Winter Riding Memeberships Back

Winter is well and truly here and whilst the rain is a bit of a shock to the system it doesn't mean the riding has to stop. Monthly memberships are back for winter. Memberships are $50 per calendar month per rider, riding up to 3 horses. Fantastic mud free riding all winter! Riders are able to ride anywhere on the sand and dressage areas and show jumps are always set up.

The summer casual hire special has ended and casual arena hire is back to the standard $15.00 per horse.

To organise your winter membership contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Winter Livery Available

If you're looking for winter grazing or need livery for your horse then contact Shelley. Woodhill Sands is offering winter livery and grazing. For more details contact Shelley: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone 0274972637.

Winter Show Jumping & Show Hunter

We had a very full day on Sunday with large class numbers in all rings. The full results will be up today including an updated accumulator. The competition is really hotting up in the leaderboards and I'm sure will continue for the rest of the winter series.We have some great accumulator prizes on offer so make sure you note down the remaining dates in the series and keep earning those accumulator points.

Fiber Fresh Eventing Wrap Up

What a glorious way to end our autumn eventing calendar. With phenomenal entries in the weeks leading up to the competition, the Woodhill Sands admin team was hard at work ensuring everyone was able to get a start and a yard. The course building team pride themselves on bringing new and challenging tracks for each competition and so were also working hard to achieve their goals.

Saturday dawned chilly and a little foggy and with more than 350 entries the seven dressage arenas were going all day. Heelan Tompkins took an early lead in the Advanced class, just 2.4 penalties ahead of Chloe Davidson on Eskimo Joe, herself just marginally in front of Christen Hayde and Tandarra Sweet As. Chelsey Hawthorn and Pioneer Zeuss led the Intermediate after dressage, while Ricker Ridge Pico Boo and Samantha Felton headed up Open Novice and Novice A saw Hannah Gloyn and My Cool Jackson at the top of the field after their dressage test. Novice B had Gillian Meacham leading after dressage while in the Pre Novice classes James Jackson took an early lead in Pre Novice A with Danni Lodder heading up Pre Novice B on Peti Peti Colorado and Kirstin Kelly leading Pre Novice C on Waimanu Sparkle.

Rails were falling regularly in both show jump rings however many of the top placed riders managed to either jump clear or have minimal faults. This meant there was little change to the leaderboards after show jumping.

Conditions were perfect for Sunday's cross country. As one would expect two weeks out from Taupo, all tracks were a true test of the grade. Frank Phillips built two great tracks for the Novice and Pre Novice classes and both courses rode very well indeed. The Intermediate and Advanced courses were built by Chris Ross and both were big bold tracks, giving riders a very good idea of how their horses are going, heading into Taupo. The Training and Pre Training courses travelled a different route than usual so was a nice change for riders used to doing those tracks. Some combinations were even included to give riders the opportunity of riding some more technical lines whilst still being at a small enough height not to cause too much trouble.

Second after show jumping, Heelan Tompkins and Cortaflex Up N Go jumped round the cross country clear but with 15.2 time faults. This was still good enough to take out the Advanced class with Christen Hayde and Tandarra Sweet As hot on her heals in second place, just .2 of a penalty behind her. They also jumped cleared but incurred 21.6 time penalties allowing Heelan to sneak ahead.

They say clear rounds win ribbons and this was the case for Kelsey Rothery and The Felon. Seventh after dressage Kelsey had faultless show jumping and cross country rounds to emerge on top. Kelsey was the only rider to go double clear in both the show jumping and cross country. In second place was Chelsey Hawthorn and Pioneer Zuess and third went to Kate Hewlett and Double Click. The Open Novice was taken out by Samantha Felton who led start to finish on Ricker Ridge Pico Boo, while Donna Smith and BMW Advokaat were second from Georgia Montgomery in third place on Mahoenui.

It was a very successful weekend for Sam Felton who also took out Novice A on  Ricker Ridge Escada - Sam must be feeling very confident in her team going into Taupo. Second in Novice A was Campbell Draper on Blake from Hannah Gloyn in third on My Cool Jackson. Novice B spoils went to Alycia Burton and Classic Crusader with Alex Chambers-Steward in second aboard Peti Peti Wai and Gillian Meacham third on Hitchhiker.

Steph Fankhauser and Midnight Cappuccino took out Pre Novice A from Sarah Young and SS Galaxy, and Megan Finlayson on Greensleeves in third place. Pre Novice B was won start to finish by Danni Lodder on Peti Peti Colorado with Andrea Kersten claiming second prize on Limbo Rock AF from Kirstin Kelly in third place aboard Awairoa. Madeline Banks won Pre Novice C on Makana Temptation with Nick Brooks coming second on Striking and Donna Smith claiming third place aboard Waitangi My Space.

Full results are on the Eventing page.

As always a tremendous amount of effort goes into preparing for the events and running them over the course of the weekend. We'd like to say thank you to all riders from the weekend, who did a great job of being everywhere they needed to be on time, which meant all arenas, sj rings and cross country tracks ran smoothly and to time - a tremendous effort!

Thank you also to the huge amount of people that came up to the office over the weekend to offer help, we really appreciate your generosity and it helps enormously to keep the weekend running smoothly. Thank you to all our judges, stewards, course designers and builders - everyone that lent a hand or picked up a pole!

And it goes without saying that one of the best sponsors in the land are Fiber Fresh Feeds. They are synonymous with Eventing at Woodhill Sands, having been our Eventing sponsors for many years, and we really do appreciate their support of us and of Eventing in New Zealand. Who could fail to see the Fiber Fresh truck parked on the hill and used as part of the Advanced and Intermediate course - didn't it look fabulous! Hopefully we'll have some great photos of that to post on the website.

So that was our last Horse Trial of the season but don't despair, we have a full winter calendar of mini ODEs, show jump and cross country practise days so keep an eye on the events calendar.

See you at Taupo!