Jonelle Price

The Kiwi eventer talks to Lucy Higginson about juggling first-time motherhood with horses — and her secret to keeping the show on the road

- Lucy Higginson

JONELLE PRICE’S son Otis, who is in the next-door room when we meet, may be only five months old but the 37-year-old’s mission for September’s World Equestrian Games is clear: not just to make the New Zealand team, but “to deliver the goods”. Making life that bit more complicated is the fact her husband Tim is also odds-on to make the team — and Otis’ grandparents all live on the other side of the world.

“This is certainly a big year,” agrees Jonelle, a team bronze medallist at London 2012. “The past six years have been pretty disappointing as a team. Individually we’ve had fantastic results, yet we’ve failed when it matters at championships. It’s haunting us a bit, and we’re under pressure to deliver.

“My ultimate dream is a team gold medal. Plus, I’m desperate for Toddy [Mark Todd] to win a team gold before he retires, and we’re running out of chances. We’re a small but mighty group from New Zealand and we genuinely are great mates. To do that with your friends and your husband would be the ultimate [dream].”

THAT Jonelle has this goal and the resolve to meet it will surprise no one who has watched her across country. She never gives less than 100%, and rarely puts a foot wrong while nailing brilliant times. It’s this flair and feel that have taken her from a non-horsey background all the way to the Olympic podium.

Pregnancy and birth hardly broke her stride — “I rode two to three horses a day right up to Otis being born” — and she was back competing in a month. Yet the Prices have been upfront about the fact that Otis’ arrival was a welcome surprise.