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The Deam Team taking the Springston Trophy 2009.
Springston 2009, By Grace Mannerswood.
Springston 2009 was awesome!
It was hosted by the Canterbury Pony Club and held at the wonderful facility of McLeans Island.
We started off with dressage on Friday, where we had an early start of 9 o’clock. Everyone in the team performed lovely tests which showed the amount of preparation each team member had put in prior to the competition combined with Jacque’s fantastic coaching.
At the conclusion of the dressage Wakatip sat in fourth place, which put us in an excellent position leading into the cross country and show jumping phases -
Saturday was cross country day.
The course was great, being both well-built and providing a challenge by asking some tricky questions. The intermediates were first up. Both Emma and Lib did awesome rounds, making the course look like a breeze to ride. Next were the juniors, where Lisa and Kristi both had great rides, although both had a wee slip up on the way.
Anna and I finished up the day by both producing solid clear rounds. Although we thought that we had been pushed down the standings due to both juniors having faults, we were surprised to find that we finished the day in first place by a significant margin.
The cross country created problems across the board, with every team racking up numerous faults. Cross country day proved that Springston is a jumping competition, where the best jumpers on the day win. On the day, we were the best, being the only team with four clear rounds – amazing jobs guys!
We came into show jumping day in a comfortable position, with five rails in hand. However, these rails were not required as all six of us jumped very cleanly producing six beautiful clear rounds. This was a testament to all the horses and riders in the team as well as Jacque, as it portrayed the fantastic training and fitness work put in at the early parts of the season. Our fantastic show jumping performance secured the win for Wakatipu by the largest margin in six years!
Springston ’09 was another awesome success for Wakatipu Pony Club, being our second time as Springston Trophy winners and managing to break the three year home team winning chain, by taking the trophy off the Cantabs!
A huge thank you goes out to Jacque, our amazing coach who had us all performing at our best. Without your help we would have not been able to do as well as we did. Also to Jan for having us all organised and Fiona for all your time and effort. Also, big thanks to all the parents for all your help and time over the weekend. Lastly, thanks to my awesome team members, you all rode amazingly and of course our horseys who all tried so hard for us. The Wakatipu Pony Club have repeated their 2007 success by winning this year's Springston Trophy at McLean's Island.
Photo L-R: Manager Jan Hunt, Kristi Doherty, Lisa Milliken, Anna Nesbit, and Grace Mannerswood, Olivia Robertson, Emma Milliken with coach Jacque Williams.
This is the link for the Otago Southland Champs
Eventing New Zealand Newsletter August 2009
Springston Trophy
Springston Trophy is an annual South Island Pony Club event. The format consists of 6 riders from 3 different age groups: Senior, Intermediate and Junior competing as a team over 3 disciplines--dressage, show jumping and cross country. It is considered to be the leading competition for the South Island Pony Clubs and is an extremely sought after Trophy.
Just for history’s sake, it is only in the past 3 years that Wakatipu Pony Club has been able to field a full team of 6 riders so we were very proud to be able to field two teams to Cromwell.
Over the season the club invested a lot of time into coaching and the girls worked very hard over winter on the fitness of their horses & ponies. Each girl committed time and energy to fundraising for the team costs.
For this years results http://www.springston-trophy.org.nz/new/
