An experienced team will represent New Zealand at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with husband and wife team Tim and Jonelle Price joined by Clarke Johnstone, and Caroline Powell as the alternate.
This will be Jonelle Price’s fourth Games – she was a member of the bronze medal-winning team at London (2012), competed at Rio (2016) where the team placed fourth, and Tokyo (2020) for a fifth team placing where she was the best-placed Kiwi in 11th spot. She was also reserve at Athens (2004).
Jonelle who hails from Motueka but lives in the UK with Tim and their two children, will compete aboard her 12-year-old Dutch-bred mare Hiarado, who was bought two years ago specifically as a back-up for Paris 2024, with Grappa Nera as her reserve horse.
“I am very delighted to be selected for my fourth Games,” says Jonelle. “The Olympic Games is the pinnacle of any sport and resonates so globally which makes it extra special. I am delighted for myself, the team, friends and family who have all been instrumental in our careers.”
“I just happened to see this mare and really liked her” says Jonelle of the mare who is ‘right up her street’.
“She has been nothing but magic since we bought her and gone from strength to strength. We are very well suited – she is gutsy, determined, feisty and strong-willed. We are a match made in heaven!”
Tim made his Olympic debut at Rio and also rode at Tokyo. He has been named aboard the 15-year-old German-bred Hanoverian gelding Falco, his double bronze medal winning team horse at the 2022 World Championships in Pratoni, with the 12-year-old Selle Francais gelding Coup de Coeur Dudevin his reserve horse.
For Clarke Johnstone, also a member of the New Zealand bronze medal winning team at Pratoni 2022, the selection is extra special after a challenging year.
“It has been an incredibly difficult year for me personally after the sudden death of my partner Codey at the end of 2023,” says Clarke. “Having the goal of the Olympic Games which we were both so invested in has kept me going the past six months and I have poured my heart and soul into training and competing my lovely horses this year to make our goal a reality. I know he would be so proud.”
Clake is from Outram but is also based in the UK and lining up at his second Games after also debuting at Rio where his sixth individual placing was the best of the New Zealand riders. He will compete aboard the 14-year-old British sport horse Menlo Park who he says feels like he is peaking at the perfect time for Paris.
The alternate combination is two-time Olympian Caroline Powell, who is originally from Christchurch, aboard Greenacres Special Cavalier with whom she recently won the CCI5* at Badminton. Caroline made her Olympic debut at the Beijing Games and won a team bronze at London in 2012.
Greenacres Special Cavalier is an 11-year-old Irish sport horse mare who Caroline has long believed in and carefully brought her through the grades.
She and Lenamore won Burghley 5* in 2010, the same year she was part of the bronze medal winning team at the World Championships at Kentucky.
The non-travelling reserves are – Dan Jocelyn with Blackthorn Cruise, James Avery with MBF Connection, Jonelle Price with Grappa Nera, Tim Price with Coup de Coeur Dudevin, Samantha Lissington with Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, Monica Spencer with Artist.
Equestrian Sports New Zealand high performance general manager Jock Paget, himself a team bronze medal winner from the London Olympic Games, said the eventing selection had been particularly hard.
“We had lots of strong combinations to choose from. It was the biggest selection headache I have witnessed in my time but we now have a really strong team who I think will be suitable for what we expect to go into in Paris,” he said. “Our reserve combinations are strong and committed to being in the best shape possible if called on for the games, and we are looking forward to getting into our final camp to finish our prep.”
