Young rider to take on world

Team Massey rider Hannah Appleton and her horse ZacTac Graceful have flown out to tackle the world’s best riders at the Dressage Young Rider World Cup in Frankfurt, Germany. 

Ms Appleton, who is studying a Bachelor of Applied Science in agriculture and equine studies, is the only rider in Australasia to qualify for the prestigious event, after qualifying in the young rider final at the Horse of the Year show earlier in the year. 

As part of her preparation for the world cup she had the opportunity to train and test in front of the current world cup winner Stefan Peters and FEI director of dressage Trond Asmyr at the FEI regional forum, held in Feilding.

The Team Massey programme gives her the opportunity to draw on the University’s equine expertise in helping prepare her horse for the trip. Also assisting ZacTac Graceful’s preparation is Fiber Fresh Feed, which has joined with Team Massey as official sponsor and feed supplier.

Team Massey Equine programme leader Dr Chris Rogers says the whole team is very excited about the partnership. “It’s great to be aligned with a company that is striving to achieve excellence in equine nutrition and is basing their product on robust research,” Dr Rogers says. “Pretty much every student in the team was already using Fiber Fresh products as a regular part of their horse’s ration when the sponsorship was announced and some of our elite riders, including Ben Bateman and Hannah Appleton, feed it to their horses in quite large quantities.”

Fiber Fresh Feeds’ Equine Division general manger Ian Pryor says Team Massey and Fiber Fresh Feeds have a shared goal of aiming for excellence and see this association as a very good representation of their shared values.

Based at Massey University’s Manawatu campus, Team Massey aims to achieve academic and equestrian excellence by providing young elite riders with the opportunity to combine their university study with top-level equestrian training and competition. The students accepted into the programme are supported and mentored by an internationally recognised group of riders and coaches, equine nutrition and physiotherapy experts and human performance specialists.