Sacha Harwood wins Amateur Rider in North Island Show Jumping Champs

Hamilton student, 19-year-old Sacha Harwood takes good form into the Horse of the Year competition after winning first place in her class in the North Island Showjumping Championships.

It’s a feat which left her a little surprised, after what she describes as an “up and down” season.

Harwood and Ivy, whose show name is Beautiful Day, beat the second place winner in the competition by a mere 0.5 seconds. “It’s the difference between the time you take off and the time you land. It was purely down to, I suppose, the difference in the type of horse.

“[I was] in disbelief,” she said. “I didn’t think that we were capable of coming back, after our show before that, in December, had gone quite badly. I wasn’t expecting to go out to win, it was mainly to go out to have a bit of fun and see where we were at as a team.

“It was just a spectacular ride. Both me and my horse worked really well together as a team. It would have been one of the best events I’ve been to so far in my riding career. It’s a definite highlight for me, especially with Ivy, as this is her last season.”

Harwood, a Wintec journalism student, is competing in the Amateur Rider series, and is  14^th equal on a scoreboard of around 120 people. “At each event you can place, and if you place in that class you gain points towards the series. The person with the highest amount of points wins the series.”

Horse riding events can have a rating of one to three stars, three being the most prestigious. The North Island champs rated three stars.

It hasn’t been an easy ride for Harwood. Her horse, eight-year-old Ivy, suffers from osteoarthritis, and has pedal osteitis; a growth on the pedal (or hoof) bone. “Every time a horse with pedal osteitis lands after a jump, it hurts because of the irregularities on the bone,”  Harwood said. “You can do various things with shoeing to compensate for this, but on the hard ground in the middle of summer, it’s difficult to avoid the concussion caused to the feet.”

Harwood has been trying out a new product to help with this, a clay-like substance put in with the horseshoe which “gives her extra padding and support, as well as a bit of bounce when she lands, in order to take away any discomfort from jumping.”

Harwood is now competing at Horse of the Year, which she described as the big ‘finale’ event for the season. Though there are other events afterwards, this one is by far the largest, and runs from March 13 to 17.

“I’m feeling a little bit nervous, excited though,” Harwood says. “I have reserved hopes for what could lie ahead.”