Bonnie started riding at age 9 in New Zealand with the dream to wear the Silver Fern and jump some "large solid fences." Her first taste of success came with a RSPCA rescue pony who was brought for my mum… turns out he could jump. He was a rocket around the cross country, even flying around the New Zealand pony club champs for a win! "We were a very non-horsey family, we had a little old horse float, a Wintec saddle, and the only instruction and training I received was Pony Club, even before Champs!
Bonnie's first major achievement came when she was 16 years old and won the New Zealand Junior 3DE Championship in 2012 riding 6-year-old Kaipara Dior. From there, the pairing allowed her to have some fantastic results including wining Taupo CCI** Open and Taupo CCI*** in 2013 and 2015. Bonnie also represented New Zealand twice in the young rider teams where in 2015 where she won team gold and individual gold and was part of the New Zealand Talent Identification Squad.
Bonnie welcomed Covent Garden to the team in 2015, she was owned by Virginia Caro and Barbara Thompson and was such a fun mare! "We clicked straight away and had some fantastic results. She also gave me someamazing rounds at young rider level show jumping which for a little 15.3h was
HUGE!"
Unfortunately, we lost Covent Garden heading to HOY 3* in 2016. At the same time, Kaipara Dior had many unsuccessful operations and at only 10 years old was deemed unfit to ride. Kaipara Dior was preparing for her first full season at 4* and Covent garden was going to be my new young rider horse but it just wasn’t meant to be. I knew it was going to be a long road back to the top. I pride myself on doing it mostly on my own, my parents are fantastically supportive but we’ve never had the ability to spend much money on a horse." Kaipara Dior has now had two gorgeous foals by Eurocommerce Pennsylvania and Eurosport Diamant B. I’m breaking in her first foal now, Mia. She free jumps like a freak and has a super quiet nature so you will see her on the truck soon!
I sold my Baba Ganoush in 2017 who I had had since he was three. He was at 2* but after a couple of tries at 3* it was obvious he didn’t have the heart for big jumps. With this money, I brought a couple of thoroughbreds off the track. Jay Gatsby was one of those and went from 80 to 2* in less than a year. He placed in the national young event horse and towards the end of 2019 he went double clear in his first 3*. He also finished 4th in the national pro-am series for 2019-2020. We look forward to consolidating at 3* with him in the 2020-2021 season. I’ve also welcomed Jack too Flash onto the team, he joined us in August and has only come home once without a ribbon. Basil Brush is the baby of the team at 5 years, another TB and shows a lot of potential. Jack and Basil will be at 105 for the 2020-21 season.
Bonnie is a graduate from Massey University now doing environmental reporting. Flexi-hours and the ability to work remotely has been fantastic to both allow her to advance her career whilst riding
competitively! “I want to inspire the younger generation that you don’t need a lot of money to reach the higher levels, you can do it on self-made horses and have fun with it.”
Reyna has been by my side now for a number of years and I am so thankful for their support. I’ve never had so much beautiful gear.
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