Help Vay And Lims Get To Holland

Dressage rider, Vay (Wynand) Snyman returned home to New Zealand in April after 2 years of training and competing in the Netherlands, to visit family and to give back to the sport he is so passionate about by teaching his students and fellow equestrians the new skills he learned in Holland.

Little did he know that imported stallion Limonit was about to enter his life when he touched down in Auckland.

Vay recently secured the ownership and the ride on the very talented stallion Limonit. It is time for Limonit, affectionately known as Lims, to compete at international level. Unfortunately there are very few suitable dressage competitions for stallions in New Zealand, partly due to the fact that there is a lack of stallion facilities at venues.

Therefore we are fundraising to fly Lims to the Netherlands, where Vay is based in Leur with partner and fellow Equestrian, Dressage coach and member of the Dutch squad, Theo Hanzon. Holland is an ideal place for training and competing dressage at international level. It is one of the most successful countries in the world in the sport and is centrally located for international shows around Europe.

The short term goal is to compete Limonit at the World Dressage Masters League this European Winter and in order to achieve this Lims needs to fly to Holland before the onset of the European winter in September to acclimatize, rest after the long flight and get fit in time to compete in the League of 2016.

In order to achieve that, we need generous funding. "It costs a lot of money to fly horses to Europe.

Longer term goals are to compete Lims at the World Cup League next winter and at the World Championships the summer after that.

This will not only increase the value of the progeny that Lims produced over the years of standing at stud in New Zealand, but it will be a rare occasion for New Zealand Dressage to be represented at international level."

Taking Limonit to Europe also creates a unique opportunity for talented Kiwi riders to experience top level international competition, by basing themselves in Holland with Vay and Theo for coaching and training purposes.

It is very important for Vay to give back to the isolated dressage riders in New Zealand. Vay and Theo are planning to travel to New Zealand once or twice a year to give clinics on how they train in Europe.