By Samantha Syme
Year 9
Over the weekend of 21/22 May, I attended the North Island Secondary Schools Inter-Schools Horse Trial in Taupō.
We arrived to a cold, windy and wet day on Friday. My horse Yogi settled in nicely and we got ready for the show the next day. It was a freezing cold night in Taupō.
Saturday was a nice sunny day, but still cold. I walked the show jumping and cross-country courses with my team. I had been put in as a draft rider with ACG Strathallan. Our dressage was scheduled for the afternoon, all members of the team perform dressage at the same time with four different judges scoring us.
My dressage was not as good as I wanted, however it was ok and gave us a reasonable score. After dressage it was time for Show Jumping. Yogi did really well and had a clear round with no faults. The rest of my team were also clear in the show jumping.
Sunday was sunny and cross-country day. The course was tricky with a few jumps designed to catch riders out. We were jumping the 80cm course and were the second-to-last team to go. This was Yogi and my first Horse Trial where we competed in cross-country the day after dressage and show jumping. After a few nerves from Yogi and a couple of refusals, he settled down. We made it around the course of 18 jumps. Two of my team mates were clear in the cross-country. Our team came 6th out of 14 teams competing in the 80cm class.
Yogi and I had a great time and really enjoyed representing Westlake Girls at the North Island Secondary Schools Inter-Schools Horse Trial.
