Hundreds of teens are riding for glory at the Secondary School Equestrian Championships at two concurrent events in Christchurch and Taupō.
Evie Pulley and her horse Kenny have been training all year for the championships.
"I wouldn't believe it about a year ago that I'd be here, it's just kind of unreal," she said.
The Christchurch 14-year-old is one of 749 young riders competing at the two concurrent events to bring ribbons and glory to their schools.
Evie Pulley Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Pulley told RNZ she was there for the first time with her horse Kenny.
"He's an 11-year-old connemara. He struggles to be a gentleman in dressage but he's a really great jumper so we just kind of focus on jumping," she said.
She had been riding for about three years and was part of a team from Rangiora High School.
"I'm just pleased to be here really, I've been looking forward to it for ages," she said.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
It was not the first rodeo for 12-year-old Ava Allsopp-Hill from Villa Maria College, who was competing with her horse Tiggy.
"He's a little English riding pony and he's pretty good at his dressage and flatwork," she said
"I've been doing competitions since I was maybe five. I want to go to the Olympics."
Allsopp-Hill was looking forward to the show hunter event, which was a cross between dressage, show jumping and cross country.
"You have to be nice and controlled doing the jumping. If you go over a jump you have to get the strides right between the jumps and land on the right leg," she said.
Ava Allsopp-Hill. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Fifteen-year-old Abbie Doncliff was with a team of about 18 students from Christchurch Girl's High School.
This was her third year competing, and she had big success last year winning the overall Year 9 and 10 title.
Abbie Doncliff Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
She said horse riding was her life.
"I've been riding since before I could walk so probably since when I was born I've been with horses around horses. I really just want to go up the levels and definitely continue into the future," Doncliff said.
Event manager Hailey Rhyne said the number of students entering the champs had more than doubled since the competition began three years ago
"We have around 270 riders and horses in Christchurch and then our counterparts in the North Island have almost double that," she said.
"We've got competitive trail riding, arena eventing, two different types of show jumping, show hunter, dressage and mounted games this year which is a new addition.
"We offer a really fun experience that gives students some competition value but also learning, teamwork, they make friends here for life that they go meet up at other competitions with."
Hailey Rhyne. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
Rhyne said many students were involved with running the event as well as riding and looking after their horses.
"Pretty much all sports in this country run on the power of volunteers and equestrian definitely does. We hope to sort of foster that participation and belonging not just through competition but through the support and help to actually run the event," she said.
"A lot of the kids here are also doing volunteer duties they're picking up dressage sheets, they're running, they pick up poles, they pick up the poo around the area which is a really important aspect of teamsmanship."
The competition runs until Friday.
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