Your Story: Success in and out of the classroom

Hardworking Year 10 student at Rotorua Boys' High School, Tristan Thomas proves that it is possible to be successful both in and out of the classroom.

Dux of Year 9 at Rotorua Boys' High School in 2012, Tristan has not only excelled in his academic studies, but he has balanced his school work with a very busy equestrian life out of school, competing at a high level in the horse riding sport of show hunter and show jumping, all around New Zealand over most weekends.

While his main focus this year is 'show hunter', he also enjoys show jumping, eventing, mounted games events and spending time before school at the race track training race horses.

It is a busy couple of months for Tristan. In February he represented the Bay Of Plenty as part of the winning team at the Area Teams Show Hunter Challenge, with Auckland coming in second and Waikato, third.

Horse of the Year in March is the next big event for Tristan, where he will compete for the Category C Show Hunter of the Year. He will also do his final round in the ESNZ Show Hunter CAT C High Points Series of which he is currently in 3rd Place, so he is working very hard at the moment with his preparation for these events.

He says that training horses and riding them daily takes a lot of time and commitment. He has five horses that he is working with at present and many of his school mornings start at 5am. Balancing this with his schoolwork is a large commitment, however, Tristan says that it is worthwhile as he enjoys the challenge that this sport brings.