Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Pony club: Bay excelling in horsemanship

By Anendra Singh
Hawkes Bay Today·
2 May, 2014 02:29 AM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

IMPRESSED: The Hawke's Bay Area Horse Trial Championship team. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

IMPRESSED: The Hawke's Bay Area Horse Trial Championship team. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

THEY ARE not the top guns in the country in horse trials but the Hawke's Bay Area Pony Club team are second to none when it comes to the equine etiquette of horse care and horsemanship.

"It [horsemanship] puts the welfare of your horse ahead of everything else - the yard is mucked and watered and there's hay there all the time," explains Zoe Strawbridge after the Bay contingent returned from the Waikato Area Pony Club-hosted nationals last weekend, finishing fourth overall in a field of 12 at Kihikihi Domain grounds.

The Bay won the Quality Presentations Team Management Award involving 238 pony club branches with more than 9400 riders from as far south as Otago-Southland to the top in Northland.

"We weren't quite on to it in the dressage, really," says the 16-year-old from the outskirts of Waipukurau after the Bay had to settle for ninth place on day one following the dressage phase.

They negotiated the challenging crosscountry section on day two to peg them back to fifth before consolidating the fourth position in the showjumping discipline.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Pony club national president Heather Grant, of Otane, said: "It's the best Hawke's Bay placing we've had in years."

Bay team manager Jo Wynne-Lewis expressed similar sentiments, lauding her troops for claiming the team management award which recognises quality of horse care and horsemastership, a "just recognition of the integrity of the team".

"[The team] had not only ability but real team spirit," Wynne-Lewis says.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Franklin Thames Valley are this year's champions with Auckland the runners-up and Waitemata Rodney third.

Strawbridge says the horse-care component entails the gear element of ensuring the mount is equipped with proper saddle and bridle, jumping boots and the aspects of grooming.

Each member of the team, including the manager, coach and the reserves, received a rosette although the reserves must be present throughout the four-day championship to receive one.

It's a teams' championship comprising a maximum of six riders involving three divisions - that is, A1 riders 17 years and under 21; DC riders 16 years and under; and MT riders 14 and under.

All must have a maximum of two riders a team. Individual titles are also up for grabs in each division.

Strawbridge, a Central Hawke's Bay College year 12 pupil, who rides 13-year-old gelding Roo Baloo, says looking prim and proper is imperative in dressage.

"We need to do more work on it. Everyone has done a good job to get in the team but everything has to be correct," she explains, adding it often came down to "horses listening or not" on the day.

Some Bay combinations went nicely but were not good enough compared with top opposition.

"The judging was quite tough but it was also quite fair."

She reckons a fair bit of imperfection lay with riders, too.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"If you're not giving the horse a fair chance to go over a fence then it'll look at you [as if to say], 'I can't do that'," says the teenage daughter of livestock farmers Donald and Janeane Strawbridge.

Isaac Twigg, who lives not far from the Strawbridges, and Tessa Wallace, of Hastings, were fifth and sixth, respectively, in their age-group trainers' category after three sections of competition.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

Premium
Hawkes Bay Today

Two CHB wins on finals weekend at McLean Park

Hawkes Bay Today

Club rugby stars announced in Magpies NPC squad


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

Premium
Premium
Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa
Hawkes Bay Today

Black Ferns: Tui pair on the big bird for matches in South Africa

The two started their senior women's rugby for Hawke's Bay while still at school.

17 Jul 04:00 AM
Premium
Premium
Two CHB wins on finals weekend at McLean Park
Hawkes Bay Today

Two CHB wins on finals weekend at McLean Park

15 Jul 06:00 PM
Club rugby stars announced in Magpies NPC squad
Hawkes Bay Today

Club rugby stars announced in Magpies NPC squad

15 Jul 06:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP