Weekend to remember

‘Pretty Stoked': Rylee Sheehan rides Bandito NZPH to victory in the EvoEvents Horse Grand Prix at the Larsen Sawmilling Equestrian Championships. Picture by Paul Rickard

Te Aroha teenager Rylee Sheehan had a weekend to remember.

Riding Bandito NZPH at the Larsen Sawmilling Equestrian Championships, Sheehan won both the EvoEvents Horse Grand Prix (co-sponsored by Larsen Sawmilling) and the FMG Young Rider contest.

On Maddox Letino, 17-year-old Sheehan took out the Mainland Coachwork Junior Rider event.

He also made his debut as a member of the New Zealand team for the Trans-Tasman Young Rider Test.

“I am pretty stoked,” he said.

“This is a great show for us.”

He last won the Horse Grand Prix — which comes with a garden seat from Larsen Sawmilling — in 2021.

“I was hoping we would do well (in the Horse Grand Prix),” Sheehan said.

“I thought the course was not massive but was technical. It has just been a great weekend.”

Only he and Duncan McFarlane (Taupo), aboard the lovely scopey grey Be Mine NZPH, came back for the jump-off over the John Vallance-designed course, where Sheehan's four-fault effort won the day.

Sheehan, who works for Te Akau Racing, is looking forward to the big events at the end of the season, and especially the Land Rover Horse of the Year Show, where he is hoping to etch his name on some of the major trophies.

New Zealand teammate Tyla Hackett (Cambridge), on Global PH Cocofino, was third in the class.

Any win is special, but for Tess Mason, her victory in the Country TV Pony Grand Prix (co-sponsored by the East Coast Wool Company) was even more so, given it is her last season aboard 18-year-old campaigner Mr Acho.

The horse is a bit of a legend in pony circles. A stellar jumper who has more than his fair share of pony grand prix wins to his name beneath both Tess and her elder sister Ruby.

The Napier combination were the only ones to go clear of the seven-strong opening round over the John Vallance-designed course.

“It was a big track out there and quite long, but I just focus on each fence as it comes,” she said.

They're no strangers to winning pony grand prix and have won many times in Gisborne.

“He is just such a great little pony,” Mason said.

But it is her last season on the bay, who will go on to her coach Sally Clark's grandchildren.

“It means a lot to win today, and especially as we are leading up to the Land Rover Horse of the Year Show.”

It will be their first chance to contest the prestigious Pony of the Year at the Horse of the Year Show, given Tess's age and the interruption of Covid, which has caused the cancellation of the top show for the past two years. Tess is hoping it will all go well.

“I am just so thankful to have him,” she said.

Tess and Mr Acho were also third in the 1.25m.

She teamed up with WP Stella to win the 1.2m and place second in the Mainland Coachwork Junior Rider Series class, and on Small Talk was fourth in the 1.15m.

Local rider Jessica McCann and Kabo Fortune Cookie were second in the Pony Grand Prix, and picked up a win in the open pony 1.2m-1.25m class.