THE EVENTING POWER COUPLE
New Zealand’s premier eventing couple are in their second season based at the impressive Chedington Estate. Pippa Roome finds out how they work together and their plans for this Olympic year
LOGOS, wood panels and space are among the first impressions when you pull up at Tim and Jonelle Price’s base at Chedington, nestled in the rolling Dorset hills.
Everything at Chedington is on a grand scale. The estate is home to around 80 horses, living across several yards under various professional riders.
New Zealand’s leading eventing couple have been here a year and their area is based around the enormous indoor school, which is bordered by rows of boxes. The Chedington logo is printed along the side of the school and on signs everywhere.
In a wood-panelled kitchen and tack room, covered saddles range along one wall and gleaming bridles along another. Tim cleans his boots and Jonelle sets off the dishwasher before they get ready to ride their first horses.
Because the Prices are parents, to sixyear-old Otis and four-year-old Abel, their working day doesn’t always start as early as some professional riders’. They have support from nanny Alys Baddiley.
“A nanny was imperative for us both to keep competing, especially without family in this country,” says Jonelle. “But if we’re at home, like this morning, we’ ll drop Otis off at school. We won’t be done in time to pick up today, but we try to do one end of the day or the other.”
Between them, the Prices manage about 30 horses.
“We both have our own team of 13 or 14 competition horses and there’s no crossover,” explains Jonelle. “In the early days we rode whatever we could, but now we’ve each developed a string that is more suited to us.”
There’s some good-natured banter that Jonelle pushes more horses Tim’s way than he does hers; he says she’s picky, Jonelle points out Tim’s physicality, as a lightweight with a man’s strength, means he can ride pretty much any horse.
“I don’t like riding anything too big and strong, so I end up giving those to Tim, but there’s little reason for him to give me anything,” she says.
Flintstar was an exception, going from Tim to Jonelle, a partnership that yielded a team bronze medal at London 2012. The yard and staff function as one unit. “Each day Tim plans his horses and I plan mine and if there’s crossover, we just establish what that might be – say if we need Bridget Garlick, our assistant rider, to ride some,” says Jonelle.
Tim says it “goes pretty much like clockwork”, while Jonelle adds the
