Hot on the heels of Kirsity Bale and Kylie Watts' success at the national pony club team eventing championships come the news that three other riders have made New Zealand teams to compete overseas. Danielle Hamilton and Hope Kena, of Whangarei Girls' High School, are off to the World Western RidingChampionships in Amarillo, Texas, in June, while Hayley Boniface, another WGHS student, will get a trip to the Nordic north, to compete at the Mounted Games World Championships. Both Hamilton and Kena qualified for the team by excelling at the nationals in Hawera in February and they have been attending training caps ever since to prepare for their trip in mid-June. "Normally there are four trainings a year for the team but because of the Worlds there are lots, this year, I've lost count how many," Hamilton said. The training camps go over the basic disciplines including trail riding, horsemanship, cutting, reining - all disciplines derived from cattle handling - and the team's members all swap horses to prepare themselves for the world championships. "We ride each other's horses to get used to the idea that we'll be competing on different horses in Texas," she said. The team was seventh in the world championships last year in Australia and want to improve on that this year in Texas. Hamilton said they are all delighted at the venue for this year's championships, "because it's where the quarterhorse comes from". Boniface will also ride supplied horses when she arrives in Sweden for the World Mounted Games Championships in July. In fact the five-strong New Zealand team will take their horses across into Norway to familiarise themselves with their mounts and take part in competition there before competing at the championships.
