KEY POINTS:
Katie McVean could become one of New Zealand's youngest showjumping Olympians.
The 21-year-old from Mystery Creek flies out on Monday to Luxembourg with her horse Dunstan Forest II to start the serious side of her Olympic campaign.
Last month they won the Bell Tea Olympic Cup as showjumpers of the year at the Kelt Capital Horse of the Year Show, bagging $120,000 for their efforts.
McVean is from the blue blood of showjumping - both her parents rode for Australia, with father Jeff competing at Olympics, World Cup finals and World Championships. He even won the King George V Gold Cup, one of the most coveted awards in the equestrian world.
But McVean has never been pushed into horses - she says her passion comes from within.
This is a young woman on a mission. She's slightly ahead of her own schedule too, having in recent years said her goal was the 2012 Olympics in London with Dunstan Delphi, who they bred. But at Christmas McVean teamed up with Forest, and so began a combination that looks likely to rewrite a few record books.
Historically, New Zealand's showjumpers to ride at the Olympics have all been based offshore. McVean may be the one to change that and give a huge boost of confidence to those who opt to compete at home but have big aspirations.
McVean has been heading to Europe to compete nearly every winter since she was 14, the same year she first donned the silver fern. Her triumphs are impressive and include the British Young Rider Championship in 2003 and the Junior World Championship in 2000.
She has twice been short-listed for the Olympics and has won at grand prix level in Europe and Canada, including at Spruce Meadows, one of the world's most celebrated shows. But dearest to her heart is her most recent victory - the Olympic Cup, which her father won 30 years before at the same Hawkes Bay grounds on Claret.
Some of the biggest names in the equestrian world, including British showjumper John Whitaker and BBC commentator and eventing representative Michael Tucker, singled her out well before she and Forest won the Horse of the Year crown. But McVean is quick to say her horse Forest is something special.
She loves her other horse Dunstan Hairy McClairy, who she won Lady Rider of the Year on in 2007, but says he's just not quite good enough to take away with Olympics in mind.
Forest is. Even over the very challenging four star Leopoldo Palacios (Venezuela) designed course at the show, he improved through the rounds, which included jumps of up to 1.6m.
"He should have been tired after the first round, but he came out and enjoyed it - once he had done it once, he was finding it easier." And he's been decidedly happy with himself ever since.
McVean has already ridden in five Nations Cups for New Zealand, and is likely to add to that tally in Poland in June.
She will first spend six weeks settling Forest in at a stable in the Netherlands before joining Kiwi-Bulgarian showjumper Samantha McIntosh in Germany. McVean's first show will be at La Courneuve in France, where she has twice won big classes.
She knows she is incredibly lucky with the support she has from parents Vicki and Jeff and owners of horses she has ridden, but she takes nothing for granted and does the hard graft herself.
Every morning her alarm goes off at 3.45am and she heads to the race track where she may ride up to 14 horses. "I think riding racehorses has given me great balance and just getting on so many different horses. I'm never scared - I trust dad implicitly not to put me on something bad."
But dad quietly admits he's been feeling a little nervous to have her on all sorts of horses before what will undoubtedly be some of the biggest challenges of her career.
"She's very fired up to do this. We are always only a phone call away and we talk through courses and options when she is at shows and we aren't," he says.
As high performance director for New Zealand Showjumping, Jeff McVean is probably tougher on Katie than any others. Despite this, she says: "I wouldn't change my life for the world.
And the best is probably still to come.
