Andrea Bank is emerging as one of
|
|
Andrea’s dressage career started as a
twelve year old having been given the wonderful opportunity to ride the great dressage pony “Just Jupiter” owned by the Bramley family.
Andrea had great success with Just Jupiter and through him, gave her a taste of Dressage and what was to come. From there Andrea purchased her wonderful pony
“Sir Harley” who she trained up the grades.
Andrea went on to win National titles and was selected to be part of National Young Rider Squads. She was named NZ Pony Rider of the Year for two consecutive years in 2000 and 2001.
In 2001 Andrea was offered the ride of the beautiful Grand Prix dressage stallion “Icarus Allsorts” owned by Bill and Felicity Noble. This was a great opportunity to be given at such a young age.
Icarus, affectionately known as Thomas taught Andrea a lot about the higher levels and gave her a great feel for the advanced movements which was invaluable to her. Andrea had great success with Thomas at Prix St George riding the Young Rider and National circuits and then later went on to start riding him at Grand Prix level becoming one of the youngest riders ever in New Zealand to ride Grand Prix.
In 2003 Andrea was long listed for the Athens Olympics. She was also made a carded athlete in 2003.
Continuing on from Thomas Andrea purchased the Prix St George Thoroughbred “Mystic Magic”. She had some great success on him; a few highlights were coming 2nd in the FEI World Challenge 2002 and getting NZ Reserve Young Rider of the Year in 2004 and being on the Development Squads.
As a Young Rider Andrea represented New Zealand on four occasions internationally, her team partner and her winning two out of the four times; also winning a bronze in Melbourne and coming 2nd in Sydney. Andrea also individually received a 1st and two 2nds.
In 2003 Andrea was introduced to one of the world’s top and most respected rider/trainers Leonie Bramall. Leonie and partner Volker invited Andrea over to their stables in Germany to work for a few months and there Andrea got a taste of riding beautiful dressage horses and learning to train in a very positive and sound system, she was inspired by these two wonderful people and their horses but most of all by watching Leonie ride and her ability to train riders; Andrea cannot describe in words how amazing Leonie is with the horse, it’s unbelievable to watch her and I feel so privileged to call her my trainer.
Since then Andrea has traveled over
to Leonie’s stables regularly during the New Zealand winters. The experience she has gained from Leonie and Volker is invaluable towards her own training and riding. Leonie and Volker’s wonderful generosity by letting Andrea ride some of their amazing horses and to have Leonie’s watchful eye teaching her has given Andrea a new understanding and feel for training her own horses and teaching her students.
Over the past 4 years Andrea has been concentrating on training her own young horses and by applying the training method she is learning from Leonie and is having some great success. Andrea’s most recent success was winning Overall Champion Novice, Medium and Open Medium at the Waitemata Dressage Champs and overall show Champion. Andrea also took out Reserve Champion titles for Medium and Open Medium at Horse of the Year and also won Champion Sport Horse on Limonit (Imp Germany) owned by the Will’s family. Andrea was very proud of her team as all horses have only had very limited outings this season.
Andrea feels very fortunate to have been given the ride on the Beautiful Hanoverian Breeding and Riding Stallion Limonit (Imp) Germany who is owned by the Will’s Family of Dairy Flat.
Contact Ad Astra Hanoverians. Phone Annie on 09 426 0501 or 027 433 7358
Refer to Limonit Page
Andrea has already had great success on Limonit (affectionately known as Limmy) and is really looking forward to taking him out at Prix St George next season.
Refer to the Competition Horses Link and photo gallery for more.
In 2007 she was lucky enough to purchase the beautiful dressage stallion Doringcourt (Imp) (Hann.) by Dressage Royal from the Leonie & Volker’s stable. He has had a very successful start to his new life in New Zealand and will be standing at stud this year 2009/2010. Please visit the Doringcourt link to read more about this incredibly talented young stallion.
Andrea’s goal as a rider is to train horses through to and campaign them at the highest level. Currently Andrea has a great team of horses and is excited about what the future holds. To learn more about her team please refer to the Competition Horses Link.
Andrea is extremely focused to further develop dressage training in New Zealand and is passionately dedicated to pass on a sound and solid training system which she strongly believes in to her students. Continuing to be able to travel to Leonie & Volker in Germany and with Leonie regularly visiting New Zealand there is a very exciting journey ahead.
