Equestrian: Kiwi stars who rode off with the spoils

Jock Paget guides Clifton Promise. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Andrew Nicholson completed the first triple Burghley triumph on the same horse, Avebury, last week. It's the 13th time a New Zealander has won the four-star event in the last 28 years. Andrew Alderson looks at six of the best horses New Zealanders have ridden in the past 30 years.

Charisma
Reins: Mark Todd
Key titles: Olympic gold 1984 and 1988
Charisma, or Podge to his mates, was described by Todd in his 1998 autobiography So Far, So Good as a "shaggy, fat, overgrown pony" before he took him on. The horse was bedded on strips of newspaper because it was the "only thing he wouldn't eat". At Seoul, he could afford to knock down three showjumping rails to enable him and Todd to become the first combination to win consecutive Olympic golds in 56 years. He toppled one.

Bounce
Reins: Vaughn Jefferis
Key title: World Equestrian Games gold 1994
Went under the pseudonym Walter in the back paddock but earned his stage name through an ability to boing people off. Vicki Glynn bought him as an unbroken youngster. She eulogised to website horsetalk.co.nz on his death, aged 30, last year: "When I kept getting Bounce'd off, I sold him to my then house-mate, Jen Buchanan, who developed his talents beautifully. Thank you, Bounce, for some amazing memories."

Ready Teddy
Reins: Blyth Tait
Key titles: Olympic gold 1996, WEG gold 1998, Burghley 2001
The late chestnut gelding didn't care for the size of the competition, he just wanted to win ... starting with the Atlanta Games. He died in April 2011 after seven healthy years of retirement and was buried at Tait's Karaka property. Tait's father spotted the horse at a pony club event and sent him to England in 1994. His dad suggested the name so, just prior to competition, the announcers could say "Ready Teddy Go!"

Mr Smiffy
Reins: Andrew Nicholson
Key title: Burghley 2000
Always more a gentlehorse than a rocking horse, Mr Smiffy stayed calm despite clipping his hooves on a fence during the cross-country phase of his finest performance. Nicholson stayed on by bear hugging his neck before negotiating back into the saddle. Mr Smiffy was eventually put out to pasture on a Leicestershire farm. Despite his long face, one internet chat forum contributor from the region suggested he was, "last seen happy in a field".

Lenamore
Reins: Caroline Powell
Key titles: Burghley 2010
Lenamore took his title at 17; the oldest horse to complete the feat. The grey gelding, known in his stables neigh-bourhood as Ed, tended to be fit and manoeuvreable at 15.2 hands high. He retired from overseas eventing in February 2010 because of concerns over his vulnerability in the dressage but saved his best for Burghley. Based in England, the minimal quarantine procedures meant the London Olympics offered a final chance to giddy up.

Clifton Promise
Reins: Jock Paget
Key titles: Badminton 2013
Not discerning when it came to the contents of his feed bag, Clifton Promise got Paget into strife by consuming some of the banned sedative reserpine which got him disqualified from Burghley last year. Paget got smoked because Clifton Promise inhaled. The relationship has since reformed, resulting in second at Burghley last week. Provided Clifton Promise sticks to his carrots and hay, he and Paget are a top chance for an Olympic medal in Rio.