Young rider defending champion Tayla Mason of Wellington and Lucy with Diamonds jump into the water at last year's event. Photo/Barbara Thomson
Young rider defending champion Tayla Mason of Wellington and Lucy with Diamonds jump into the water at last year's event. Photo/Barbara Thomson
The first national eventing titles of 2014 will be fought out at the Bay of Plenty Horse Trials at Rotorua this weekend.
The Dunstan NZ Young Rider and Junior Rider Championships will attract riders from throughout the country.
The dressage and showjumping phases will be staged at the A&P Showgroundsat Ngongotaha on Saturday and the crosscountry on the adjacent Ngati Whakaue tribal lands on Sunday.
Eleven Young Riders (under 21 on January 1) will compete at 2* level for the Charisma Trophy, with last year's winner, Tayla Mason of Wellington and Lucy with Diamonds, defending their title. The leader of the Massey University Young Rider series, Lauren Alexander of Auckland on BMW Ripley, will be hoping to cement her lead but with four members of the Talent Development Squad entered she will need to be on form.
The four are Mason, former winner Jessica Woods of Waikato with LV Award and Defies Logic, Bonnie Farrant of Canterbury with Kaipara Dior, and Francesca Silver of Wairarapa, a previous winner of the Junior Rider title, with Case in Point. This is the third year these titles have been battled for at Rotorua.
The Junior Riders (under 18 on January 1) compete at 1* level for the Hoffman Trophy. Eight combinations will battle for the title including defending champion Samantha Mynott, riding Take Two this year. She will face competition from Loran Mathis of Waikato on Flintoff, the current NZPCA Dorothy Campbell Trophy holder, as well as two riders lying third and fourth in the Alltech Junior Rider series.
They are Abigail Long on BMW Advokaat, who is third, and Madeline Banks on Rakaunui Gazelle, who moved up to fourth place after a win at Whangarei recently. National Championships earn extra points in the Eventing NZ series, which culminate at the NRM Three-day Event at Taupo in May.
Live scoring will be operating on during the event: www.equestrianentries.co.nz
