Horse of the Year: Crowds swell as competition heats up

Jock Paget famously won two of the biggest equestrian events in the world but was later stripped of his titles and prize money. Photo / NZME.

As farmlands Horse of the Year enters its fifth day, the competition is heating up and the crowds are growing thicker. HOY show director Kevin Hansen said the event had so far been a "cracker".

"At 11.30am yesterday, there was Jock Paget doing the Land Rover three start dressage and then we had the best eventers, which is our medal winning sport, doing the first phase of their three-day event," he said.

The biggest event of the day was the Lady Rider of the Year event, held in the premier arena.

"You have got 40 of the gun girls, who are at the top of sporting New Zealand, out there and they battle it out there for the Lady Rider of the Year title."

Mr Hansen said the evening was taken up with the event's prestigious Hall of Fame Dinner.

"At about 6pm last night, there was the mounted games first lot of finals in the premier arena and then shortly after that was the Hall of Fame dinner.

"The dinner was the gala dinner of the show, it was quite posh. We had Jock Paget speaking about his trials and tribulations over the past year."

Mr Paget famously won two of the biggest equestrian events in the world but was later stripped of his titles and prize money after his horse tested positive for drugs.

The rider challenged the case in a court of law and won. He was exonerated and a two-year ban was lifted that prevented him from riding competitively.

Mr Hansen said there were a number of major events lined up for the day as the show headed into the weekend.

"We have the first major grand prix in dressage happening and that is with our Australian competitor competing against the best from New Zealand. Then we have got the young rider of the year starting at about 1pm, which is a major title," he said.

"In the evening, there will be the Silver Fern Stakes, the second biggest event at HOY, which is where the jumps really get big."

The Hawke's Bay Today Friday Night Extravaganza tonight is expected to be a huge hit with Bay residents and horse lovers alike. "We should see huge crowds for this event. It is going to be a really great show and we are ready for it," he said.

Bill and Ted in excellent training adventure

Training a wild horse is not a task for the faint hearted, but it is one 11 trainers have signed up for in the hopes of showing off their skills in the training arena at Farmlands Horse of the Year.

The Stallion Makeover, a competition devised by non-profit charitable organisation Kaimanawa Heritage Horses, challenged trainers from throughout the country to work with wild Kaimanawa horses and present what they had achieved at HOY.

Trainers Kate Hewlett and Tim Featherstone, of Kerikeri, with Kaimanawa horses Bill and Ted, at Horse of the Year, Hawke's Bay Showgrounds, Hastings. Photo / Duncan Brown

Each trainer was given 250 days, from the time the horses were rounded up to HOY, to school their mounts in various disciplines.

Trainers Kate Hewlett and her partner Tim Featherstone took on two Kaimanawa horses, Bill and Ted, knowing they would be "a challenge to work with".

"Kaimanawa horses are very stuck. They are a bit buckie and aggressive and training them is very time consuming," said Ms Hewlett.

"But when we were asked to do it we thought why not, it would be fun. It has been really hard but we have learned heaps and it has sent us in a different direction and had made us do things differently."

The duo from Kerikeri said the hardest part of the training was the initial phase when they were not able to get near the horses: "There is something about Kaimanawa horses that makes them harder to train.

"We have trained wild horses from Northland and they are easy," she said.

"They are just like untouched horses that have been around humans and you can pretty much just get on them and ride.

"With these horses however, it took months and months of work just trying to get them to let us touch them."

The couple started the training process by standing with the horses and teaching them how to move around humans and then by touching them with objects to teach Bill and Ted they were safe.

Then came the challenge of trying to ride their charges, which both Ms Hewlett and Mr Featherston said was a rewarding, but scary, experience.

"It was exciting, really exciting especially because we had put so much work into them, just getting a hand on them that it was quite a buzz," Ms Hewlett said.

Mr Featherstone said it took a while for him to build up the courage to ride his mount, Ted.

"I would just get on his back and just sit there with him standing still. I must have done it about 100 times before I rode him properly."

Nine months on and Bill and Ted are unrecognisable from the horses the couple first received.

"They are very trained now. They can almost do a dressage test. Both Bill and Ted can do flying changes, pirouettes and can almost do a cantering pirouette," she said.

"We were hoping to do a cantering pirouette here, but they need a just a few more weeks of training for that."

The couple were confident their horses rode well in the Kaimanawa events that started on Thursday and said they expected to be placed in the final eight which will be held tonight.

•The CopRice Stallion Makeover Final is part of the Hawke's Bay Today Friday Night Extravaganza and will be judged by world-class eventer Jock Paget.