Steffi Whittaker eyes more success at Horse of the Year

Steffi Whittaker with Midnight Glow and Bexley Lodge Tinkabella at the Horse of the Year 2014. Photo/Glenn Taylor

The Horse of the Year 2014 is off to a cracking start for 14-year-old Cantabrian Steffi Whittaker, who won the Working Pony Hunter yesterday.

Riding on pony Bexley Lodge Tinkabella, Steffi also won the Champion Rider title.

The family's horse truck made the formidable journey from Christchurch to the Hawke's Bay showgrounds over the weekend - right as Cyclone Lusi was rearing its head.

"We were worried about the flooding," proud mum Trace Whittaker.

"We left in the storm and our ferry was delayed. We didn't know if we'd make it."

The precocious Steffi was not nervous before yesterday's event, "only excited", and she was "surprised" to have won, though she came out on top in last year's competition. This is her sixth Horse of the Year.

Whittaker, who began show hunter classes when she was 5, is a third-generation horsewoman.

Her grandparents train racehorses and her parents Trace and Jeff have harness horses.

Her brother, Josh, is also competing in Horse of the Year.

Steffi will ride her larger pony, Moonlight Glow, in the Canterbury team for the Saba Sam Shield tomorrow.

She'll also compete in the Pony of the Year event on Saturday.