Paget, Promise and the Prices
CHALK 2014 up as one outside the box for New Zealand’s elite equestrian riders.
There was good, bad and slightly ugly in a year that had plenty of action on and off the course.
The story of the year was the same as 2013 – the Clifton Promise drugs saga which dragged on for close to a year but finally ended with Jock Paget being cleared of any wrongdoing and allowed to return to competition.
He was still stripped of the 2013 Burghley title and spent the best part of a year on the sidelines while the case played out, but the Kiwi was vindicated and back riding Promise at the World Equestrian Games in August, and at Burghley in September.
They finished second at Burghley, behind Kiwi team-mate Andrew Nicholson, who won the event on Avebury for a record third successive year. Nicholson and Avebury essentially won two Burghley titles this year, having in April been officially awarded last year’s title in the wake of Paget and Promise’s doping drama.
Nicholson wasn’t the only Kiwi to claim a top level four-star win in 2014, though Tim Price’s victory with Wesko at Luhmuhlen in Germany was much more of a surprise.
It followed a top-10 at Badminton and the win sealed Price’s spot in the World Equestrian Games team, though the Kiwis faltered badly in the teams event and finished outside the top10, despite going in with high hopes of winning gold.
Following the Games, Nicholson aired concerns over vet treatment of his horse, Nereo, and initially pulled himself out of contention for next year’s high performance squad, though he has since softened that stance.
It was a good year for the Prices; Tim’s wife Jonelle excelled at WEG to be the top New Zealander in finishing fourth. She was not part of the Kiwi team, though, riding only as an individual.
A series of top-10s in the big events saw Jonelle rise to No 2 in the FEI rankings to be the highest-ranked Kiwi.
Back home, there were changes at Equestrian Sport New Zealand; chief executive Jim Ellis took a job with Sport New Zealand and high performance manager Sarah Harris stepped away at the end of her contract term. Both roles are yet to be filled, though Vicki Glynn is acting chief executive.