The highly coveted Groom of the Year Award is once again up for grabs. It’s time for YOU to vote!!!! This year the award has be kindly sponsored by AMS Saddlery.
Come along to the Rider’s Meeting at North Island Champs, Foxton on the 1 April to hear more about our candidates. The meeting will follow a BBQ at 6:30 in the Sponsor’s Marquee.
Read about our top 5 candidates who have reached the final public vote here:
GRETA AVERILL
Rachel and Harvey Nelson
Greta is a farming girl from Keruru Hawke’s Bay and grew up riding and successfully competing in Showjumping and Eventing. She is now in her final year studying Nursing at Massey University in Wellington. Greta first came to groom for us in 2021 during her summer holidays.
From day one Greta fitted in and became one of the family for many reasons, these being a few:
She is kind, honest, hardworking, an animal lover and she gives everything 100%. Our kids love her, ALL our animals love her …. I’m a great believer kids and animals are the best judges of character, ours got it right! She is a very capable and tidy rider and can also sit on a roughy if needed. With her farming and nursing background she is on to any issues that may arise with the horses, she knows the horses inside out so is quick to pick up on if something is off.
Greta is super conscientious and has been found roaming around in the early hours of the morning changing covers when the weather has turned for the worse. In fact Greta has been so efficient that at some show’s Harv didn’t even know where our yards were for the entire show…..unfortunately for Harv since Gret’s been back nursing- things have changed!
Gret takes extreme pride in turning out the horses, she puts 100% into everything she does whether it’s with the horses or if she’s been roped into helping on the farm when needed, dipping, drenching fencing…..you name it!
Most important of all- she turns up every morning with a smile on her face and always at least 10 minutes early. Gret we have loved having you around and at least if nursing doesn’t work out you know you have other options!
LOUISE TURNER
Molly Moffatt
Hi, my name is Molly Moffatt and I have been lucky enough to have had Louise Turner as my groom for the 2020/2021 season. Horses have always been a big part of Louise’s life, having done it herself and being very successful. Louise has travelled over to the UK and groomed event horses for her auntie Caroline Powell, for two seasons. Then she came back to NZ to compete her own horses while studying. In 2017, Louise had an accident, which resulted in a Traumatic Brain Injury. She was in a coma for a month and was eventually well enough to go home 6 months later. Since then, life has really changed. Neurology doctors at the hospital recommended that she should not risk riding again post-accident. Louise found this really hard to get her head around. However, Louise was determined to stay involved with the horses and I was lucky enough to have her groom for me.
For Louise she says, “going along and helping at the shows again was a bit of a dream come true. I know how essential it is to have the management of competition horses completely right and felt a lot of pride in seeing the horses that I was grooming, going so well. I found the support of the whole show jumping community to be amazing and will be forever grateful for the opportunities I have had”.
Louise was the most amazing groom I could have ever imagined; she was so helpful, hardworking and supportive. My horses always looked the part and I am so grateful for everything that she has done for me.
CHRISSY WEBB
Daniel Webb and Hana Bognuda
Trying to describe how incredible Chrissy Webb is in 200-300 words seems near impossible. Most that know her would agree!
Chrissy absolutely deserves Groom of the Year, even though she more suitably should be named Superwoman of the Year! A normal show for us is 9 horses, which Chrissy studs by herself and we all know how much of a fun job doing studs is! She turns the horses out immaculately always, runs around warming everyone up. Making sure we get to the ring on time, even if we have to be in two rings at once, she always has the horses ready and we never miss a class! She’s always there to help anyone who asks, no matter how busy she is!
Chrissy without fail, doesn’t just look after the horses but always makes sure we’ve eaten and cooks the most amazing dinners even after she’s also had a huge day! She puts the horses and everyone else before herself, and I couldn’t think of anyone more deserving of the title! She also has to put up with Daniel- and I think that deserves an award in itself!
LUCY HELLEWELL
The Gillies Family
Lucy has helped us for the past 3 years and we would be lost without her. Lucy lifts up the morale whenever she is around. Lucy ensures that we are always in a good head space before our classes which Sam and Emma benefit from hugely.
Not only does Lucy help us mentally, she also does a lot of work with the horses. Lucy helps us plait the team, gears up horses, does countless water buckets, bandages and also does studs. Lucy is also a capable horse rider. She rides most of our horses at home.
Lucy is always very willing to help anyone anywhere with anything. Whether it is putting in studs or holding horses at the ringside. Lucy always uplifts the spirit of us and our friends. If we have a not so good day, she can always put a smile on our faces. With the countless amount of horses that we have, it can be a mission to have them all ready in time with class after class. Lucy remembers whose gear is whose; she is a very fast and willing learner.
Lucy is a very determined girl and this is shown by how hard she works. Lucy is a university student and also works at Headfords Nursery. When Lucy could be at home during the weekends she makes the decision to give up her time to come and spend very long weekends and sometimes weeks helping and supporting us all.
Lucy is a very valued member of our team.
JENNI CALVER
Jeremy and Sam Whale
Jenni has been an absolute legend for us this season. She is always there on time and never leaves the grounds until everything is clean, tidy and ready for the next week- including our yards.
She is actually a qualified nanny as well which has come in very handy for when everything clashes and we need her to wrangle the two toddlers. Jen is always in a bubbly and cheerful mood whether we have 4 horses or 11 she doesn’t complain and just gets the job done.
She is pretty much our show mum at events and has been a huge part of our great season of jumping so far. Often over looked as she is usually the sponsor of grooms awards we think it is her time to shine and I don’t think there is anyone on the circuit with as much grooming expertise and knowledge as Jen.
You can submit your votes at this link GROOM of the YEAR 2021-2022 – Google Forms
You must be a current member of ESNZ and have competed this season to be eligible to vote. VOTING CLOSES 10 APRIL 2022