‘Leading thoroughbred’ award for Untouchable

Merran Hain and Untouchable. File picture by Diana Dobson

EQUESTRIAN

UNTOUCHABLE, ridden and owned by Gisborne’s Merran Hain, was named leading thoroughbred of the Glistening Waters Show in Masterton at the weekend.

Held at Solway Showgrounds, the Glistening Waters Jumping and ESNZ Series Final Show ran from Friday to Sunday.

The award for Untouchable was among those presented during the jumping series grand final awards evening on Saturday.

In the show itself, Gisborne riders Jenny Randall on Nero Bello and Holly Baines on Halo were second and third respectively in the amateur rider grand final. Carterton’s Emily Kozlowski on Double J Wilma won the event.

Another Gisborne rider, Fraser Tombleson, rode Mea I to third place in the top-ranking mare event. They had 68 points. Ahead of them were winners — for the second year in a row — Brooke Edgecombe (Waipukurau) and LT Holst Andrea, 187 points, and runners-up Melody Matheson (Hastings) and Cortaflex Graffiti MH, 153 points.

Toast of the awards dinner were Christchurch rider Tegan Fitzsimon and Windermere Cappuccino. They won the ESNZ (Equestrian Sports New Zealand) Premier League, Equissage Horse Grand Prix and the ESNZ Eight-year-old Series, adding to the FEI World Cup (NZ) Series they had already won this season.

In the preceding years, they won the five-, six- and seven-year-old series titles.

Cambridge rider Emily Hayward, 19, continued her successful season, winning her fourth consecutive young rider series crown. She has also won the Olympic Cup as New Zealand showjumper of the year, and the Nationwide Cup for most points across the Horse of the Year Show.

Morrinsville’s Emma Watson and Maddox Fun House are the first combination to have won the pony grand prix series three years in a row. It was a fitting finale to the partnership . . . the pony has now been sold.

Nineteen-year-old Steffi Whittaker, of Christchurch, received the leading New Zealand jumping stallion award for Eros K, a horse that died last month.

Rose Alfeld (Christchurch) won two series — the five-year-old with Eye Catcher NZPH and the seven-year-old with Cadenza NZPH.

Hastings rider Kim Best and LT Holst Teacher’s Pet won the six-year-old series.

Melody Matheson won the university series, Dannevirke’s Sally Clark and home-bred Victoria’s Secret won the pro-amateur rider, Auckland’s Paxton Conder came back from a life-threatining fall to win the amateur rider on La Fonteyn, and Ally Carson (Putaruru) and Tayler Nalder (North Canterbury) shared the honours in the junior rider series.

Amanda Illston (Masterton) was the leading lady rider of the show, with Jamie Hobb (Wellington) and Ella von Dadelszen (Waipukurau) the leading girl riders.