Meet the New Zealand Young Rider Team for the 2019 Trans-Tasman Challenge

Briar Burnett-Grant Emily Hayward

Oliver Croucher Steffi Whittaker

Elmo Jackson (reserve) John Cottle – Chef d’Equipe

Click for rider profiles: New Zealand Team & Australia Team

The Australian team have arrived and are staying at a house near the beach.
On the cards today for them was a taste of Wainui to hopefully catch a crayfish or two, and a trip to the World Renown Rere rock slide. 
Both teams, along with parents and officials, are scheduled to meet for a friendly dinner this evening before competition kicks off tomorrow.

As this is a borrowed horse event, all eight riders will be given a horse they have not ridden before, with jsut a short time to familiarise themselves before the competition.

On Friday Todd Hinde,  John Cottle, and Kaye Williams will do the first draw of team horses.
The horses will be allocated to make a team “A” and a team “B” with the aim to make the teams as even as possible.
The Chefs will then draw which team of horses they start with.

The challenge is run over the three days starting with two rounds over the same course.
The first round is due to take place on Friday afternoon, with Australia riding team “A” horses and New Zealand riding team “B” horses.
For the second round, which will be the feature class on Saturday in front of the marquee, the teams will swap horses with Australia on “B” and New Zealand on “A”.

On Sunday, the horses will be redrawn, with the teams taking alternate turns to pick a horse to fill their team. A coin toss will determine who gets first pick. However, each rider and horse must be a new combination for the final.

The winning team will be determined by which team accumulates the most points over the three days.

 

Photo credit: Kampic