Pins in her neck and fatigue did not stop Hollie Southward from competing with the best of the best at the Horse of the Year Show and being selected for the New Zealand junior riders’ team.
The plucky 17-year-old spent last week in Hastings with her trusty mount, Sailor Boy, at the prestigious Horse of the Year show (HOY) just a year after a moped accident left her with extensive injuries.
Within months, she was competing again in the sport she loved, on the pony she trusted, and qualified for HOY which brings together top riders and horses from around the country.
By the end of the week, the duo had won their saddle hunter class over jumps, taken the runner-up champion working hunter pony of the year, while Hollie was sixth debutante junior rider of the year and third in the 15-16-year-old bracket.
Those successes gained her a spot on the junior rider team heading to Melbourne in December – if, as her mother Nicola says, they decide to go and can raise the funds.
It wasn’t an easy week as Hollie fought fatigue and pain caused by her moped accident. The accident left her with extensive injuries that required two pins to hold two vertebrae in her neck in place, as well as fractures in her lower spine and broken ribs.
Her head injury continues to cause fatigue and affects her ability to get through the day. But despite being on painkillers for much of the competition and missing one of her best classes because she needed a break, Nicola says Hollie is “over the moon” with the duo’s success.
“She’s a little bit blown away with how well they’ve done because they’re massive classes. She was exhausted though – people don’t see the fatigue. On the last day of competition she had to miss the paced and mannered because she just couldn’t do it. The fatigue shuts her brain down and her strength just goes.
“All the riders from Nelson were incredible support to her. They helped get Sailor ready for her classes and everything. It meant the world to her.”
At some point Sailor will have to be sold, because when Hollie turns 18 she will have to compete on a horse rather than a pony, and though Nicola says there were potential buyers looking at him at HOY, they aren’t ready to part with him yet.
Sailor travelled back to Tasman with another local competitor, Annie Baird, who competed on Maximus Z to take home the Junior Show Hunter of the Year title.
They won most of their classes in the show hunter ring including the Junior High Points, Junior Equitation and Junior Hunter Championship. They also won the Open Hunter 115 and Open Hunter Championship.
