Equestrian: Fundraising needed to fulfil NZ selection

New Zealand U17 Mounted Games team member Rhys Valentine pictured competing at the Hawke's Bay teams event in March.

A Turangi teenager has been selected to represent New Zealand at the International Mounted Games Association World Championships in the United States this year.

Thirteen-year-old Rhys Valentine, who has been riding since he was 4, is one of five riders selected to the U17 New Zealand team.

The Taupo-nui-a-Tia College student says the challenge now is to raise funds to help cover the $8000 cost of airfares and accommodation to travel to Florida in November.

Mounted Games are a fast-paced action discipline that requires fitness, excellent horsemanship skills and hand-eye co-ordination.

Rhys says competition is done at speed and although he has had "heaps of falls" and plenty of bumps and knocks over the years he has suffered no broken bones and loves the adrenalin rush.

He says his participation in the sport evolved from his membership of the Turangi Pony Club. Turangi has its own branch of mounted games and Rhys's mother, Janese - who is also a keen horsewoman - says her son has been fortunate to have had a lot of encouragement and some great mentors. They have included Morgan Larsen-Church and Mauhana Babbington who have both represented New Zealand in mounted games events.

Janese says competitive riding is not a cheap sport.

"There's a lot of looking after that is needed to do it properly."

Rhys has two ponies and most weekends in the summer are spent travelling to horse shows around the North Island where Rhys competes in showjumping and mounted games competitions.

The ponies are currently turned out, and Rhys is keeping fit playing rugby for the Taupo-nui-a-Tia second XV rugby team. He is also looking at ways of raising funds to get to the world championships. Janese, who works in Taupo for Ag Industrial, says a supportive employer has enabled her to take time off to accompany her son to various horse events, and she is planning to travel with the U17 team to the United States in November.

"We're determined to get there, one way or another," she says.