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Equitana Outing a Winner for HOY
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CAPTION: HOY event manager Andrew Hansen at Equitana.
Farmlands Horse of the Year show director Kevin Hansen has come back from Equitana purring.
He reckons that of the 40,000-odd people who attended the iconic Melbourne event, “39,990 had heard of HOY”.
Add to that, a raft of jumping, dressage and eventing riders who are keen to cross the Tasman to lay claim to New Zealand’s most prestigious titles, and he’s got plenty to be pleased about.
“It was incredible,” said Hansen. “All the feedback was just so positive.”
He and his team had three target markets -
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riders from the three disciplines
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spectators
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trade and sponsorship
“We had a function especially for jumping, dressage and eventing riders and had a good turnout from all three.”
The Australian showjumpers were more than confident they’d be at the 2015 show and more than likely win the JB Olympic Cup.
“We are working very hard to have dressage and eventing combinations at the 2015 show – it would be the first time we have had dressage horses and riders at HOY. That is really exciting for us.”
Dressage riders are being encouraged to compete at the New Zealand National Championships at Manfeild before HOY, while the eventers would continue on from HOY to compete at the Kihikihi International Horse Trial, and the jumpers at Woodhill Sands in February followed by Tauranga and Hawera – all before HOY.
“We’re calling each of these The Long White Cloud Tour. While we can’t say final numbers just yet, we are sure we will have Australian combinations over all three disciplines at HOY.”
All interested riders and owners will have specifically designed tour packages put together with the help of IRT, the Kennedy Park Resort in Hawke’s Bay and HOY.
Potential spectators also have the opportunity to sign up for tour packages.
“The increased Australian spectator numbers for HOY will give a major boost not to just to our show, but also tourism in the wider Hawke’s Bay region,” says Hansen.
He and his team also talked to a lot of trade stands about HOY.
“Quite a few are already booked in but even more are interested and we’re following those up now.”
Included is a major retailer from Perth who plans to visit the 2015 show, with the view to having a big stand at HOY in 2016.
“We are on the verge of securing a new major agricultural company who exhibited at Equitana as a sponsor for HOY too. All up, it was a great Equitana for us.”
Hansen extended a big thanks to Definitive Events for donating the trade space to the HOY crew, the Hastings District Council for providing funds to help with the promotion of the show and district at Equitana, Australian showjumper Tim Clarke, Kiwi coffee lady Lorraine Watson, Melbourne-based New Zealander Samantha Johnstone and Olivia and Christie Freeman for helping to run the stand.
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