A change in life circumstances means New Zealand will have a dressage team at the world championships for just the second time ever and first since 1998.
Gaylene Lennard has made herself available as the final piece to the Kiwi team to compete in Denmark in August, where the chance to send a New Zealand team to the Olympics for the first time is on offer.
But Lennard and her mount Jax Johnson know it won’t be a walk in the park.
“With dressage, it's all about discipline and asking the horse to do certain movements at certain times in a dressage arena and making it all come together,” Lennard said.
“[Your horses] know you're going to perform on show and they know you're going to a show.”
The pair had a test in Cambridge on Tuesday as training for August’s competition but also for them to get more time together, with the session being their first as a duo after already tasting success in an few grand prix in Sydney in April.
“I broke all these records,” Lennerd recalled.
“So that was amazing - never in my wildest dreams did I think that would happen and that was really exciting.”
But there’s more to life than the dressage arena.
Lennard’s decision to join the Kiwi team was only made in the last week as she was initially apprehensive about going and leaving her 92-year-old mum Betty at home and without care.
“I would never go until I was really happy that mum was well enough and we had a caregiver for her given everything she’s done for us for many, many years,” she said.
“Horses are our family and she's given that much to us and it was my time to give back to her.”
But mum knows best and told her she couldn’t miss this chance.
"[I said] 'You've got to go girl', that's for sure," Betty said.
"I'm here, I'm still alive but that's about all."
With her mum’s support, the chance to compete at the worlds and ultimately in an historic Kiwi first at the Olympics was something she couldn’t give up.
“We have a really good team, the best team we've had for a while so we have a really good chance.”
New Zealand needs to finish as the highest Oceania or Southeast Asia team in Group G to qualify for the Olympics and make it all worthwhile for Gaylene Lennard.
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