LOOK LOOK LOOK!!!

Check out this awesome opportunity to win a trip to WEG in Kentucky. This will be a highly coveted prize so make sure you enter the Fiber Fresh Feeds CIC Horse Trial in April. If you make the draw you have a 1 in 18 chance of winning and you don't get better odds than that.  Check out the schedule on the eventing page for details

3*** Show Jumping Wrap Up

There was action aplenty all weekend at the Woodhill Sands 3*** Festival. Friday show jumping kicked off the series classes with the Astek Stud 5YO fielding great entries. Showing what quality young horses are about at the moment, successful rides came from Katie McVean on Dunstan Springfield, Greg Jamieson riding Vollrath Chagall, Phillippa Duley on Vernazza, Phillip Steiner on Annandale Branson MVSH and Jacob Razak riding Thornfields Annies Song.

The Iverquantel Amateur Rider class was hotly contested with Dean Morgan and BMW Black Magic taking the red rosette only just ahead of Merran Hain riding Untouchable. Tarnia Morris on BMW Fjola were third from Karen Riddle and The Mighty Quinn in fourth, Nicola Smith on Chrialka Dettori fifth and Jamie Campbell riding Century to sixth place.  

Saturday's Cushionride 7YO was taken out by the very stylish Whittaker MVNZ ridden by Ike Unsworth. Tessa Williams was second on Alltech Craighaven Nitro with Natasha Lammers picking up third place on Tele Star. As always, the Toyota Young Rider was highly competitive with victory going to Rachel McGregor on Kabo Benny Boy, just pipping Daniell Maurer in second place on Blue Rinse with Kiwi Brave in third ridden by Rachael Bentall.

Sunday had all the action to cap off a great weekend with the Pony Mini Prix, FMG Pony Grand Prix, the Cathay Pacific 1* and 3*** Grands Prix.  Hannah Bodle took out the Mini Prix on Code Spree while Hannah Harding rode the talented Hawai Haka to success in the 3*** Pony Grand Prix. Megan Stacey capped off her weekend with a win in the 1* Grand Prix riding Shimmer Man, with Sally Steiner in second on Wickcliffe Brannigan. Katie McVean once again showed how it's done 3*** style by placing 1, 2 & 3 in the Cathay Pacific Grand Prix, on Dunstan Daffodil, Corofino II and Dunstan Delphi respectively.

For full results go to the Show Jumping page and Show Hunter pages.

Horse and Pony Slalom a Huge Success

Friday night's horse and pony team slalom race seemed like a fun idea at the time - we just didn't realise how much fun it would be.  14 teams entered the event and we saw everthing from sibling rivalry and unbelievable speed to ponies attempting jumps higher than their own heads.

The event was run as a speed class with rails adding time rather than faults to the score. Racing against the light as well as each other, the teams in the knock out rounds got faster and faster and more competitive as they went on. Quite a group had gathered in front of the kiosk to have a cold drink and watch the action and very soon they were madly cheering for their favourite teams.

Northland's Wilson sisters, Vicki and Amanda, turned on a display and showed us all how it's done by riding bareback! Winning each of their knock out rounds to very loud cheers they just got faster and more daring with each round.  Ultimately victory was theirs but only by the slimmest of time margins. In the finals they rode against Rosie Commons and Paxton Conder where we saw the closest finish of the evening. Paxton managed to cross the line just slightly ahead of Amanda however once the teams had time penalties added for their rails the Wilsons were victorious - but by less than a second, talk about close!

All in all it was great fun and highly entertaining. Thanks go to sponsor Waimarie Wines, producers of premium quality, handcrafted wines. To find out more about Waimarie Wines visit their website www.waimariewines.co.nz