Tregonning was twice crowned show jumping’s Horse of the Year, but he was much, much more than a superb show jumper. He was the ultimate all-rounder: the type who can win at high levels in more than one discipline, and perhaps one of the last of his kind, as it’s hard to think of another horse like him competing today.
Tregonning won at almost every discipline, including dressage and showing, for his rider, the indomitable Merran Hain.
Part Hanoverian, part thoroughbred, a true brown with a white blaze and three white socks, he was purchased by Merran as an undersized 18-month old for just $500. She describes him as a ‘funny wee thing’ back then. “He took a long time to mature. He was a bit wayward for a while, like all Hanoverians are, but he settled down.”
Merran named him Tregonning after the surgeon who saved her son’s life, and soon realised that her $500 had purchased her some real potential. Once he was out and about under saddle, the horse known at home as ‘Trigger’ began to show his true colours and win – a perfect performance in a 1.20 metre class at Taupo is one of Merran’s most treasured memories.
Her talented boy was destined to leap a lot higher though, and soon the ribbons were piling up. By the time he retired, he had 100-plus serious show jumping victories to his name, including the Olympic Cup at the Horse of the Year Show in 1999 and 2003, the Rutherford Cup (National Grand Prix Championship) in 2005, and the highly coveted Lady Rider of the Year title in 2003 and 2004.
But Trigger didn’t stop there. He was Working Hunter of the Year in 2003, Supreme Champion Hunter of the Year in 2006, Show Hunter of the Year in 1994 and 2001, and Medium-weight Working Hunter of the Year in 2008. He doubled as a stock horse at home and a hunter during the hunt season. Somehow, he and Merran also found time to school for, compete in – and win at – graded dressage!
“I’m extremely lucky to ride him,” Merran said after her 2003 Horse of the Year win. “He’s superb.”
When he died in 2008, she summed up their 18-year partnership: “With Trigger I achieved things I would never have dreamt I was capable of achieving. There are exciting rides when you really challenge yourself, like when we galloped into that last fence at the Horse of the Year Show to take the title in 2003.
“There are others that perhaps aren’t big, prestigious classes but hold a special memory, like the 1.30 metre class at Gisborne A&P, when we cut a stride out at the last fence. And the 1.20m at Taupo when he was still quite young. You train for rides like that.”
Tregonning is buried at Merran’s home, Waikura Station, near Gisborne.
