It’s a wrap for the Ottawa Dressage Festival’s 20th Anniversary Edition. Wesley Clover Parks provided the perfect backdrop for Canada’s largest dressage show with approximately 182 horses and 164 athletes participating in four days of dynamic, high-level competition, and many happy competitors who rode personal bests. With better weather this year, the number of spectators was at a new high, which was great to see.
Mathilde Blais Tétreault aboard Fedor in the CDI3* Grand Prix Special. (Geri Porteous photo)
On opening night, the show hosted the RCMP Musical Ride’s inaugural performance of their 2023 season, which was well-attended and a crowd-pleaser as always. The Musical Ride followed the Jog for the vet inspection of the CPEDI and CDI horses and was well-attended and interesting to both experienced riders and the public.
The show was comprised of an international, FEI accredited CDI/CPEDI show running concurrently with an Equestrian Canada accredited National Gold show. In addition, both National Dressage Pony Cup and Rising Stars were competing at ODF 2023. All of this combined meant riders were vying for personal bests alongside riders who were competing to earn points to qualify for the 2023 FEI North American Youth Championships, the 2023 Pan American Games, the 2024 Paralympic Games, the Ontario Equestrian Dressage Development Series and the 2023 Top Team Challenge.
All in all, it was a lively, well-attended 20th Anniversary edition of the Ottawa Dressage Festival, with plans in place to build on this year’s success and have an even better show in 2024.
Full results on Equestrian Hub HERE and HERE.
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