The Press:

 Equestrian eventer Annabel Wigley might feel a few pangs of guilt over the summer while her horse, Black Drum, sacrifices the New Zealand heat for an English winter.

Wigley will argue with her gelding that the sacrifice will be worth it if all their plans eventuate. While the equestrienne has returned to Amberley, Black Drum has been left in the northern hemisphere to await her return ahead of the prestigious Badminton Horse Trials in May.

Wigley hopes the event will be the path to their selection for the New Zealand team to compete in the eventing World Games in Kentucky, in the United States, in late September.

Transferring horses between hemispheres is not just costly – they also risk falling ill as they acclimatise to the change in environments.

"I have someone over there doing a small amount of work with him during their winter," Wigley said. "We didn't have such a good year this year because of a few minor things and he had a fractured tooth which had to be operated on."

Wigley and Black Drum finished 29th at the Burleigh Horse Trials in September, the gelding impressing with his jumping but struggling in the dressage.

Looming large on the New Zealand eventing calendar is the three-star event in Puhinui, near Auckland, from December 11-13, the trial which Wigley and Black Drum won in dramatic circumstances five years ago in their first attempt.

Wigley will not contest the three-star event this year, instead entering four other horses in the two and one-star categories which include her own mounts Enzo, Brogan and Frog Rock.

She has entered the Central Districts event this weekend, which will be followed by the Richfields event the following weekend.

Christchurch's Alice Montgomery will enter Tanqueray in the three-star event at Puhinui while her other mount, Gordon, will sit it out. Montgomery recently completed her architecture studies and will transfer to Palmerston North, where she intends to concentrate on dressage.

Montgomery holds few hopes of being selected to represent her country at the world games: "I have not considered it – it would be a major surprise. I am aiming for the Olympics in 2012."

She has also entered the Central Districts and Richfields trials.

West Melton's Emily Butcher has three mounts entered at Puhinui, but none in the three-star event. If the sale of Benjamin James goes through she may take just two, Transend and My Shout, to the North Island next week.

Her gelding Southern Ben, which it was hoped would sell for around $400,000 in 2008, still has not recovered from a leg injury, and despite winning both dressage events at the Christchurch Show last week, is not allowed to jump.

Butcher's only chance of being selected for the World Games is if Southern Ben makes a rapid recovery. "That is probably more of a long shot. I am probably looking to the London Olympics now."