Ryan hosted a clinic for keen riders of the local area at the Bryant's property during the week, giving instructions on how to improve and score higher points while competing.

His passion for the sport cannot be argued and despite Australia not achieving as well as it once did at the Olympics in the saddle, Ryan believes the journey has begun which will see medals return down under.

"In the eventing we won gold medals in 1992, 1996 and 2000 which has never been done in the world before and everybody said that can't be done by Australia or a country from the Southern Hemisphere so it gave us a lot of pleasure," Ryan said.

"The interesting thing was that the performances came from kids in the bush and once we were established gold medalists we got a lot of recognition and funding but it was cities which responded the quickest and the sport became focused in the city which changed it's population," Ryan said.

Since 2000 though Australia has had very little success in the sport and at the same time according to Ryan, the sport drifted away from country areas, however it is slowly becoming recognised again.

"The bush took a bashing when everyone became focused on the funding and the bush faded," he said.

"It became so city orientated with the high profile but it's definitely coming back again and there is awareness on all levels that areas like this [Cowra] are a serious contributing factor when it comes to our success," Ryan said.

Ryan went to praise the talent he sees while hosting clinics in the country.

"I've been to the Olympics and when I'm doing clinics out here I think to myself 'hang on a minute this is the ingredients of a journey' its starting to become something not to be scoffed at; its getting very serious whats going on now," he said.

Ryan's clinic was held at the Bryant's sand arena which the former Olympian was full of praise for, saying the sand prevents the horse from suffering injuries.

"This arena is really fancy," Ryan said.

"You might think its just a bush sand arena but its actually state of the art and its an Olympic state of the art idea," he said.

The local riders had plenty of opportunity to learn from the best and with the Young Dressage Association Championships coming up soon they were taking full advantage.

This year the competition will be run from April 17 to 19 competing all day over the three days. Saturday will also include a light horse display from 4.30pm in respect of the 100 year ANZAC anniversary.

It is the largest dressage event in NSW outside of Sydney with over 200 horses competing from all over the state and some interstate competitors are also expected.

Heath Ryan believes the Championships might just host some future gold medalists.

"We are on the move to medal contention in the near future," he concluded.