Teams

Christina Rasmussen rides on her pony Von Dutch which she has had for almost a year. She has done games for 2 years, and this is her 2. world championsship. She has done about 15 international competitions. Christina lives at Birkedal where MGADK has their organisation. Christina is 15 years old.

Annie Kastrup rides on her pony Iris, which she has had for almost 2 years, which is the same time she has done games. Annie has done about 13 international competitions and this is her 2. world championsship. Annie is 17 years old.

Lea Høybye rides on her pony Perle, which she has had for almost 1 year, lea has done games for 1½ year and has done about 14 international competitions. This is her 2. world championsship. Lea is 16 years old.

Nicole Sandbæk rides on the swedish pony Chicken, which she has on loan from Nisse Adolfson. Nicole has been riding Chicken for about 9 months and done games for 1½ year. This is her first world championsship, but she has done about 9 international competitons. Nicole is 16 years old.

Katrine Petersen rides on her pony Roxanne, which she has had for 6 months. She has done games for 1½ year and done about 5 international competitions. This is her first world championsship. Katrine is 16 years old.

Signe Sehested is the trainer, and very hard and unreasonable all the time he he!!!

Pete Walters (Red)
The socialite from Sussex returns for his second year in the England Team. With a fantastic attitude to both competitive and social sides of Mounted Games, Pete is always a favourite with the international crowd – and rightly so. Already achieving success with Sussex both at home and abroad, he cannot fail to impress and we look forward to hearing his infectious laughter throughout Sweden this summer. Pete and Red bring the all-important aspects of elegance and panache to the England Team.

Elaine Trevor-Jones (Dee bee)
In a partnership that has dominated the international stage in recent years, Elaine and Deebee currently hold the titles of World Team Champion, World Pairs Champion and World Individual Champion (for the second year running). Various unfortunate accidents have failed to prevent Elaine from supremacy and we hope that the bionic woman can continue her monopoly of mounted games in 2006. A true MGA legend, Elaine Trevor-Jones is a name we are sure to remember for years to come for all the right reasons.

Hari Simms (Snoopy)
Although a new member of the England team and relatively young compared to some of her team mates and previous squad members, Hari’s riding ability has already reached legendary status. With an abundance of confidence and natural skill Hari has been able to train a number of ponies in between her studies and netball, achieving success alongside Elaine and Katie in the Northern England Team, and a fantastic individual performance that saw her narrowly miss out on the World title. We look forward to watching Hari impress in Sweden.

Katie Hardy (TJ)
Another youngster and first timer to the England Team, 17 year old Katie is one of the countries exciting prospects. A joy to watch, she and Hari are similar in their attitude to games – bringing excitement speed and dexterity to the sport. Already excelling in individuals at a junior level, Katie has also enjoyed a number of team successes as long standing member of both junior and senior Warwickshire county teams. A gymnast and all round sports woman, Katie has an abundance of talent and personality and will be asset to this years world team championships.

Daniel Blundell.
Daniel is 16 and pretending to attend high school. He has been riding MGA for 2 seasons. He is the NZ Intermediate Individual Champion ’05, and a member of the Champion Open team ’06. Daniel also competes at a high level in Showjumping and Athletics, and can high jump over pretty much anything, quite often his horse!

Jo Taylor.
Jo is 19 years old and works on her parents dairy farm. She is fairly new to MGA but has been riding pony club games successfully for quite a few seasons. She is the captain of her pony club team, which won their area games competition, and went on to place 2nd at the north island championships. Jo rides MGA for Waikato, which came 3rd at Horse of the Year ’06. She also enjoys showjumping, rugby and motorbikes. Jo dislikes getting stuck in Auckland traffic when she has to travel up for training.

Hollie Shields.
Hollie is 19 years old. She didn’t send in her games experience so I’ll have a go at making it up from memory. One of Hollies strengths is that she can ride most of the crazy young ponies, even if it does make taking handovers from her interesting. Despite attempting to kill off her team, they managed to come 2nd at the Teams Championships this year. She then proceeded to rule the dance floor at the disco, so Brian and Lavinia had better watch out this year, their title might be snatched!

Haley Bonniface.
Haley is 16 years old and also still at high school. Although this is her first worlds, she has competed very successfully in New Zealand, and traveled across to Australia for Pairs and Individuals in ’04. Haley’s pony club team came 3rd at the north island championships. Haley came 2nd in the Junior individuals at Horse of the Year, and was also a member of the team that came 2nd in the Open. One of Haleys strengths is her ability to receive any piece of equipment even when handed over at Mach 3.

