Friday, March 29, 2024

NZ teen enters world show jumping arena

Neal Wallace
Competing against the best in the world has given a Central Hawke’s Bay teen a taste for international show jumping – and he wants more.
Dylan Bibby from Hawke’s Bay in action at the FEI Youth Equestrian Games in Germany earlier this year. Photo: Libby Law Photography/ESNZ
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This article was among Farmers Weekly’s most read in 2022.

A big chunk of Dylan Bibby’s equestrian future requires finding the right horse, and they are not cheap.

A nationally competitive horse can cost $100,000. You will need to add another digit or two to that figure to secure one that is internationally competitive.

The 18-year-old aspiring farmer and stock agent from Ongaonga in the Central Hawke’s Bay has just returned from an Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) event in Germany, where he was one of 30 riders from around the world to participate in the FEI Youth Equestrian Games.

The trip involved an intense 10-days of competition, lessons on life skills and experiencing the European equestrian scene.

It has only enhanced his love of the sport while confirming how small New Zealand is in the equestrian world.

One of the equestrian centres he visited in Germany had two indoor and two outdoor arenas attached to a large stable complex in which horses live year-round.

There was an inevitability that Bibby would be involved in equestrian sports given that his mother Kelly was a groom for renowned NZ show jumper and eventer Merran Hain.

“We had horses on the farm and from an early age I was going to pony club events and from that I grew to love horses and equestrian events,” says Bibby.

He loves the excitement of show jumping so has focused on that discipline as opposed to those that require dressage, something he finds tedious.

“It doesn’t have the same excitement. At its low level, it’s trotting and cantering, it’s not as exciting as jumping a fence.”

Bibby’s first big break came when he was aged 11 or 12, when a friend, Pam Hamilton, gave him the use of a well-bred pony that was still to fulfil its show jumping potential.

It took five years of work and gradual improvement but Bibby eventually took the pony, Daisy Patch, to the top of its class.

“That was a big step. It meant I got my name associated with the top equestrian riders.”

Owners began approaching him with ponies to ride, two of which were exceptionally good and gave him further success.

Bibby says training a pony is similar to training any athlete, requiring confidence, patience, time and exposure to competition.

“It requires a slow progressive build-up,” Bibby says.

Riders need to be confident, making quick and accurate decisions – and well balanced, especially with young horses.

“If you’re not confident in yourself, it’s not easy to get an inexperienced horse to take the next step.”

Training involves daily hill rides around the farm of his parents, Hamish and Kelly Bibby, to build up strength and endurance.

This is interspersed with flat training to develop a horse’s athleticism and suppleness.

Jump training is limited to jumping low logs or low objects.

When he’s not being a world-class athlete, Dylan Bibby is preparing for his future as a stock agent.

New opportunities materialised as Bibby’s success grew, with a new mount several years ago taking him to second place in the Equestrian Sports NZ show jumping Grand Prix for his category.

“It got my name out there and I started picking up further rides,” Bibby says.

The following year he won the NZ Junior Rider Under-18 title and for the past two years he has been competing in the NZ Junior Rider Under-21 category.

His progression and development as a show jumper peaked in January this year when he won selection for the FEI Youth Equestrian Games, an event created by FEI for riders aged 14 to 18 following postponement of this year’s Youth Olympic Games.

Replica show jumping circuits were erected around the world at which young riders competed for the right to attend one of the world’s biggest equestrian shows in Aachen, Germany.

NZ was allocated one spot for the 10-day trip on late June. Bibby won it, joining 29 other young equestrians from around the world.

At its peak 30,000 people watched the events.

Riders attending the Youth Equestrian Games drew horses out of a hat, then had two days to become acquainted before a show jumping competition.

The 30 riders were first split into teams, with Bibby aligned with riders from Australia, Saudi Arabia, Syria and United Arab Emirates in the Australasian team.

After two days of competition the team placed fifth.

The focus then shifted to individual competition and after a clear first round, Bibby was lying second. He dropped two rails in his second ride to finish mid-table.

The young riders were also given advice on education, planning, psychological pressures and other life skills, and spent time at stables and equestrian centres.

Bibby says the visit was a revelation and highlighted to him the reality of what is required if he wants to attempt to get to the top of the sport.

That would require more success in NZ and Australia and then a shift to the United States or Europe along with some serious financial backing.

“If I can’t win here or in Australia, there is no chance winning over there,” he says.

“At the moment it is a hobby, but I would like to get to the highest level, a member of the Nation’s Cup Team.”

Achieving that could potentially open the door to Olympic selection, but both would require an exceptional horse.

His immediate focus is on finishing his Primary ITO studies in farming and preparing to learn the ropes as a stock agent.

As for show jumping, Bibby is preparing for the coming domestic season, which runs from September to March, and in which he has three horses. Two will be his mainstays, and another young horse will be exposed to limited competition.

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