Equestrian: Putting Dee in dogged

Luke Dee has complete faith in horse Ombudsman. Photo / Duncan Brown

Ask teenager Luke Dee where he is ranked in the world and he doesn't mince words in an attempt to build a facade of self-importance.

"I have no ranking at all. I'm nothing," says the 19-year-old show jumper from Hawke's Bay soon after returning from a four-month riding stint in the United States.

That doesn't mean Dee, who is based at Ocean Beach in Hastings with NZPH owner Warwick Hansen and has the potential to scale the dizzy heights of equestrian stardom, is bereft of ideas on how to find a global footing.

It's just that good things take time so, like any adept horseman, he's comfortable to bide his time to find a perch among the world's elite.

"Not only do I have to continually put up good performances here but I also have to perform well away to be among the best in the world," Dee says.

You see, he believes it is a matter of securing two prerequisites - having a suitable mount and "a bit of money to make it happen".

Okay, having 13-year chestnut thoroughbred gelding Ombudsman takes care of the first requirement.

"Ombudsman hasn't started since the Horse of the Year Show [in Hastings in March] but he's a good horse. The other day I was riding him and he felt good."

What about the other requirement?

"A bit of money" - how much exactly are we talking about here?

"Mmm ... a lot. Well, I guess, a few hundred thousand dollars," Dee says before jetting off on Monday with the senior New Zealand team to Australia for six weeks of competition.

It goes without saying sponsorship is enormous in paving that path to success but it's also a matter of finding the right ones.

That equates to a gesture of reciprocity, considering his financial backers will want bang for their dollar.

"I'll have to give something back to them but it'll take a few years to sort those things out," says Dee who now has the sponsorship of Auckland-based Italian company Prestige Equestrian and Australia's Prydes Easi Feed.

The first three weeks of competition across the ditch, with the Kiwi senior team of Dee, Ross Smith (Christchurch), Samantha McIntosh (Cambridge) and Lisa Coupe (Auckland), will culminate with an unofficial test match against the hosts at the Sydney Polo Club on September 14.

An official test will follow a week later at Werribee, on the outskirts of Melbourne.

McIntosh is the most experienced rider among the Kiwis but Dee hopes to register a win for the collective, assuming Ombudsman shrugs off his rustiness.

While spending a lion's share of time in the US state of Vermont since April, Dee honed his skills but also had fun.

He received tuition from American Olympian George Morris, a showjumping team silver medallist from the 1960 Rome Games who went on to coach the US team to a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Morris, who also is a judge of riders and horses, is the incumbent chef d'equipe of the US showjumping team.

Dee was also under the tutelage of American trainer Missy Clark.

An acclaimed equitation trainer, Clark, with husband John Brennan, operates North Run which is home to numerous elite riders in the equitation, hunter and jumper divisions.

She grew up in East Auroa, New York, learning riding from her mother, Doris Clark, before going on to become a work student for Morris.

"I rode on some nice horses," Dee says after returning home last week. He rode a horse called Lipton but world top-10 equestrian McLain Ward, of the US, had the pick of the mounts with Wannahave.

Dee, an accomplished World Cup series rider who arrived here from Gisborne in August 2012, hopes some of the top-class interaction he has received in the past few weeks will rub off on him.