Scone rider Andrew Driffield is continuing his journey with Virtus, heading over to Winchester Hampshire, England to represent Australia at the 2024 Virtus European Equestrian Championships from July 15 to 19.
Last year at the Virtus Global Games in Vichy, France, Andrew won gold in team dressage alongside teammates Sui Watts and Sarah Sherwood, also scoring two individual gold medals and a silver medal.
“It’ll be great to be riding with Sarah and Sui again, everybody knows that we’re the defending champions from last year at the Global Games so a lot of countries, especially France and Spain want a bit of revenge from us, so we’ll just have to be on guard and hopefully we’ll come away with another victory,” Andrew said.
Andrew, Sarah and Sui will also be joined this year by other riders from across the country including New South Wales’ Chloe Karsten, South Australian Catherine Viney, Victorian Phoebe Roche and Western Australian riders Luke Purtill and Bel Dabic.
“We’ve come a long way since France where we only had a few riders, but now we’re building up so I’m stoked that we have five new riders coming with us,” Andrew said.
“It’ll be life changing for them and it’s going to be great, having them ride halfway across the world for Australia.”
This time, Andrew will also be able to take coach, Jess Somerfield, with him.
With the Championships quickly approaching, there’s only a few weeks to fundraise $20,000 to help send the team over.
For more information on helping Andrew and the Australian team represent the nation in England, give Libby Rodgers a call on 0408 060 292.
-MEREDITH BLAIR
