It was a dream come true for Gisborne’s Larina Dolman, capping off a near-perfect season with her pocket rocket Kiwi Lansing to win the Pro-Am Rider of the Year title.
Little ‘Reg’, who is barely 15.1hh, was Larina’s first hack and she produced him from the age of three with much success in the age-group classes, including winning the 7YO Horse of the Year title in 2015.
But then Larina took a couple of years’ break from riding, and Reg was passed to her younger sister Sinead to compete. “She had a few issues with him… they just didn’t really make a partnership,” Larina says.
When Larina took him back over at the end of last season, she wasn’t sure if he’d step back up to Pro-Am level. “But he’s proved everybody wrong – he’s just come out and annihilated it!” she says. “He’s one in a million -– I wish everybody could have a horse like him.”
The pair were run-away winners of the Pro-Am series, having travelled far and wide clocking up points from multiple wins and placings.
And today, they were one of an extraordinary 14 combinations to go clear in the opening round of the Pro-Am final at the Land Rover Horse of the Year Show. It made for an unusually large jump-off, though the second time out proved much more of a challenge.
The first two riders out both had the last rail down, the third retired after a rail and a run-out, and the next two had eight faults each. So when Paul Mussen rode into the ring with Deja Vu NZPH, a steady clear was a very sensible option and she just did that, to remain on zero faults with a time of 61.03 seconds.
Kirsten Worker and Melanie’s Choice weren’t having any of that though, and zapped around nearly 12 seconds quicker, to leap into the lead on 49.39secs.
It was go hard or go home after that, and Larina isn’t the sort of rider to leave anything in the tank. She and Kiwi Lansing flat out galloped, managing to shave an incredible two seconds from Kirsten’s time.
Only one rider was able to beat that time, Paxton Conder and La Fonteyn taking some truly daredevil turns and angles, but it caught up with them when they had the last two fences down.
Kirsten and Melanie’s Choice finished second, Vicki Prendergast and Selena C were third with a clear jump-off in 52.21 seconds, Paula was fourth and Ash Hart fifth as the quickest four-faulter, riding Kiwi Showtime.
