Blyth and Bear Necessity V finished 11th at Burghley
It is always lovely to chat with Blyth Tait and we caught up with him at Puhinui International Horse Trials whilst he is spending some time in New Zealand, sensibly escaping the UK winter before returning for the start of next season
Blyth had a good season in 2016 and two good 4* finishes at Burghley and Badminton saw him named as the New Zealand team non-travelling reserve for Rio with the 11 year old Bear Necessity V. Bear Necessity will be his top horse next season as his other 3*/4* ride Xanthus III has been retired from top level eventing to enjoy a new life in New Zealand with Blyth’s ex-groom Fiona Fraser
Fiona is not only Blyth’s ‘lucky groom’ who was with him when he won Olympic individual gold at Atlanta and double gold at the World Championships in Rome but she is also the owner of Leo Distinction, the 11 year old horse New Zealand warmblood bred by Fiona’s mum, Julia Fraser. Blyth Blyth competed this horse at Puhinui in 2014 and then took him back to England.
Another New Zealand bred horse ridden by Blyth is Darius, a 10 year old NZ thoroughbred, who won the Open Intermediate at South of England 2, was second in the OI and CIC2* at Burgham and Hopetoun and sixth in the CIC2* at Barbury in 2016
We talked to Blyth about his current horses, his new career as a cross country course designer and what he thought of the new 50-penalty rule for jumping outside the flag on cross country
