Sarah and Benrose Super Star at Puhinui
“I don’t claim to have half as much knowledge as the riders themselves” says Sarah Dalziell-Clout “But I certainly have a huge passion for it and a good understanding which I think helps with the role”
Sarah started as the Equestrian Sports New Zealand high performance director in February 2015 and, although her role oversees various equestrian disciplines, eventing is particularly close to her heart.
We caught up with her at Puhinui International Horse Trials where she was competing in the CCI3* on Benrose Super Star. The pair narrowly missed out on winning the New Zealand National 3 Day Championship at Taupo earlier in the year, despite it being their first eventing start for some time due to Sarah’s work commitments, but unfortunately the water complex at Puhinui, which brought several riders unstuck, put an end to their competition there
We talked to Sarah to talk about her own riding, the post-Rio Olympic eventing changes and how New Zealand is hoping to help their up and coming riders transition through the Australian competition circuit
“I think we’ll be looking to utilise the Australian competition scene a lot more to practise the travelling and the overseas international element” says Sarah “The Australians have a lot of high performance riders based there so it would be the kind of intermediary step to encourage the next tier of riders before they head over to the UK. It’s a long way to go to the UK and it’s away from your support networks so we’re really trying to push that they get the experience on this side of the hemisphere before they base over there”
“But at the end of the day, the majority of the 4* are in Europe and in the UK and that is where the level of competition is set. So the riders do have to be prepared to make that transition at some point”
Sarah Dalziell-Clout
Sarah in her official capacity at Puhinui for the presentation to the departing NZ High Performance eventing coach Erik Duvander
