 Formosa on the field in 2012 | |||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian | ||||||||||
| Born | 19 February 1961 | ||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||
| Sport | Equestrian | ||||||||||
Medal record
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Joann Formosa, OAM (born 19 February 1961) is an Australian Para-equestrian, who won a gold medal at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Joann Helen Formosa was born on 19 February 1961, [1] [2] and is from Broadford [1] in central Victoria. [3] She attended university, where she studied art. [1]
Formosa has spinal cord and nerve damage, caused by an accident following an attempt to open a gate while she was riding a horse. [1] [4] She can walk with the aid of crutches, [5] though she is not self-sufficient, and requires assistance from nursing staff at Mitchell Community Health Services. [4] She has severe allergies to substances including horse feed and hay. [6]
Formosa started competing in equestrian in 1980. [1] Before her accident, she competed in dressage and show jumping events. [4] She helped found Kilmore Adult Riding Club, the first adult pony club in her region. [4]
Formosa is a Grade 1B equestrian dressage competitor. [1] [5] As a competitor in this class, she is required to perform a "dressage test involving medium to collected walk, a quarter walk pirouette and a long rein walk, as well as working trot and lengthening in the trot." [5] She competes without stirrups as she does not have enough leg control to justify them. [4] She has been coached by Manuela McLeans since 2011. [4] [7] She is a member of Riding for the Disabled Victoria, [8] and is based at the Australian Equine Behaviour Centre at Clonbinane. [9] As of 2012 [update] , she has a scholarship with the Victorian Institute of Sport. [10]
At the 2006 Victorian State Dressage Championships, Formosa finished first in the Grade 1B event while riding Greenhill Chromes Reflection. [11] She competed in the 2006 World Equestrian Games, where she made her national team debut and competed in her first competition outside Australia. [1] [9] After returning from this competition, Formosa had an accident while riding her horse. [1] She was a member of Australia's 2009 National High Performance Squad. [12] In 2009, she competed in the Australian Masters Game. [13] She finished first in the 2011 National Championship in the Grade 1B category. [1] [9] At the Victorian-hosted 2011 Oceania Championships, she won two gold medals. [1] At the 2012 London Paralympics, she won a gold medal in the Mixed Dressage - Championship grade Ib event. [14] She qualified on Worldwide PB, a "former Wanganui-owned Hanoverian stallion" that she acquired in December 2011. [3] [5]
In November 2013, Formosa was awarded the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) Against All Odds award. [15] She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in the 2014 Australia Day Honours "for service to sport as a Gold Medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games." [2]
Dressage is a form of horse riding performed in exhibition and competition, as well as an art sometimes pursued solely for the sake of mastery. As an equestrian sport defined by the International Equestrian Federation, dressage is described as "the highest expression of horse training" where "horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements.".
A horse show is a judged exhibition of horses and ponies. Many different horse breeds and equestrian disciplines hold competitions worldwide, from local to the international levels. Most horse shows run from one to three days, sometimes longer for major, all-breed events or national and international championships in a given discipline or breed. Most shows consist of a series of different performances, called classes, wherein a group of horses with similar training or characteristics compete against one another for awards and, often, prize money.
Equestrian sports were first included in the Olympic Games in the Summer Olympics of 1900 in Paris. They were again included in 1912, and have been included in every subsequent edition of the Games. The Olympic equestrian disciplines are dressage, eventing, and show-jumping. In each discipline, both individual and team medals are awarded. Women and men compete on equal terms.
Eva Maria "Evi" Pracht was a Canadian equestrian who competed in dressage in the 1984 Summer Olympics and was part of the bronze-medallist team at the 1988 Summer Olympics.
Isabell Werth is a German equestrian and world champion in dressage who competed in the Olympics six times winning twelve medals, seven of them gold. She holds the record for the most Olympic medals won by any equestrian athlete.
Anne Patricia Dunham OBE is a British Para-equestrian who has competed in the Paralympic Games.
Laura Tomlinson MBE is a German-British dressage rider competing at Olympic level. As of 30 June 2012 the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) ranked her 3rd in the world riding Mistral Højris and 36th on Andretti H. In that year, Tomlinson, riding Mistral Højris under her maiden name of Laura Bechtolsheimer, won two medals in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London; gold for Great Britain in the team dressage with Carl Hester and Charlotte Dujardin, the first ever Olympic team gold in the discipline for her country, and bronze in the individual dressage behind gold medalist and compatriot Dujardin.
Julie Elizabeth Higgins, OAM is an Australian equestrian rider who won two gold medals at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney.
Carl Hester is a British dressage rider competing at Olympic level. As of 8 August 2012, the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) rank him 12th in the world riding Uthopia. In 2012, Hester formed part of the Great Britain Dressage team that won gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Rob Oakley is an Australian equestrian. He represented Australia in equestrian at the 2012 Summer Paralympics but did not medal.
Hannah Dodd is an Australian Grade IV equestrian and 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player who represented Australia in equestrian at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, coming 11th and 12th in her events. Switching to wheelchair basketball, she made her debut with the national team at the Osaka Cup in February 2015.
Grace Bowman is an Australian equestrian. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the equestrian event. She did not medal at the 2012 Games.
Para-equestrian classification is a system for para-equestrian sport is a graded system based on the degree of physical or visual disability and handled at the international level by the FEI. The sport has eligible classifications for people with physical and vision disabilities. Groups of eligible riders include The sport is open to competitors with impaired muscle power, athetosis, impaired passive range of movement, hypertonia, limb deficiency, ataxia, leg length difference, short stature, and vision impairment. They are grouped into five different classes to allow fair competition. These classes are Grade I, Grade II, Grade III, Grade IV, and Grade V(Grade Names Changed as of Jan 2017). The para-equestrian classification does not consider the gender of the rider, as equestrines compete in mixed gender competitions.
Para-equestrian is an equestrian sport governed by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports (FEI), and includes two competitive events: One is para-equestrian dressage, which is conducted under the same basic rules as conventional dressage, but with riders divided into different competition grades based on their functional abilities. The other is para-equestrian driving, which operates under the same basic rules as combined driving but places competitors in various grades based on their functional abilities.
Sophie Wells is a British para-equestrian who won three medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and 2 Golds and 1 Silver at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, and most recently Team Gold & Individual Silver at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Natasha Louise Baker is a British para-equestrian who won 2 gold medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, 3 at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, and 1 more in the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Deborah Criddle MBE is a British para-equestrian who won three gold medals at the 2004 Summer Paralympics and three medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
Ricky Balshaw, is a British para equestrian rider who represented Britain in the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, winning the silver medal with Deacons Georgi. He also holds two world-championships and one European award.
Lauren Barwick is a member of the Canadian Equestrian Team, in grade II Para-Dressage, who has competed in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games. She won three medals in those games. Barwick has featured in CBC's Heartland and has several awards.
Nathalie Bizet is a French Para-Equestrian Dressage rider. She won a bronze medal.
