Exciting Uptake-sponsored rider Briar Burnett-Grant has her sights set on more international showjumping accolades in the next 12 months.
Burnett-Grant is one of the rising stars of New Zealand’s highly competitive showjumping scene and is a member of the New Zealand Showjumping Talent ID Squad.
Briar’s love of horses developed from an early age. “At seven years of age I got into horses and it grew quickly from then on.”
Briar entered the competition arena on ponies as well as horses
She soon enjoyed a lot of success, winning her first Horse of the Year title at the age of 10 in the Pony 6 Bar Competition, where she cleared a height of 1.60m and began competing in the Pony Grand Prix Series at age 11, winning and placing in nearly all her events.
At the age of 12, Briar won the prestigious Pony of the Year Title and last year on a horse she had only ridden a handful of times picked up the HOY 7 Year Old Title against adult riders.
She is the only rider in New Zealand and Australia to have won the FEI Children’s International Qualifier in three consecutive years, 2012, 2013 and 2014. At the World Championships in 2013, Briar competed against the top 32 riders in the world in the finals in Mexico. As the youngest international rider, she was placed fifth individually overall and was a member of the team that won gold.
"That was a huge thrill for me to do so well at the highest international level.
In 2015, at the Future Stars Equestrian Competition held in Beijing, China she won an individual Gold medal and followed that up with a Bronze medal in the 2016 Daemyung Cup in Korea.
In the 2013/14 season Briar began competing on horses in the Junior Rider Series and in Open Classes against adults. At the 2014 New Zealand Horse of the Year, she placed third in the Pony of the Year, third in Junior Rider of the Year and fifth in the Speed Horse of the Year against adults.
Briar has won the New Zealand Pony Grand Prix Series, the New Zealand Junior Rider Series and the New Zealand Young Rider Series against many riders much older than her.
Her successful results have continued the in the past 12 months.
In January, aboard her former Horse of the Year Seven Year Old winner “ Fiber Fresh Veroana “ she won her first Horse Grand Prix Title and is now focussing on the World Cup events in New Zealand later this year.
Briar’s long-term goal is to compete in the Olympics for New Zealand.
She is very appreciative of the sponsorship she receives from the likes of Taupo-based Uptake, Fiber Fresh and Stirrups Equestrian.
“Without sponsors I would not be able to compete at the highest level,” she says.
Contact Uptake:
PO Box 743, Fleet Street, Taupo
Phone: 07 378 2604
Email: info@uptake.co.nz
Website: www.uptake.co.nz
Factory Phone: 06 835 0130
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UptakeFertiliser/
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