‘It wasn’t bad!’ 83-year-old takes elementary gold win at his first dressage show

An 83-year-old rider who won the elementary gold section at his first ever dressage show said there was “room for improvement” and that his aim is to compete at prix st georges.

Otto van der Wyck and his 11-year-old Ries’ Castore (Casper) scored 62.76% at Crofton Manor last Saturday (20 May), their first time coming down the centre line together.

Mr van der Wyck told H&H he started riding as a teenager but gave up when he went to university, and did not start again until he was in his 50s.

“When I started again, I went hunting,” he said. “My nephew used to go out with the Cotswold and always said ‘You should come’, and after a few years, I said ‘I will’.

“I had a few lessons, and my wife and I both bought horses, then we bought a house in the Cotswolds and kept them there. Then I started eventing, which I did until about seven years ago.”

After Mr van der Wyck hung up his body protector, he stuck to hacking, then a few years ago, bought a dressage horse.

“My wife had gone from hunting to dressage when I went eventing so I bought a dressage horse and had some lessons,” he said. “We moved back to Holland for five years, then my horse got ill and I hurt a muscle and had to have an operation so we didn’t progress for a couple of years.”

The couple moved back to Britain last year but Mr van der Wyck’s horse died of a heart attack.

“It was very sad, I’d had him quite a while,” he said. “Then my wife had a dressage horse who was a bit too big and strong for her so I took him over last year.”

That horse was Casper, on whom Mr van der Wyck has been having lessons with dressage rider and coach Sadie Smith.

“At some stage, she said ‘You’d better go and do a test’, an official competition,” he said. “She chose the level, the venue and the date and off we went.”

Mr van der Wyck said he did not expect to win.

“It wasn’t bad, there was room for improvement,” he said. “I’m going to keep going. I’ll wait for Sadie to work out our next competition – apart from being a very good rider, she’s a very good instructor – and I’m not sure we’ll get there, but my aim is to do a prix st georges.”

Sadie told H&H she was very proud of Mr van der Wyck and Casper.

“I was there to help him warm up and it was really good,” she said. “It was an amazing achievement. He’s a lovely guy and very dedicated, he’s worked so hard.”

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