Above: Ashley Cutler and Kinnordy Ronsard

The Australian team has won the Trans-Tasman Young Rider Challenge held over the past three days as part of the Waratah World Cup show at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre. The Australian team of Anneleise Wansey, Ashley Cutler, Alexandra Gostelow and Hayden Parker rode magnificently and skilfully in this borrowed horse event to have the competition wrapped up before this evening’s final. Chef for the Australian team, Coco Miles, would have been delighted by the way her young charges rose to the challenge, however, the New Zealanders, lead by Chef Oliver Edgecombe, did their country proud, by the way they competed strongly throughout the course of the competition. Read on for a full wrap of how the competition unfolded.

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ROUND 1
The competition opened on Thursday evening with Round 1 producing a wonderful standard of jumping. Of the 15 rounds ridden, 11 were clear, with another incurring a single time penalty. The Australians were magnificent. Not a single rail down in seven rides and they only had seven rides because Hayden Parker and Kinnordy Rhena could have done nothing to improve the Australians’ standing by taking to the course for a second time. However, the decision to not appear for the second round, denied him the opportunity to join Anneliese Wansey and Emcee Vagabond and Alexandra Gostelow and Riverton Blueprint in recording double clear performances.

Above: Hayden Parker and Kinnordy Rhena

Above: Alexandra Gostelow and Riverton Blueprint.

At least Hayden got to watch his horse Tulara Spangenberg record a double clear, however, the gelding was ridden by New Zealand rider Liam Rutland, achieving the only double clear for his team.

With Nations Cup style drop score rules applying, Australia was able to discard Ashley Cutler and Kinnordy Ronsard’s single time fault in Round 1 and Hayden’s non-start in Round 2, to achieve a total score of zero penalties for the night, giving them the win.

The New Zealanders were able to discard Georgia Bouzaid’s first up 4-fault effort, however a pair of 4-fault rounds in Round 2 meant one of them had to count. The New Zealanders total was therefore 4 as can be seen in the detailed scores below.

AUSTRALIA

RIDER	HORSE	R1	R2
Anneliese Wansey	Emcee Vagabond	0	0
Ashley Cutler	Kinnordy Ronsard	1	0
Alexandra Gostelow	Riverton Blueprint	0	0
Hayden Parker	Kinnordy Rhena	0	DNS
TOTALS		0	0

NEW ZEALAND

RIDER	HORSE	R1	R2
Johanna Wylaars	Macleay Corella	0	4
Samantha Gillies	Myridersnota Rockstar	0	4
Georgia Bouzaid	Caitano	4	0
Liam Rutland	Tulara Spangenberg	0	0
TOTALS		0	4

Under the rules of the competition, Australia was awarded 5 points for first and New Zealand 3 points for their second placing, however, there were bonus points on offer as well. Each time a team achieved three or more clear rounds within a round, a bonus point is awarded. Australia managed this in each round to score 2 bonus points, while the New Zealanders did it once.

Total Scores for first round were as follows:

TEAM	POINTS	BONUS	TOTAL
Australia	5	2	7
New Zealand	3	1	4

ROUND 2

Coming into Round 2, Australia was looking to consolidate or extend their lead, while the New Zealanders were desperate to bridge the gap.

The teams swapped horses and it up to each team Chef to sort out which of the four horses allocated to the team would be paired with each rider.

After each combination had appeared on course once, each team managed to put together three clear rounds which meant that team totals were equal on zero and there was a bonus point awarded to both. The second rides by each combination saw a spate of rails down with only two clear combinations, both by the Australian team. The others each had a rail down and were able to discard one of these to finish up with a total of 4 faults.

The four members of the New Zealand team each took a rail and with only one of these able to be discarded, their team total added up to 12, giving Australia the win for the second night in a row. Detailed scored for Round 2 are listed below:

AUSTRALIA

RIDER	HORSE	R1	R2
Anneliese Wansey	Tulara Spangenberg	4	4
Ashley Cutler	Myridersnota Rockstar	0	0
Alexandra Gostelow	Macleay Corella	0	4
Hayden Parker	Caitano	0	0
TOTALS		0	4

NEW ZEALAND

RIDER	HORSE	R1	R2
Johanna Wylaars	Kinnordy Rhena	0	4
Samantha Gillies	Kinnordy Ronsard	0	4
Georgia Bouzaid	Emcee Vagabond	0	4
Liam Rutland	Riverton Blueprint	12	4
TOTALS		0	12

The overall competition scores at the end of round 2 was as follows:

TEAM	RD 1	RD 2	BONUS	TOTAL
Australia	7	5	1	13
New Zealand	4	3	1	8

FINAL

Coming into the final, the Australians had a lead that could not be breeched.

After the first round in the final, the Australians were on just 1 fault, having discarded their worst scoring combination, while the New Zealanders had just a single clear round with a total of 12 faults having to be counted.

In the second round, the Australians managed a pair of clears with Anneleise Wansey and Kinnordy Rhena racking up their second clear of the class, however, faults by the other two combinations meant 11 were added to their first-round score, to end up with a total of 12 for the night. The New Zealanders fought back well in the second round. They put two clears on the board, as well as a 6 and an 8, which was discarded, adding 6 to their first round 12 for a total of 18 faults.

Above: Anneleise Wansey and Kinnordy Rhena.

AUSTRALIA

RIDER	HORSE	R1	R2
Anneliese Wansey	Kinnordy Rhena	0	0
Ashley Cutler	Caitano	1	0
Alexandra Gostelow	Emcee Vagabond	0	11
Hayden Parker	Riverton Baluprint	24	12
TOTALS		1	11

NEW ZEALAND

RIDER	HORSE	R1	R2
Liam Rutland	Myridersnota Rockstar	8	6
Samantha Gillies	Macleay Corella	4	8
Georgia Bouzaid	Kinnordy Ronsard	8	0
Johanna Wylaars	Tulara Spangenberg	0	0
TOTALS		12	6

With the Australians taking an 18 to 12 win, they were allocated 5 competition points to New Zealand’s 3. With no bonus points applicable, the final scores in the competition were Australia 18 to New Zealand 11 as per the following table:

TEAM	RD 1&2	FINAL	BONUS	TOTAL
Australia	13	5	0	18
New Zealand	8	3	0	11

Congratulations to the Australian Team and their Chef Coco Miles. They rode consistently well over the three nights of competition and to take the well deserved win.

It was a great initiative by Edwena Mitchell to get this competition up and running and it was well received by all the participants and spectators alike and hope that this challenge becomes a permanent fixture on the Waratah program.