New appointments on BD Technical Commitees

We're proud to announce new additions to the British Dressage team under the BD Youth and Sports Operations Technical Committees

BD Youth Committee
Joining our BD Youth Committee as the Coaching Representative will be Jo Swain, a UKCC level 4 coach, organiser and also currently BD Youth rep for Central Region.  Jo will be looking to develop the senior coaches delivering to BD youth and also potential BD Youth members who wish to coach.

 

Jo will be working alongside Stephen Arnett to develop coaches. Stephen will also be looking at career development including the Young Professional Programme.  Stephen is currently Regional Chair for BD Wales as well as being a  UKCC L3 coach, judge and BD Rider Test Assessor.

Jo Lees, BD Youth Representative for the South West region, and Sioned Roberts BD Youth Representative for Wales, will be working together on the committee to look at recruitment, participation and fundraising.  Jo is also a UKCC L3 coach, a BD Youth Rider Test Assessor and has trained and ridden to PSG.  Sioned is also an organiser and her daughter has gone through BD Youth from U12 to International. 

Nina Boex joins the committee as the link to liaising and developing with International teams,.  Nina has gone through BD Youth herself and is currently Chef d’Equipe for the British Dressage Junior, Young Rider and Children on Horses teams.  Nina is a BD Youth Rider Test Assessor and also a UKCC L2 coach.

Briony Cutler will join the committee as the BD Youth Ambassador representative.  Once again Briony has gone through the BD Youth structure herself.  She is a BHSAI and works as an equine lecturer.  Briony is also a BD Judge and an organiser.

Hannah Moody will be looking at competition development and tests, including rider squad tests and assessors.  Hannah has ridden from young horse level to Grand Prix and she is also a UKCC L3 coach.

Alice Oppenheimer will become our “senior” ambassador for BD Youth, encouraging participation and obtaining feedback from our riders at competitions.  Alice has competed from grass roots to International Grand Prix and was also a member of the YR European Team.

Finally, Anne Ratcliffe will be focussing on Education and Horse and Pony Management.    Anne has a degree in Equine Studies, BHS Stage 4 and 5 stable manger.  She is Pony Club B and AH assessor and has also written horse care qualifications which have been successfully approved through examinations boards such as BTEC/Ed Excel and City and Guilds.

This is a very strong line-up that brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to support the development of our young riders, so we are excited to welcome all of these volunteers to the BD Youth Committee.

Sport Operations Committee
Four additional members will also be joining our Sport Operations Committee:

Jenny Brown is a Bronze rider representative.  Jenny is a small animal vet and currently competes an ex racehorse at Bronze Elementary and Medium, including freestyle to music.

Derek Pullem will be looking at our competition rules. Derek has very good knowledge of the competition rules and structures, with his wife having competed Area Festival, Young Horse, Music and Associated Championships and currently competing at Advanced Medium with the hope of moving up to PSG.

Adrian Smith, the organiser for Allens Hill Equestrian College will become the organisers’ representative.  Adrian organises BD competitions including Area Festivals, Para and BD Youth and also has experience of working with the competition structure.

Sue Price will be the list 4 judge representative.  As well as being a judge Sue has been involved for many years with Paralympic sport, travelling to Barcelona in 1992 as part of the medical team and helping to prepare for two further games.

With such a range of knowledge and expertise we are looking forward to exciting times ahead for both our BD Youth and Sport Operations Committees.  The BD Board of Directors would like to thank everyone who applied for these roles, the overall standard was incredibly high and it was a difficult selection process.  Hopefully you will agree that BD is in very good hands with these volunteers going forward.