from: Waikato Times (dated 10 June 2010)

Three Waikato riders helped New Zealand to a commanding victory at the Southern Hemisphere Mounted Games Championships in South Africa recently.

The Morrinsville duo of James Tulett and Allysha Hamerton, along with Matamata's Jasmin Fawcett, were part of the five-strong side that saw off rival teams from Australia and South Africa at the event in Pietermartitzburg.

However, it appears that prohibitive costs will prevent the self-funded Kiwi team from competing at the world championship event in Geneva next month.

Mounted Games is an equestrian sport in which teams, pairs and individuals compete on ponies in a variety of fast-paced races and agility games.

Twenty-year-old Tulett, who also coached the side, said the Kiwis excelled at the vaulting races and eventually won comfortably, with Australia their nearest challengers.

"We went there hoping to win and won quite easily in the end," Tulett said.

The New Zealand team also overcame the handicap that strikes visiting teams, as they have to ride borrowed mounts rather than on their own mounts.

Alongside 17-year-old Hamerton and Fawcett, 16, were two 19-year-olds; Hawke's Bay's Amie Bentall and Auckland's Anja Zoellner.