Hot school competition

Woodford House has been hosting equestrian events for more than twenty years, and the latest one, on September 19, attracted excellent entries. What made the show even more special was that the students were the main organisers and were not only involved in running it, they were competing and winning too!

Woodford House Black won the prized team competition and the school’s Silver and Red teams were second and third respectively. The winning riders were Willa Aitken, Mollie Moffett, Annabell Kerr and Hereworth School student Tim Wilson (pictured above) who was drafted into the team. His mother, Claire, went to Woodford House just a few years ago and we understand that she was one of the people who contributed to getting this event started.

This year, though, it was up to a group of current students. Willa Aitken was not only in the winning team, but was also on the organising committee and worked hard to get the show happening. “There was a group of us that organised it. Molly Goodison, Ginny Gibbs and myself; and this year we also had the help of Amy Roydhouse, the show jumping rider. We sorted out what was going to happen, what classes we were going to hold. We ordered the ribbons, picked the judges, sent out the entries, designed the posters and things.”

Somehow, Willa and her classmates fitted all that into their school and horse time. On the day itself, it was all go. “In the morning when we arrived we had a quick meeting after I unloaded the ponies. I finished my classes about lunchtime I came back to the office and helped out.”

This is Willa’s last year at the all-girls school. “The highlight of the show for me was that Woodford did so well and I am excited to leave Woodford on such a high note; it’s cool. I think it is the first time we have been first, second and third. It was awesome being part of that team,” she says.

We think it is pretty awesome that you can go to a horse show instead of going to class, and Willa agrees. “I’ve missed so much school for horses.” However, she has obviously done well academically, as she will be going to Victoria University next year. “I’m doing Law and a Bachelor of Arts. For the second semester I will hopefully bring Annie, my horse, up to uni and keep her at Upper Hutt.”

But before all that happens, Willa has school holidays to enjoy from next week, and the rest of the season and academic year to get through. She also plans to go to Horse of the Year. “I’ll do Level 3 on my horse, Alpha Beta, and hopefully Level 5 by the end of the season. My pony, Kirkwood Greenlight, is in the medium class for the FEI World Challenge. I focus mainly on dressage but all horses need to do something a bit different every other day. I do a lot of pony club stuff, volunteer and teach at Otane Pony Club. I did my B certificate on Ted, so he has done cross-country and show jumping. I do a little bit of showing here and there too.”

The event ran smoothly and the most popular class must have been the two-fence challenge. Willa agreed this was a highlight. “Five riders jumped 1.40m, which is awesome. A couple of them were on ponies! We haven’t had the two-fence challenge in a bit; we stopped doing it a while ago. I don’t know what height they got to before.”

The fence got to the maximum height of 1.40cm, which is why the five who cleared it had to share the first prize. Well done to Ruby Mason of Napier Girls’ High School on Mr Acho, Julia Hyslop of Woodford House on The Mighty Quinn, Iona College’s Molly Prenter on Rump Shaker, Havelock North Intermediate School’s Grace Stevenson on Tallyho Reuben James, and Feilding High School’s Blake Davis on Toby.

As well as show jumping competitions at various levels, there were dressage classes, again with good entries.

Eight other schools were represented at the event: Nga Tawa, Napier Girls’ High School, Campion School, Gisborne Girls’ High, Feilding Ag, Iona, Karamu and Havelock North High.

Organising this show was done purely in the students’ own time, and they didn’t receive any extra academic credits for their efforts. Willa obviously enjoyed it, however, and perhaps we will see her doing more in the future? “I probably could do it again. Hawke’s Bay held the Pony Club dressage champs this year and as I was team captain, I got to sit on a few of the organising committee meetings and that was quite cool.”

Well done Willa and your team, great effort!

The Woodford House day was followed by another day of competition, with the Havelock North High Inter-school equestrian event. The results of both days are here:

Results