The entire New Zealand team for the Mounted Games World Teams Championships in Wales, July 2012, competed in the Hawke's Bay individuals last week.
The competition was fast and furious, with NZ team members racing to be named Hawke's Bay Open Individual champion. Mistakes cost points as they used advanced horsemanship, upper body strength and superb hand-eye co-ordination to perform the skills at top speed on horseback.
Hawkes Bay is extremely proud to provide almost the entire New Zealand team. Such a high concentration of NZ international representative team members from one area is unprecedented in mounted games and is a testament to the strength of the local branch. High school students Josh Dewar, Amy and Emma Wiltshire, alongside university student Amie Bentall, make up the Hawke's Bay contingent, Turangi farrier Morgan Larsen-Church completes the team. The travelling reserve rider, Kevin Egging, is from Waikato. Larsen-Church could only compete for one of the two days and so was unable to finish the competition.
The New Zealand team will compete at the World Teams Championships in Wales this July aboard borrowed mounts. Experienced international competitor and NZ team coach Scott Borland says this presents significant challenges and requires keen horsemanship skills, especially when competing against riders on their own mounts. "We have done it in the past. In 2008, New Zealand won the world champs when it was held in Australia, but it's extremely difficult" he said.
New Zealand will host the world championships next year in conjunction with Horse of the Year and planning for the organisers is well under way. Event co-ordinator Chris Hope says that with the expectation of 12-15 teams from all over the world competing on borrowed mounts sourced from within New Zealand, there is a significant logistical task ahead but one they are confident will be a huge success in conjunction with support from local and international businesses.