The 2001 National Dressage Championships were a huge event with literally hundreds of people involved in making it happen.  Some people would have had just a small input - and other such as the Event Director - Toni Venhaus (pictured right), worked tirelessly, for many, many months to ensure that nothing was left to chance and competitors, spectators, officials and sponsors all had their most optimistic expectations for the event met.

Toni is a livewire - no wonder she is so slim, she never stopped and I was very taken with her ability to juggle tens jobs at one, never to seem frustrated or annoyed (although I am sure she must have been at times!) and to co-ordinate the special requirements of everyone involved in the event.

The competition organisation gave all of the sponsors the very best opportunity to get the maximum exposure and ongoing benefit and the role of The Peter Warren Group was very much the 'flavour' of the way the outdoor areas were set up.  I spoke to a number of people, and it was agreed that the huge effort in bringing almost an entire car yard to the site, along with the colourful signage (which doubled up as most welcome shade) made for a really great carnival like atmosphere.  Kevin Browning - A Senior Executive, and driving force behind the concept is pictured right.

Over 4 days there were 21 competitions conducted, with 29 judges officiating.  Over 20 people had a direct role in the administration of the event and of course the Committee of the NSW Dressage Council were all directly involved.

Two 'unsung' heroes of the event were the wonderful electronic scorers Ken & Pat Weeks who call themselves Scoring Solutions.  Not too  many people realise that Ken and Pat sat in a dark room - no view to the competitions arenas (NO windows at all!!) and tirelessly slaved away over a 'hot computer' for four full days and till 11.00 on Saturday evening, to ensure that timely and accurate score sheets were available.  Remarkable to organisers made sure that copies of the progressive scored were available throughout the day.  Pat and Ken do this remarkable job for a fee that would only cover costs - where would out sport be without the generosity of wonderful people like them (and in Victoria we have Leon Baggot and his team!).  Well done to Ken, Pat and all those who assisted them (see below)

Great effort Franz!