It was a freezing Canterbury day for this year’s Collier Trophy. Hosted by last year’s winning pony club, Okuku, the event was held at the National Equestrian Centre at McLeans Island.
The weather forecast was for cold and wet conditions, but that didn’t put the 22 teams off, and luckily the rain held off.
The Collier Trophy is a Canterbury wide eventing competition. Teams of six riders (minimum of 4 riders) compete and the best 4 scores (one from each level then the next best one) contribute to the team’s final overall score for the event.
There were three age groups: senior (16 years & under – 80cm), Intermediate (14 years & under – 65cm) and junior (12 years & under – up to 65cm)
The event is a great introduction to eventing team events as only those combinations who have not competed in the Springston Trophy or have grading points are eligible.
There was great team support shown, and a special well done to all those jump judges and other volunteers who braved the conditions for many hours.
The View Hill Silver team emerged triumphant, leading after dressage and finishing at the top of the leader board. The team consisted of Mya Plotkin (Piper), Imogen Morrison (Pure Luck), Charlotte Thomas (About Time), Robbie Cochrane (Inspector Gadget), Indi Phillips (Muffin Man) and Daniel Thomas (Pennyvale Chintzy).
The enthusiastic Kaiapoi team had a good event to finish second, and the Roydvale team were third, to the delight of their younger members who attended as part of this month’s rally.
Fourth went to Springston Superstars, fifth to the Waihora Zebras with Halswell Black taking out sixth prize.
The View Hill Gold team won the wooden spoon, which was for the best result over the dressage and show jumping for those teams not posting a finishing score when the cross country was included.
The coveted Horsemanship prize went to the Bangor Buddies.
The photos are available for purchase from Jane Thompson’s website. You can access that by clicking on this link.
