Champ Benge keen to step up

Why choose your favourite mount? Just win a New Zealand championship with both.

After three years of training, Wanganui rider Rebecca Benge is saying goodbye to her winning partnership with Welsh/English pony Coffee, who carried her to the under-14 title at the New Zealand Mounted Games at the Waikato Show last weekend.

But she has no need to fret about the future as station-bred Tommy helped her to regain her under-12 title at the same event.

Held at Claudelands in Hamilton, mounted games are a range of physical events for both rider and pony, mostly a specific mixed breed of horse considered too fast or not disciplined enough to be show ring ponies.

Mother Jean Benge explained it takes up to three years to train the ponies for this level of competition, which involves games like lifting objects off poles, spearing targets at a trot, and getting off the pony to run across obstacles or grab a target sock before quickly remounting.

"You've got to have pretty good co-ordination and you can easily lose it. It's mad," said Jean Benge.

In Hamilton, competitors completed three sessions involving seven different games, before moving on to the final, which has 12 games.

The 12-year-old Benge had won the under-12's title in 2011, but lost it last year to a Hawke's Bay competitor.

Competing against five others including the champ, which is a small but still elite field as far as talent goes, Benge was surprised how well Tommy was doing in his first national competition.

Previously the pony had been worked on by her older sister Kelli, another top rider.

Benge ended up taking back the title with an eight-point buffer over the defending champion, with the rest of the field showing their inexperience at national events.

While that was satisfying, Benge was delighted she and Coffee went out as winners as a team in a competitive eight-rider field to take the under-14 title.

"The competition was a lot harder they've been practising for longer.

"There was only one who hadn't had that national experience and placed in the top four."

She had led the under-12 competition throughout but had to make a comeback to take the older grade championship.

"I started out in the lead, then I went right down to fourth. Then second and up to first.

"I had to recover sometimes that's really, really hard."

In the end, Benge claimed her second title by 21 points.

It was the perfect end to the season for Benge and Coffee, who were part of the NZMGA's under-14 pairs championship-winning team in Taupo in January.

Having completed a career, Coffee will now go up for sale, while Benge works on training up Tommy and other ponies to that level.

Jean Benge said they are away around the North Island every two to three weekends during the summer.

Two mounted games clubs have also recently started in the South Island, although the family did not travel there this year.

Benge was the youngest competitor to compete at the Australian championships this summer, riding on a borrowed pony.

While the main season is summer, there are a couple of events during winter to develop untried ponies and Benge has been given an Auckland mount to get ready for those.

The Westmere School pupil travels out from town to Kai Iwi beach most days to train with the ponies and keep them fit.

She hopes to go for the under-17 title next year if the training regime goes according to plan.