Equestrian: Rider feeling her oats again

Heelan Tompkins, with her beloved Glengarrick, wasn't sure she wanted to continue competing after the 2004 Olympics. Picture / Richard Robinson

Seeing friend and New Zealand rower Mahe Drysdale win the world single sculls title in September proved a turning point for New Zealand eventer Heelan Tompkins

Finishing seventh in her first Olympic Games in 2004, Tompkins wasn't convinced about carrying on at the top level but said Drysdale's success hit a nerve.

"I found it hard after the Olympics. It was four years of aiming for the Olympics, or eight actually because I tried to get to Sydney, and then all of a sudden you have done it. But when I watched Mahe win the world title on TV recently I was like 'oh yeah I still want to do this, I want to be like him'."

This weekend's three-day international event at Puhinui marks the beginning of Tompkins' road to the next Olympics. It is her first step towards finding a horse and her first step towards qualifying for next year's World Equestrian Games.

Tompkins, 27, is riding four horses at Puhinui: Glengarrick, Prince of Princes and Dunstan Joseph Samuel in the three-star competition and Dunstan Switch in the two star.

With Glengarrick, the horse she rode in Athens, now 19 years old, Tompkins' best options are the recently purchased Prince of Princes from Perth and Dunstan Joseph Samuel, owned by Putaruru's Julia Hadley. Prince of Princes is the offspring of New Zealand stallion Poetic Prince and was bought by Tompkins and a syndicate.

"He is hopefully going to be a clone of Glengarrick one day," she said.

"The whole point of getting him now was that we could get going over the next two years and try to get him to the Olympics. Glengarrick, unlike Superman, won't last forever."

Not that she is planning to cast aside Glengarrick.

"While he is fit and well, he'll keep going. There are lots of critics who say when they turn a certain age that should be it. After the Olympics he was turned out to the paddock and after a month he looked old and tired, then I hopped on him and went for a ride and he immediately perked up.

"Since he was 2 years old he has been ridden. That is what he knows and what he likes. But he only gets ridden on nice days, and he doesn't get ridden when it rains. He gets doted on, and he goes to any paddock he wants every day."

Although Glengarrick is the oldest horse in the three-star field this weekend Tompkins rates his chances, particularly if it is soft under foot, which more often than not Puhinui is.

Tompkins, who has won the national championship three times, has never clinched a three-star title at Puhinui. She won the intermediate two-star event on Bozton last year and the invitation international ShowCross challenge on Glengarrick - but not the three-star event.

But if she learned anything from her first Olympic experience it was that anything is possible.

"It was just another event at the end the day."

INTERNATIONAL THREE-DAY EVENT

Puhinui Reserve, Auckland.
Today: Dressage from 9am
Tomorrow: Cross-country from 9am.
Sunday: Show jumping from 9am

HEELAN TOMPKINS

Age: 27
Lives: New Plymouth
Occupation: Breakfast radio host.

Career highlights:

2004: 7th in the Athens Olympics
2004: 10th in Chatsworth Horse Trials.
2001: 8th at Lexington
2000: Reserve for the Olympics.