FINALIST PROFILE
2021 COACH OF THE YEAR FINALIST
MARY HANNA
DRESSAGE – LEVEL 3
MEET MARY
Mary Hanna is no stranger to the international stage having represented Australia at five Olympic Games and at five World Equestrian Games. In 2018 Mary received one of the FEI’s most prestigious accolades, the Gold Badge of Honour. This badge recognises athletes who have been among the 15 best finishers in the Grand Prix in at least 14 CDIO competitions. This year also saw her inducted into the Equestrian Victoria Hall of Fame. Mary regularly coaches, advises and supports many riders here in Australia.
Over the past 18 months since returning to Australia, Mary has been coaching many high performance riders, helping them to continue their dressage journeys. For example, young rider Jessica Dertell has achieved outstanding results under Mary’s coaching and guidance including multiple Championships and placings at 2021 Dressage By The Sea, the 2021 Boneo Summer Classic, the 2021 Victorian YR Championships, the 2020 Dressage Festival.
Mary is known for her professional and positive coaching manner, and is always assisting her students to set and achieve goals. Her wealth of experience and knowledge along with the ability to communicate this to students is highly regarded and sought after.
Mary prides herself on always finding something to learn from whomever she teaches, regardless of their level. Over the past 40 years, she has been a professional rider and coach, coaching all levels to Grand Prix, and has always found coaching dressage to be a very rewarding experience.
More recently she has focused on preparing riders specifically to reach the international Grand Prix arena however in saying that, she continually tries to provide a very personal and specialised program for her riders irrespective of their level. Her focus is on mentoring pupils and she finds seeing even the smallest improvements extremely satisfying.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
JUDGING CRITERIA
- Results and performance of athletes/teams coached by the nominee
- Level of competition – state, national and/or international
- Contribution to the wider coaching community within their sport - mentoring, etc.
HOW TO VOTE
Before casting your vote we’d like you to get to know our finalists by reading their profiles below.
You’ll also need your membership number, so have it handy when you’re ready to make your selections. We also ask that you look at the criteria listed for each category and use these points to make your decision – remember, it’s not about just being a nice person!
When you are ready to cast your vote, simply click on the VOTE NOW button.
VOTING ELIGIBILITY
You must have been a financial member at some point during the period 2020/2021 membership year to be eligible to cast a vote. You are only able to submit ONE voting form per category. The following will be deemed void and will be removed:
- duplicate votes in a category by the same member
- unfinancial members (as per time period above)
- invalid or incorrect membership numbers
