Amie Bentall is what you would call a multidimensional character. A bubbly, charming, and sociable young lady, she's also a University of Auckland student. But what most people know Amie for is being selected to represent New Zealand in every Mounted Games World Championship since 2008.
She's a real team player who see the horse as important as anyone else:
"Bonnie gets very excited before the Games, she laughs. She's all over the place".
Bonnie is Amie's head horse, who accompanies her to and from Auckland so they can keep riding and training together all year.
Her passion for horses and talent for the Mounted Games have so far taken Amie to Australia, Denmark, England and later this year they will be traveling to Wales. Unfortunately, Bonnie won't be tagging along on that trip.
"It's too expensive to take the horses with us, explains Amie, plus there would be quarantine issues. So we get borrowed horses for the duration of the tournament. This is why it's so hard to win outside of your own country".
Well, that certainly didn't stop the New Zealand team from bringing back the cup from Australia in 2008.
This year, Bonnie is going to be very excited though, because before the NZ team leaves for Wales without her, she gets to compete in the NZ Horse of the Year in Hastings.
On this occasion, Amie will be competing in both individual and team categories (although she admits that prefers team). This will be a key event, with the 2013 World Champ-ionship selections to be made there. In addition (so Bonnie will be very happy to hear) the venue for the competition is none other than Hastings!
"Fingers crossed neither of us gets injured," says Amie. She adds: "Although I'm not too worried about myself, with my physios at Focus Health taking care of me. They've always been able to fix me in time for every event. When a 300kg horse fell on my ankle two weeks before a tournament and I couldn't walk at all, they still made sure I was able to compete. I wish they could also take care of my horses," she laughs.
We'll think about it...
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