Horse_amp_amp_Hound__06_February_2018

THE INTERVIEW
‘My ultimate dream is
a team gold medal’: Kiwi
eventer Jonelle Price,
pictured with promising
nine-year-old Cooley
Showtime, states her
mission for the 2018
World Equestrian Games
Jonelle Price
The Kiwi eventer talks to Lucy Higginson about juggling first-time motherhood
with horses — and her secret to keeping the show on the road
JONELLE PRICE’S son Otis, who
is in the next-door room when we
meet, may be only five months old
but the 37-year-old’s mission for
September’s World Equestrian
Games is clear: not just to make the New
Zealand team, but “to deliver the goods”.
Making life that bit more complicated is the
fact her husband Tim is also odds-on to make
the team — and Otis’ grandparents all live on
the other side of the world.
“This is certainly a big year,” agrees Jonelle,
a team bronze medallist at London 2012. “The
past six years have been pretty disappointing
as a team. Individually we’ve had fantastic
results, yet we’ve failed when it matters at
championships. It’s haunting us a bit, and
we’re under pressure to deliver.
“My ultimate dream is a team gold medal.
Plus, I’m desperate for Toddy [Mark Todd]
to win a team gold before he retires, and
we’re running out of chances. We’re a small
but mighty group from New Zealand and we
genuinely are great mates. To do that with
your friends and your husband would be the
ultimate [dream].”
THAT Jonelle has this goal and the
resolve to meet it will surprise no one
who has watched her across country.
She never gives less than 100%, and
rarely puts a foot wrong while nailing brilliant
times. It’s this flair and feel that have taken her
from a non-horsey background all the way to
the Olympic podium.
Pregnancy and birth hardly broke her
Pictures by Peter Nixon
26 Horse & Hound 8 February 2018