Megan Bryant Equestrian

Donnabella is a very special horse, who took dressage to an all new level for me.  Before owning Donnabella I had ridden 2 horses to FEI dressage, a Riding Pony and a Thoroughbred but was probably focused more on eventing at that stage.  In early 2009 I sold a talented eventer and bought Donnabella, and will be forever grateful to Roger Fitzhardinge who called up my Mum and said we had to get to Sydney to buy this horse.  Without Donnabella my team of horses would be very different to this day, as many of my horses are related to her.  Mr Jackson and Donnabella have the same mother and the only reason I bought him, we also bought her full sister Donna Karan from Bradgate Park, who has bred 3 beautiful fillies for us, Donnabella herself has 4 embryo transfer foals, one of which is Furst Dance and the other 3 not yet undersaddle, and in 2017 she is set to become a grand-mother!

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In 2009 we competed at Medium/Advanced and I learnt how to ride a warmblood with massive paces, very different to my riding pony!  We had our first PSG start in 2010 and then a shock win at the Sydney CDI*** in the CDI-Y class saw us with a chance to go to Germany to compete at the FEI World Cup Final for Young Riders!  This was definitely not what I had planned or expected but when an opportunity of a lifetime presents itself you have to grab it!  So in November 2010 we flew to Germany, and what an amazing experience it was.  There were many small bumps on our journey, starting with Donnabella's flight being cancelled, luckily I had my Mum to do all the stressing for me!  Donnabella's horse shyness which I could manage in Australia, was amplified at Frankfurt CDI when there were over 20 horses in a dressage arena, getting her around the warm up without a fright was a challenge so once we got into the main arena there was nothing that was going to scare her in there.  She was totally relaxed, too relaxed for our first test and we placed 11th.  The next day we drew first to go and finished 8th, one place off making the A final.  The Freestyle was very close with every judge having a different winner and we ended up 4th!  We also got a start in the PSG at Mechelen CDI in Belgium and got to compete against the worlds best riders before heading home. 

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We competed the next 2 years with success at PSG/Inter 1 level, including at win at Sydney CDI*** in the PSG and winning the Aachen Challenge.  In 2014 she sustained an injury after a clumsy step off the truck, she came fully sound again after a few months rest and I rode her again but made the decision not to compete her anymore.  She now enjoys her retirement living with the 2 year olds, I am always so tempted to jump back on her to ride that amazingly powerful trot, but I know she would be rather out in paddock playing in the mud!  So I will stick to riding her foals and I have great hopes for them!

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