Some of New Zealand's most celebrated riders will be battling it out for points in the national Show Jumping and Show Hunter series at Barge Park over the weekend.
Included in the line up are some of Northland's most popular show jumping riders, Tegan Newman and Vicki and Amanda Wilson. Newman rose to fame earlier this year when she won New Zealand's most prestigious Grand Prix title, the 2012 Pony of the Year, on her pony Watch Me Move. They are the defending champions for the Northland Pony Grand Prix, which they won in convincing style last year.
The Wilson sisters have just returned from 10 days campaigning in the lower North Island and their team of horses are on fire. Over six days of competition they won and placed in 36 classes and will be expected to produce top results at their local show.
Younger sister Amanda, won the "2010 Pony of the Year" on her pony Showtym Viking. The pair then defied convention when Amanda upgraded her diminutive show jumper to compete in the open horse classes. Riders are only allowed to compete on ponies until their 17th year, but Amanda chose to campaign him against much larger horses and they have had outstanding success. Over the past two seasons, they have had consistent wins in the Young Rider and Grand Prix series and last week Showtym Viking competed in his first Super League (1.40m-1.60m), with many of the jumps being higher than the 149cm horse. The courageous pony will be competing in the Young Rider class this weekend in a bid to win the title for their second consecutive year.
Amanda's older sister Vicki has entered 12 horses over the two days of competition.
Vicki is one of the key guests at Equidays next week, where she will be starting an unbroken horse in the public eye, doing a bareback and bridleless jumping display on Showtym Spotlight, jumping a car on Ngahiwi Showtym XL and doing demonstrations of the wild Kaimanawa horses from the 2012 muster, which she has trained with her sisters Amanda and Kelly.
One of these wild Kaimanawas, Showtym Ranger KH, will be competing for the first time this weekend and will be available for people to meet. It has been almost five months since he was a wild stallion in charge of a herd of 11 mares and the 6-year-old pony will be filmed at his debut outing as part of a documentary about the wild horses, which will be released in 2013.
Other notable riders will include Paula Mussen, who has clinched top honour in the Horse Grand Prix for the past two years and will be hoping to make it a trifecta.