GROUNDED: Catarina Strom and Razz.

EIGHT young Kapiti equestrians can’t go to the world games later this year because their national body says they’re not good enough

After training hard for years, the Kapiti Vaulting Club thought they were ready to compete in the world Equestrian Games in Kentucky later this year.

But now the club has received a letter from the New Zealand Equestrian Federation telling them they are too inexperienced to represent New Zealand at the games.

Club head coach Catarina Strom says it is “a stab to the chest” for the eight young vaulters, aged ten to 25.

The club has paid for a top German vaulting instructor to travel here to assist with the team’s training for the big event, she says.

“He was extremely impressed and even rang the CEO of the Equestrian Federation and said New Zealand is going to impress the world when they go to Kentucky.

“He even wrote a letter and sent it to the federation recommending them to support us. He thought we would be eighth.”

The club received the bad news two weeks after the letter of recommendation was sent.

“It was a shock to everybody,” she says. “The kids were crying.”

It was something that everyone had worked so hard for over the last 16 years.

MISSING OUT: Razz won't be travelling.

“The federation had been aware that we wanted to go the whole time and I think they could’ve told us a lot earlier.

“They sent us that letter only a few weeks after they told us they had reserved a place for our horse (Razz) to travel with all the other horses on the plane.”

As the club has raised a considerable sum towards the cost of going to the world event, they have decided to travel to Germany to compete and train.

The decision to travel to Germany was one made by Ms Strom and club owner Lynn Macintyre because of the recommendation made by the Equestrian Federation to attended more vaulting competitions overseas.

Ms Strom says not only will it be a great stepping stone and training experience for the vaulters. It will help them to remain hopeful and dedicated to club.

“If we did nothing, I think it would really hard for the club and for the kids to stay motivated.”

They have a lot of contacts in Germany, including the coach who came to New Zealand.

“He has offered for us to go and train at his place and use his horse to do some competitions.”

The team will be in Germany training and competing for a total of 21 days and are then stopping off at Disney World on the way home.