HBS Equine/Star Park

family rural property at Karaka in New Zealand. Like her Great Aunt, Helen is dyslexic with significant learning disabilities. She was fortunate that it was formally acknowledged early and that she had the benefit of specialist support through the Equine Industry. At the time she didn’t know it but this disability shaped her career with horses. Helen and her first small grey pony Casey went to their first Pony Club Ribbon day together when she was just 5 years old. In her younger years she was very successful at Show Hunter placing many times at the Horse of the Year Show and winning many trophies, garlands and rugs. Helen always had a keen interest in Eventing, she was 8 when she did her first One Day Event. She was 14 when she was selected for the Auckland NZPCA Eventing Championship team, just one of her many successes. Later that same year she was selected to join the Equestrian New Zealand Eventing Talent Identification Squad where she participated with notable success competing around New Zealand for three consecutive years to Eventing Level 2* & Intermediate Advanced. Over that period Helen had many horses but her mare Olympian Lady was one she specifically remembers. Helen was placed in the 1* at the prestigious Puhinui 3 Day Event with this mare at only 15 years old. She represented Auckland & Franklin Thames Valley on four further occasions at the New Zealand Pony Club Eventing Championships and in 1998 captained her team to Reserve National Champions. In 1997 just one year prior Helen achieved 5th Place in the New Zealand Young Rider Eventing Championships. She backed it up on a different horse, Squirrel with a 6th in 1998 respectively. In 1999, she was also long-listed for the New Zealand Young Rider team for the Trans-Tasman Challenge in Australia. Helen capped a successful Eventing season by winning the National Bell Tea High Points Accumulator for the Young Rider and Novice Horse. Finally in 2000 Helen’s outstanding equestrian ability and potential were acknowledged by a New Zealand Rotary Club award. She was also selected for the New Zealand Development Squad for Eventing and won a New Zealand Prime Minister’s scholarship for outstanding achievement in the sport of Equestrian Eventing at this time as well. Illness caused a break from horses; but horses are in Helen’s blood and she began a new equestrian career in 2013 – Reining – with immediate and ongoing success:
Listed below are some of her achievements in the sport to-date:
Green Reiner Level 1 & 2 High Points Champion 2013/2014, Green Reiner Level 2 National Champion 2014, PCRS Rookie Level 1 & 2 Champion 2014, NSW Lady Rider Champion 2014, NSW Reserve State Champion Limited Non Pro 2014, NSW State Champion Limited Non Pro 2015, PCRS Lady Rider Champion 2016, National Reserve Intermediate Non Pro Champion 2016, PCRS Intermediate Open & Non Pro Champion 2017, QLD State Non Pro Futurity Reserve CO-Champion 2017, QLD State Champion Intermediate Open & Non Pro 2017, Australian Reining Breeders Cup Non Pro Champion 2017. In 2017 Helen won the Reining Australia, National High Points Championship for both the Intermediate Open and the Non Pro. In 2018 she travelled to America to develop her training experience and to compete on the world stage of Reining. She was 1 of 130 plus entries, Helen won the 2019 Tulsa Novice Horse Derby. That same year Helen also achieved a World Ranking for Non Pro Reining. In the USA Helen was fortunate to work & learn with Trainers such as Shauna & Martin Larcombe, Abby Mixon, Jonathan Gauthier, Mathui Buton and Luke Gagnon. She also spent time at Sterling Ranch and McCutcheon reining.