It has been a successful start the year for New Zealand's Clarke Johnstone and Australia’s Olivia Barton, who have been warming up for the eventing season in Spain
Uk-based Clarke has been making the journey south to compete on the Andalucía Sunshine Tour at the Dehesa Montenmedio facilities in Southern Spain for several years with consistently good results but finally took a win on Sunday 8th February, the closing day of the first of the seven-week long competition.
Clarke and his Paris 2024 horse Menlo Park did have to share the honour with joint winner, Tim Ten Berg (NED) riding Edgar 50 but it was still a very good win of the CSI1* Grand Prix, a class with more than 100 starters.
He wasn't the only Kiwi eventer with a good result in this class with Abbey Thompson and Cadbury KSNZ, a combination now based with Clarke in the UK, also taking equal third place.
Further west in Spain, Australia’s Olivia Barton has also been jumping the coloured poles with great success at the Mediterranean Equestrian Tour, Oliva near Valencia.
Olivia, who rides showjumpers for Stateside Farm in Belgium, enjoyed some top placings in the 7 Year Old classes with showjumper Lanouk Z and we’re delighted to see that her eventing horses Hollyander HG and APH Sodoku have also been getting warmed up in Spain for the coming eventing season.
Olivia’s top horse Hollyander HG was out of competition with an injury for most of last year but came back with a bang to win the CCI4*-S at Strzegom in October followed by second place in the CCI4*-S at Kronenberg, setting them up very nicely for the coming year.
Olivia, who turns 26 this year, is now ineligible for the FEI U25 Championships but has been named on the 2026 Australian Eventing High Performance Squad and will be one of the rising stars to watch in this World Championship year.
