Posted on Sep 5, 2019 in Articles

Prices are Dynamite at Burghley 2019 :The Cross Country Queen Jonelle rides Faerie Dianimo

Jonelle Price

NZL

New Zealand Olympic rider Jonelle Price (38) is based near Marlborough in Wiltshire along with her husband Tim who is also entered for Land Rover Burghley; the pair run a yard there together. It will be the sixth visit to the event for Jonelle who last competed here in 2016 (when she was 3rd with ‘Classic Moet’, her 2018 Badminton winning ride). This will be a first Burghley for Faerie Dianimo.

Jonelle and Classic Moet are the newly crowned British Open Champions having won the title at Gatcombe recently. In 2018 they were members of the New Zealand team for the 2018 WEG (19th). In June 2018, with ‘Faerie Dianimo’ and just four weeks after winning Badminton Jonelle won the 4* at Luhmühlen. The pair was a member of the team at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Jonelle hails from Nelson in the South Island of New Zealand and is the youngest of four from a non-horsey family – her father was a butcher. Her ‘bizarre passion for horses’ is something of a mystery and was fired when she made a friend who had horses. After school Jonelle went to study law at Canterbury University, and completed the first year before giving up to pursue her dream of eventing at the highest level. In 2004 Jonelle was a reserve for the Athens Olympics and in 2006 the Aachen World Championships with ‘Mazetto’ with whom she first completed Badminton in 2004. With ‘Flintstar’ she was a member of the New Zealand team that won bronze at the London 2012 Olympic Games. In 2014 with Faerie Dianimo she won the Blenheim CIC3* and the mare was then fourth at her first four-star in Pau. In 2014 with Badminton entry Classic Moet she rode as an individual at the World Equestrian Games where she was fourth. Classic Moet was the highest placed mare with the fastest time of the day.

She trains with dressage rider and judge Isobel Wessels and Luis Alvarez. Jonelle enjoys cooking and off the beaten track holidays andof course watching the All Blacks play Rugby.

She and husband Tim began dating in 2001 and came to the UK together to prepare for the 2004 Olympic Games. They relocated to the UK in 2005 and married in NZ in 2013 and have a two-year-old son called Otis.

Faerie Dianimo, owned by Trisha Rickards, Jacky Green and Jonelle Price is a 14-year-old British-bred mare. Bred by Trisha Rickards she is by the Hanoverian Diamaggio out of the former advanced event mare Faerie Dazzler by Catherston Dazzler. Faerie Dazzler is also the dam of Tim Price’s Burghley entry Xavier Faer (by Catherston Liberator and also bred by Trisha Rickards).