2018 Plimer Plate Winner Maeve McLellan,(Centre) presented with the Pilmer Plate by Marie Wakeling from the ESNZ Endurance Board (Left) and Nick Pike ESNZ Board Chair & Vice President (Right)

The Pilmer Plate is ESNZ’s Volunteer Lifetime Award and it is awarded to a volunteer or technical official who, throughout his or her career, has exemplified the highest ideals of good sportsmanship through commitment, dedication and the pursuit of excellence in the service of ESNZ. Congratulations to the 2018 Pilmer Plate Winner presented at the ESNZ AGA Maeve McLellan from Endurance

It is with significant pleasure that the ESNZ Endurance Board nominate one of the sport’s stalwarts and most deserved Endurance member for the esteemed Pilmer Plate award.

If you were talking about Endurance royalty, Maeve McLellan’s name would come to mind. Not because she is particularly regal or acts like the Queen Bee, but because she was a founding member who has been instrumental in assisting in the growth and development of the sport, to what we now enjoy today.

Her passion for horses, her sense of community and her encompassing heart, have provided an important basis for being one of our sport’s most liked and respected members.

Maeve lives in a small remote community in the back blocks of Taranaki where the terrain lends itself to being excellent training grounds to develop endurance horses.

Maeve began competing in Endurance many years before most people currently in the sport can remember.

 In those early days, riders just turned up on the day without even having to belong to a club! When rider numbers grew, clubs were formed and Maeve became a member of the Taumarunui Endurance Club which was reasonably close to home until eventually forming the Kohuratahi club in her local area in 1987. She held the position of President of this club for many years and is currently their Treasurer.

Maeve has shown dedication, loyalty and commitment to ESNZ endurance. She was a determined competitor and won the NI Championships 100km ride in 1986 & 1987. Unfortunately due to “two bad knees” Maeve traded her riding in for roles supporting the sport on the ground. Those roles have been numerous.

Maeve has been a past Board member and selector for ESNZ Endurance representative teams. She has worked many hours as a Technical Delegate and Ground Jury member at FEI & CEN events throughout NZ. Together with her late husband Pete, her family members and their close knit community, she has organised courses and hosted rides that were enjoyed by hundreds of riders over the years. She has introduced other riders to the sport, some being international riders that she and Pete opened up their home to. She has encouraged her children and now her grandchildren into the sport. Maeve attends most rides in support of her daughter and granddaughters when they are competing.

Maeve has been an absolutely remarkable ambassador for our sport and is one of the most unassuming and modest people you could meet. She has put in many hours of work unseen by others and we believe she whole heartedly deserves National recognition for her decades of hard work, so freely given to our discipline.