Equestrian: Eventers on a high heading to Burghley

Defending champion Caroline Powell rides Lenamore. Photo / Mark Keppler

These are good times for New Zealand eventing.

With the Olympics less than a year away in London, and after a quiet period since the halcyon days of Mark Todd and Blyth Tait, New Zealand riders are figuring prominently.

Todd showed, at 55, that his skills remain intact with his win at the famous Badminton event in April; Clarke Johnstone last weekend became the first New Zealander to win the World Cup, held over six events round the globe; Andrew Nicholson keeps picking up titles with his large group of horses, most recently in quick order in the British Open, Hartpury trial and Blair Castle event in Scotland last weekend; and Caroline Powell became the fourth New Zealander to win the Burghley title in Lincolnshire a year ago.

Throw in a bronze at last year's World Games in Kentucky and a silver recently at the teams event in an international event in Aachen, Germany last month, and it's all looking highly encouraging for London.

Powell returns to the scene of her finest triumph next week when Burghley starts on Thursday night with 18-year-old Lenamore.

She lives about two kilometres outside Kelso, a market town in the Scottish Borders.

Powell left Christchurch just over 20 years ago to "have a wee wander". Being among the leading British-based equestrian riders wasn't part of the plan.

"The whole way through it's never been 'this is what I'm going to do'," she said.

"It's always been 'oh, there's an opportunity, let's go and do it'. The whole thing has developed rather than be a burning ambition of what I was going to do in life."

It's all worked out rather well, and when Powell, 38, steered her 15.2 hands mount Lenamore round the twisty, difficult cross-country course in the spectacular Burghley grounds, the pair had a one-rail advantage going into the showjumping.

A day later it was job well done, and a fourth New Zealander had won one of eventing's most famous prizes.

"He'd been a very consistent horse, picking up top 10 finishes and it was absolutely amazing for it to finally pay off," Powell said.

And there are no plans for retirement for a horse small in stature but clearly possessing resolute qualities.

"He's a funny little fellow," Powell said. "He doesn't think of himself as old and doesn't feel old to ride him. Funny, isn't it? You sit on a horse and if you were to say how old he was, you wouldn't say 18."

Burghley was the highlight of Powell's career.

"Oh God yes. It's one of those things which, while not life changing, is certainly good to have on yourCV."

The combination have a good record at Badminton, a flatter cross-country course, gentler on the horses, and held earlier in the season. Powell actually prefers it to Burghley and hopes to get another trip around Badminton with Lenamore next year.

"Burghley's undulations are a huge factor. Badminton is totally flat. Burghley is quite hard on the horses because where they can place their jumps makes it more technically challenging."

Lenamore's schedule has been trimmed, rather than trekking back and forth around Britain.

"He doesn't need matchplay as such. It's more the preparation, so we purposely haven't given him as many runs this year," Powell said. "But he feels fantastic."

Being part of the New Zealand setup is cool, she says. The riders compete against one another frequently and have good camaraderie.

"The team dynamic we've got at the moment is pretty special so it's amazing to be part of it all."

Test of skill

* A total of 88 combinations will start the Burghley horse trial on Thursday night.

* New Zealand have 11 riders on 16 horses entered. Six-time Olympian Andrew Nicholson has three horses in the field, defending champion Caroline Powell has two, along with fellow New Zealand Olympic Games hopefuls Clarke Johnstone and Jonathan Pagett. The others are double Olympic champion Mark Todd, 1996 Olympic gold medallist Blyth Tait, Craig Nicolai, Dan Jocelyn, Neil Spratt, Jonelle Richards and Anne-Marie Styles.

* Four New Zealanders have won the Burghley title - Todd five times, Nicholson and Tait twice each and Powell last year.