Margaret Welsby
(age undisclosed, as it would probably earn the team and I laps round the field!) lives in Helensville and works as a horse dentist. She has coached the NZ team at Worlds in 03,04 and 05, as well as several succesful teams and pairs in NZ. Margaret has been involved in almost all fields of equestrian at some point, and has represented Hong Kong at a high level in competitive kayaking.

New Zealand is generously being hosted and lent ponies by the Norwegian team, and would like to thank them for all their help and support!

Colin Prime (25) Colin rode on the N.Ire world team back in 1998 then was not seen back until last year when he made an impressive come back. Major was imported from Canada at the turn of the year and has been a great success. His first show in Europe was Scandavium so travel should be no problem to him! Colin has done a remarkable job with him in his first season.

Andy Jordan at 20 Andy is the baby of the team but still has plenty of experience and is a very talented horseman. Pogo was a top flight show jumping pony who had never seen a bending pole until Jan 05. She has gone from strength to strength and in Andy's hands should put on a great show in Gothenburg.

Brian Kennedy rides Freckles after a disastrous Home International where injuries to his own pony Dusty and Rory's pony Connie have kept them out of this championship. Thankfully Carol Prime has been good enough to lend him Freckles and he has stepped up to the task and will no doubt be as solid for the team as ever. Freckles played in all the sessions at Bridgend before getting an injury and missing the final. We slipped from third to sixth in that final so I guess you could say she is useful!

Rory Prime is riding Corrie. She was on the team in France in 2004 with Andy. Rory has been working hard with her and is finally starting to get the best out of her. Rory has been the rock of this team on Connie for several years now and hopefully will achieve the same on Corrie.

Lene Graver, 20 years.
Lene has ridden on the National Team since 2002. This is her 4th season on her grey pony Karinka, famous for her propeller tail.
Lene is also studying to be a nurse at the university of Arendal.
County Team A.G.M.G.A.

Kaja Lande, 21 years.
Kaja has ridden on the National Team for 6 years. She rides a Norwegian sports pony, a 7-year-old gelding called First Choice. He is the son of First (Nina’s pony on the team.) This is Kaja’s first season on this pony.
Kaja’s profession is day care, and she loves to change the diapers.
County Team Søndre Ski.

Maren Lande, 24 years.
Maren has represented Norway for three years. Her pony is a pinto mare called Soquili Sonela. It is her second season riding this pony.
Maren’s profession is Equitherapy, and she treats the ponies for the Norwegian Team.
County Team Søndre Ski.

Vilde Vigerust, 16 years.
Vilde started riding games in 2001, and this is her first year representing Norway at the World Championships. Vilde rides her pony Na-Nu.
Vilde is at college, but has not decided on her future career.
Count Team Søndre Ski

Clive Jones, Trainer
Clive is Welsh, lives in Sussex, and trains Sussex and Norway. He has trained Sussex M.G.A. team for 8 years, and last year also started to train Norway. He enjoys spending time in Norway teaching at clinics and coaching the Three National Teams.

Ruth Kerr , 17 years
My name is Ruth Kerr and i will be riding my nine year old bay mare Squirrel. I am 17yrs old and come from a little village called Thornhill just outside of Stirling, Scotland! I have been doing games for 13yrs! I am also very interested in piano and singing as I do both!! This will be Squirrel's second year of games, and she enjoys going to the competitions. Squirrel has already been to Sweden this year and was in the winning Scottish team at the Scandinavium in April. Also Squirrel and I qualified for the final of the world pairs last year. I have also ridden at Horse of the Year Show and won there with my West Perthshire team mates!! I am really excited to be riding for Sotland in the World Champs! and can't wait to get there and have fun and meets lots of people and hopefully do very well!! see you all there x

SARA MCINTYRE, 16 years
My name is Sara McIntyre. I am 16years old and come from Thornhill in Stirlingshire, Scotland. I first did games with West Perthshire Pony Club and have been to Horse of the Year Show twice. We were runners-up for Prince Philip Cup in 2003 and won it in 2004. In 2005 I went to Australia with the Pony Club Great Britain team.
I am a member of Forth & Clyde mounted games team. Last year was my first full year of MGA and I was in the Scottish team for the World Championships in Wales. Earlier this year I rode in the winning Scottish team at the Scandinavium, Gothenburg.
My pony is called Jack. He is a 24year old, 14’1 chestnut gelding who I have owned for just over 2 years.
I look forward to seeing you all in Sweden.