from Equestrian Sports NZ
The New Zealand Pony riders have completed a successful trip in South Africa but couldnt quite beat the home team
Competing on borrowed ponies Emily Fraser, Olivia Robertson, Paxton Conder, and Sam Matthews experienced competition on the other side of the globe and whilst they could not quite beat the home team the tour was a great experience for all.
Day 1 of competition
A challenging course with a particularly difficult line threw a spanner in the works for both teams. A narrow brush stile which was right next to the open water jump caused trouble for many with some of the ponies taking a dislike to the water, and riders having to really work to get the ponies down the line. Not one of the NZ team stopped, but the rail came down for some, other faults were scattered around the course.
After Round 1 NZ was sitting on a total of 16 faults and S.A on 12. The second round was over a slightly shortened course and all rode very classy rounds with NZ picking up just 4 faults along the way and the South Africans 0. Some lucky rubs for S.A and some unlucky rails for us.
Day 2 of competition
A challenging track with bending lines to both double and treble combinations which required more technical riding suited the Kiwi team today. Finishing the first round on a total of 4 faults to South Africas 8, the pressure was on to jump clean rounds to win todays round. The girls stepped up and stayed cool under pressure to finish on 0 for the second round securing the win for round two.
This put the teams of level pegging 3-all points after the two rounds which took them to a jumpoff to decide the overall winner. We were pipped into second behind the speedy South Africans.
Although unfortunate not being able to win overall, the team performed outstandingly on borrowed ponies, and this was the first time the competition had been against a true selected South African team who are at the top of their ponies rankings (one of their riders had just returned from WEG in the vaulting team), and also the first time that teams had swapped ponies for the two rounds. The standard was high with few faults accumulated over the rounds, considering the teams were jumping borrowed ponies at their top level this made for terrific competition.
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