Blyth's Scott qualifies for world dressage championship in Oklahoma
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
Ashleigh Scott of Blyth has earned her ticket to the 2025 Western Dressage World Championship Show in Guthrie, Oklahoma next month, but, for a variety of reasons, she won’t be punching it.
Scott earned her spot in the prestigious championship thanks to her performance in the Western Dressage Association of America’s Online International Challenge. She made her video submission in June, followed by the judging process in early July and the announcement of the winners via an online awards ceremony on July 6.
She competed in four classes and qualified for the championships in two of them. Scott has made a point of competing virtually in international competitions, a form of participation that has increased in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic. You rent a barn, set up the course and take a video of your performance. You then upload the video to YouTube, submit the link to the competition judges and it’s judged just as it would be if it was at an in-person competition and then you sit back and wait to hear how you did.
Scott has been competing for nearly a decade now, really delving deeper into it when her daughter, Mary Jane, was almost a year old. She’s a lifelong horse lover and horse rider, but it has only been in the last 10 years that she’s decided to take her dressage competition to the next level.
As part of the online challenge she also earned a High Point Breed Award: Paint Cross, which means she was the top scorer in the entire show for all Paint Cross Breed horses in the show. She also noted that there was a healthy level of competition in her classes, with all of her dressage test classes having over 30 fellow competitors, which is a robust field.
Since beginning, Scott said that the World Championship Show has been a goal of hers and, she, her long-time coach and her horse (barn name is Miles, competition name is Tribute to Cowboys) figured it was time to take a real run at competing at the highest level and that wager has paid off with the team’s performance over the course of the year.
As for the show itself, however, Scott has had to pump the brakes. First, travelling to the southern U.S. with a horse in tow from Canada, and all the other associated costs related to being part of the show, would cost upwards of $7,000, a number that just isn’t feasible for Scott right now. Furthermore, the current political climate in the U.S. and the border policies being implemented left her with a fear of not returning to Canada safely and concern for the safety of her horse.
She says that being able to compete in the show, which is always held in Oklahoma, where the association is headquartered, is a dream come true, but, with all of the factors in play and her safety and the safety of her horse of paramount concern, this just isn’t the year to do it. Next year, perhaps, if she qualifies and things change, but, for now, she has to say no.
However, it isn’t all disappointing news for Scott, as she is continuing to compete both virtually and in-person throughout Canada.
Right now, she’s ranked first in the Western Style Dressage Association of Canada’s Basic Amateur class with a total score percentage of 203.339 per cent, nearly four full points above her closest competition for the virtual competition and second in the live competition standings. She has also been competing with live and virtually with the Lambton Dressage Association, live with the prestigious London Dressage Association and virtually with the Saskatchewan Dressage Association.
Miles, she says, is in good shape and is keen to compete, despite being a bit of an older horse, so she hopes to continue to be part of the dressage community for as long as she can, but she realizes that there are limitations associated with riding an older horse in these type of competitions.