2008 News & Results

Joe WINS Leading Intermediate in the  South East Eventers League (SEEL) Rankings 2008.
Joe Meyer was one of eleven title winners honoured at the Seahorse Ball & South East Eventers League Awards at the South of England Showground in November. During the evening Joe also received awards for The Racehorse Sanctuary Racehorse-to-Eventer and Leading Horse & Rider.

Leading Intermediate
Sponsored by First Thought Equine Ltd – 1st Clifton Chatter                                
Owned by Lucy Allison and Frances Stead
The Racehorse Sanctuary Racehorse-to-Eventer
Sponsored by the Racehorse Sanctuary & Schering-Plough Animal Health – 3rd Clifton Lush
Owned by Lucy Allison and Frances Stead Clifton Chatter
Leading Horse & Rider
Sponsored by Seahorse – 4th Clifton Chatter
Owned by Lucy Allison and Frances Stead

30/8/08 – Firle Place
We had a great result this weekend with Chatter coming second in the 6YO class at Firle with a fantastic dressage score of 23.8! A future star in the making….

21/05/08 – Ease on Fire added to Olympic Short-list
Following a top 20 finish at Badminton earlier this month, Ease on Fire has been added to the NZ team short-list, leaving Joe in the strong position of having two horses available for final selection (see full announcement below). Joe actually has 4 horses qualified to compete at the games, with Black Andy finishing a creditable 32nd at Badminton and Ariki taking 14th place in the recent World-Cup qualifier at Chatsworth.

These horses are now having a couple of quiet weeks while Joe spends some time focussing on the up and coming team, with 3 horses contesting the Houghton Hall international this week. Clifton Lush and Ease A Blaze will compete in the CCI2* and Clifton Chatter will make his international debut in the CCI1*.

The Olympic horses will have their key pre-games run at Barbury Castle CIC3* on 5th/6th July, before going into quarantine on 23 July. Horses will travel to Hong Kong on 30th July with the first horse inspection scheduled to place on the day of the Opening Ceremony 08-08-08!

The other exciting news, for those who haven’t already heard, is that we are expecting a baby at the end of September. All is well so far.

OLYMPIC EVENTING REVISED SHORTLIST NAMED
A final shortlist of eight riders, from which five will be selected for August’s Olympic Games, was named by the Eventing New Zealand selectors today.
Following recent performances three further combinations have been added to the list, including Joe Meyer and Ease On Fire, Mark Todd and Gandalf and Dan Jocelyn and Mr Pracatan. Missing from the original list are New Zealand-based duo Matthew Grayling and Bryce Newman, both forced to withdraw from contention after their respective horses were injured. Todd, a double gold medallist, recently achieved the Olympic qualifying criteria to make the final cut-off after making a late bid for Games selection. The UK-based Dan Jocelyn competed at the Athens Olympics where the New Zealand team finished fifth.

The complete shortlist is:
Andrew Nicholson – Lord Killinghurst and Henry Tankerville
Annabel Wigley – Black Drum
Caroline Powell – Lenamore and Mac MacDonald
Dan Jocelyn – Mr Pracatan
Emily Butcher – Southern Ben
Joe Meyer – Snip and Ease on Fire
Heelan Tompkins – Sugoi
Mark Todd – Gandalf

Team manager Blyth Tait, a former Olympic and world eventing champion, is pleased with the depth of talent in the New Zealand ranks. “All eight are worthy candidates who have shown good performances at a top level, giving us more experience to select from going into an Olympic campaign than we have had for a long time,” he said. The final team of five to compete in Hong Kong will be named in mid June.