Paralympics: Tense wait, but happy ending

By GREG ANSLEY

SYDNEY - Jayne Craike watched in agonised suspense as manager Rachel Bird plunged her hand into a basket in search of a ball that could kick-start the Auckland rider towards a Paralympic medal.

Muttering a silent prayer, she picked one - and gave Craike one of Australia's top horses to ride in the equestrian events, which begin next Tuesday.

Auckland rider Craike, who won silver at last year's world championships in Denmark and was placed fifth at the Atlanta Paralympics, will compete on Neverselde Samonienen, a 17-year-old purebred selected for the European dressage championships.

Craike will call it by its stable name, Sammy.

After a gentle getting-to-know-you session, she started a progressive build-up programme yesterday. With her was owner June Bruce, whose husband, Maurice, is an international rider. Behind her was one of the worst nailbiting sessions of her life.

Because of cost and quarantine restrictions, riders do not take their own horses to the Paralympics, instead drawing from a pool of local mounts first by country, then by competitor.

Everyone knows which are the best horses - and the ones to avoid.

Bird's first draw placed New Zealand sixth in line and the pair had to wait, white-knuckled, as horse after horse was selected.

"I was shaking like a leaf," Bird said, "and then I pulled the ball out and saw it was [Sammy] and thought, 'oh my God, we've done it."'

A good horse who knows the moves that are required and which performs well, is a major plus at the level of competition at which Craike is competing.

But much will now depend on how well rider and horse get on.

"It's very much a mind game," Craike said. "You have to be be flexible and have the confidence to allow the horse to move the way it wants to.

"You can't jump on it and say 'I ride this way.' You have to be sensitive."

Craike has already been working with different horses in the build-up to the Paralympics and will train on Sammy with June Bruce at hand to let her know when the horse can be pushed.

Neverselde Samonienen was out of prodigious European sire Konisberg. In 1994, she was scheduled to compete at the European championships. She was injured before competition, but recovered to later win the Volvo Cup Pacific League. The Bruces retired her from able-bodied compeition last year.

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