elements are combined and performed to music, on a cantering horse. It requires a harmonious relationship with the horse and outstanding physical condition from the vaulter; these two elements are imperative if a display of strength, co-ordination, rhythm and balance is to be achieved.” These skills can be displayed as an individual, in pairs or in a team.
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The vaulter/s the horse and the lunger (of the horse) are an interdependent, competitive triad. In individual and pairs competition, both the vaulters and the horse are scored on performance, and in teams, all 3 are scored. Team and individual competition demonstrate skill over both a set of compulsory exercises as well as freestyle.

Teams comprise 6 vaulters and a reserve and the freestyle can build up to 3 people on the horse, at any one time. Vaulting is a spectacular, spectator sport.
Whilst Vaulting is a relatively new sport to Australia, individual vaulters have represented Australia in the World Games since 1990. One such person is Tristyn Lowe who represented Australia three times at WEG between 1998 - 2006 and is the reigning Australian National Champion (12 times over). Ms Lowe and her mother, Bronwen Lowe (NEqC) are two of a team from the Australian vaulting community supporting Team Phoenix as their coaches/lungers and providing the driving force behind the Australian representative team.

In March 2008, Bronwen Lowe issued an open invitation to all clubs and vaulters in Australia to join a training group for the purpose of developing a team to represent Australia at the 2010 World Equestrian Games. Two teams were selected for international training and competition experience and traveled to Germany in June – July 2009. One of these teams included Team Phoenix. The Team consists of young men and women ranging from the ages 13 to 26 who have been involved in vaulting for a number of years. They have competed at local, state and national levels, and also travelled to Germany in 2009 to gain international competition experience. In Germany they competed at Kleinbundenbach with a third placing and a first place at Herxheim’s State Championships.

In 2009 Team Phoenix took out the title of Australian Vaulting Team Champions during the National Vaulting Championship in South Australia where their performance was described as ‘world class’ by Adrienne Stang FEI Senior ‘O’ level judge from the U.S.
So after 3 years of dedicated training together, Team Phoenix finally won selection through a rigorous selection process, over another South Australian team hoping to qualify. Team Phoenix will now have the opportunity to show the equestrian world that they are indeed ‘world class’.

Team Phoenix and their coaches/lungers will leave Australia early in September to train for four weeks on their American horses, in Tennessee. They then have to transport their horses to Kentucky Horse Park where they start competing on Wednesday, 6 October through to Sunday, 10 October 2010, with the special accolade of being the first vaulting team to represent Australia at the World Equestrian Games.

The nine members of Team Phoenix are seeking financial support to help them achieve their goal of competing at the World Equestrian Games. Team members are responsible for their own travel and competition expenses for WEG so any financial assistance offered would be gratefully received.
If you would like any more information about Vaulting, the Team, or the World Equestrian Games, please contact Bronwen Lowe on 0410528855 or Sally Briggs on 0409834176 or email the team at help.team.phoenix@gmail.com