Kiwi journalist Virginia Caro is kind enough to share some thoughts with EN today on the New Zealand Olympic team. As Virginia points out, New Zealand is by far the smallest country to be brilliant at eventing. And brilliant they are with a team that won bronze at WEG 2010 is very likely to leave London with that or better. Thank you for writing this Virginia and thank you for reading.
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Photo by Samantha
From Virginia Caro:
New Zealand Eventing is on the rise again, following the trough that was left after the “dream team” of the 90s retired, and no stone has been left unturned in the preparation for the London Olympics.
The team that has been named consists of four riders from the 2010 WEG, where Andrew Nicholson won individual bronze and the team, consisting of Andrew, Mark Todd, Caroline Powell, and Clarke Johnstone, also won bronze. Sadly for Clarke, his top horse was injured at the final selection trial, but Jock Paget, who placed seventh individually at WEG, makes his Olympic debut and gives the team four strong contenders.
The fifth rider, Jonelle Richards, is a new cap at elite level, Clarke’s bad luck being her good luck, especially as she herself was injured! Mark Todd, with whom she trains, rode her horse, Flintstar, at Aachen after the team was announced, to expose the horse to the “big” atmosphere, as she did not have full use of one hand.
Andrew rides his WEG bronze medal horse, Nereo, while Caroline rides the crowd favourite, 19 year old Lenamore, on whom she won Burghley in 2010, the decision having been made not to travel him to Kentucky at his age. Mark rides the relatively inexperienced NZB Campino, his preferred ride, 2011 Badminton winner NZB Land Vision, having suffered an injury.
Jock rides Clifton Promise, who leapt into prominence at WEG and placed sixth at Rolex in April, so the team is a mix of young and old in terms of age and experience. It is this factor of the new kids on the block wanting to soak up all they can from the old campaigners that has enabled coach Erik Duvander to mold a dynamic team culture, and make the most of the sizeable funding from New Zealand High Performance Sport.
With a population of four million odd people, New Zealand punches above its weight in most sports, and is further handicapped by its geographical isolation at the bottom of the world. This is a particular problem for equestrian sports, with the high costs of air transport, exacerbated by quarantine requirements.
So it was not surprising that the High Performance programme was moved to England early last year, there being more Kiwi 3* horses and riders in the UK than in New Zealand. While this has resulted in the best prepared Olympic team ever, it has done the sport at home no favours.
With the top performers opting for the bigger, better exposure available in Britain, the sub-elite have no upper level prompting them to keep on improving their performance at home. The most “international” competition available down under is against Australia, with whom there is long standing rivalry, but even this involves a four hour flight across the Tasman Sea.
A biennial team competition takes place in alternate countries, at both Senior and Young Rider level, with New Zealand winning on home soil every time since the inception in 1985 until this year, when the Aussies, led by Shane Rose (subsequently named in their Olympic team) defeated the Kiwis at Kihikihi. We have yet to defeat them at 4* level at Adelaide, although we had won at all previous Australian venues.
As long as the High Performance programme remains off shore, the chance of winning at Adelaide, which stages the only 4* event in the southern hemisphere, remains unlikely. It is hoped that the proposed Eventing Nations Cup will include Trans-Tasman competition, which would be a boost, as is the long over due inclusion of Adelaide in the HSBC 4* series.
Clarke is returning home, which will benefit the sport here, meantime we wait and watch with baited breath as our Kiwi team goes into the London Olympics carrying the hopes of a nation, as the media coverage has ensured the country as a whole knows we are podium potential. Mark and Andrew are creating a NZ record, this being their seventh Olympics.
Good luck guys and gals!
