Alice riding Aqua at Puhinui
UK based but New Zealand born eventing rider Alice Montgomery had a flying visit back home in December 2014 ‘to top up the tan’ and also compete at the Puhinui International Horse Trials
Alice, who won her first 3* at 18, enjoyed great success in New Zealand as a young rider and managed to combine her eventing career with studying for a degree in architecture before she making the move to Australia to base herself with Chris Burton. The result was a good one with Alice finishing third at the Melbourne International 3 Day Event in 2011 riding Gordon; the following season she continued to gain good results, placing second in the NSW CIC3* State Championships and competing in her first CCI4* in Adelaide (although with not quite the outcome she hoped, as she mentions in our interview)
By this time Chris Burton had relocated to the UK and was based in Dorset with Sam Griffiths so when the opportunity to work with both of them came up, Alice decided to take the plunge and head to the UK in March 2012, taking her top horse Gordon with her. Following the 12 month period spent working and training with Sam and Chris in Dorset, Alice was offered the opportunity to take on two young horses and some stables at a yard 20 minutes down the road at Manor Farm in Ditcheat Somerset, a little removed from the usual Kiwi ‘enclave’ in Gloucestershire
We caught up with Alice to find out more about how she is enjoying the English eventing scene, her plans for 2015 and her current team of horses
Alice Montgomery
Alice and her very supportive father Stephen who also evented at 3* level
