Equestrian sports: Tauranga’s Phillip Steiner competing in Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final

Tauranga horseman Phillip Steiner with Cassina Dior will represent NZ at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Nebraska. Photo / Cornege Photography

New Zealand has its first representative at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final in eight years, with Tauranga horseman Phillip Steiner and his horse Cassina Dior competing in Omaha, Nebraska.

He’s rapt with how his mare is feeling as they prepare for the final, especially considering she has spent 60-plus hours on a plane in the last month, travelling from New Zealand to Australia, Bangkok, Doha, The Netherlands and then the United States.

“It is a huge ask for a horse but she is jumping nicely, feels very comfortable and is surprisingly unfazed by everything around her,” says Steiner, who runs a small farm and busy trucking business in Tauranga.

It is their first ever 5* start – the highest echelons of the sport of jumping. In Omaha, he is up against the very best in the world. There are 44 combinations from 19 countries on the card.

“It can be overwhelming when you think about who is here but I just focus on my job. I am excited for tomorrow (the opening round) – it will be technical so there will be heaps to think about.”

He says there are plenty of “pinch me” moments, especially when sitting in the stands with his trainer, double silver medallist Greg Best, watching others ride. “Just getting here in one piece is incredible,” Steiner said.

“It is a little bit like a dream. I keep having real pinch-yourself moments.”

Also with him in Omaha his wife Sally, with their children James, Oliver and Francie, as well as the horse’s breeder Pip McCarroll.

The final runs over three rounds.

The first was today (NZ time) ith the second round scheduled for 12.15pm tomorrow followed by a rest day on Saturday before the top 30 battle it out for top honours in the final round on Sunday.

Steiner earned the right to compete at the world final when he won the New Zealand league in January. Katie Laurie (nee McVean) was the last to represent New Zealand at the prestigious event in 2015 in Las Vegas. She also produced the nation’s best-ever result, with a sixth-place finish in Germany in 2015.

The Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final is being live-streamed.

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