EQUESTRIAN: Riders so close to upsetting favourites

ANENDRA SINGH
A Kelt Capital Horse of the Year team came within a whisker of emulating the feats of the All Blacks when competing in South Africa at the weekend.
The five-member junior equitation team, including Hawke's Bay riders Letice Carey and Rachael Bentall, almost pulled off an upset win over the British side in the Junior International Showman of the Year competition in Johannesburg on Monday.
Competing for the first time in the champs, which also includes teams from Australia and South Africa, the Kiwis fell shy on the last hurdle by one point.
Chef d'equipe Stephen Bentall told SportToday from Johannesburg that the Havelock North High School pupils had combined well with Chloe Akers, of Palmerston North and Stacey Anderson, of Christchurch, to almost topple the Brits off their perch. Amber McGovern-Wilson, of Wellington, was a reserve.
"We were at times stressing out but the girls handled themselves really well," Bentall, Rachael's father, said.
Three judges selected the best 14 to 18-year-old riders in New Zealand at the HOY Show, in Hastings, in March to represent their country at the international event.
A delighted HOY director Kevin Hansen said it was New Zealand's first entry in the champs after they missed the inaugural event in England last year. Australia will host the next one in Brisbane in August and Hastings will welcome the rival countries in 2008.
The champs include the four disciplines of in-hand showing, dressage, working hunter and show riding. Every team had to "pull straws" to pick borrowed horses - a quality horse, an unpredictable one and three "average" mounts.
In the first three events, only the top two performers' scores were incorporated as the team score.
The top horse, Dry Martini, went to Carey, who, according to Stephen Bentall, is a class act when it comes to show riding.
The 17-year-old did not disappoint, winning the dressage and coming runner-up to Australian and HOY arch-rival Jess Stalling in the in-hand showing event at Eaton Farm.
As luck would have it, Rachael Bentall, 15, drew the short straw, and found herself on a temperamental mount called El John Silver.
"Rachel was trying to adjust her stirrups and the horse bucked, pigrooting her in the air and she fell," Mr Bentall said.
However, the youngster persisted but, after a South African horse expert, Linda Stockton, couldn't bring El John Silver in line, the organisers offered Bentall a steady, grey number called Popcorn.
Bentall didn't fare so well on Sunday, with New Zealand in third place, but was instrumental yesterday when she won the working hunter class with Carey in fifth place. Carey was fourth in the show-riding event, Akers was seventh, Bentall was one behind and Stacey finished in 11th place. "We were the best groomed team and looked really smart in our Horse of the Year T-shirts," Mr Bentall said.
"This shows New Zealand has some wonderful junior riders who were able to adapt to different horses and conditions easily, while still competing favourably against the best the world can offer," he said.
The team, with coach and Carey's mum and coach, Cherie, are sightseeing before jetting back to Napier tomorrow night.