Hugh Thompson and Optimist, members of the first show jumping team to go to Australia in 1953.

It didn't prove possible for a team to go to Stockholm in 1956, so the first Olympian was Adrian White, who rode Mrs Macdonald's Telebrae at Rome in 1960, in a private venture, with the moral support of the Society. The first official Olympic show jumping team went to Tokyo in 1964.

The first one day event had been held as a demonstration in conjunction with the Pony Club conference in 1951, after which events popped up round the country. However, it took until 1956 to establish the first horse trials committee, with many prominent visitors from the international horse world adamant that this was where the country's strength would be internationally.

New Zealand's first Olympic show jumpers, Adrian White and Telebrae.

The first overseas venture was by Judith Simmonds (now Simpson) and View Halloo to the Sydney Three Day Event in 1961. Jude is still much involved in equestrian sport, having been a long time horse trials selector and Chef d'Equipe for dressage teams. Pony Club had by then (1 954) established its horse trials championships, and it was from this Organisation that most of the future international stars would emerge.

The first Horse of the Year Show was held in 1953, the first national one day horse trials championships was in 1952, (it didn't become annual until 1956) and the first three day event in 1966 (the next was not until 1971).

The 1964 show jumping team: Manager Ben Rutherford; Graeme Hansen (Saba Sam); Bruce Hansen (Tide); Charlie Matthews (Syndicate); and Adrian White (El Dorado) (photo Pam Howlett)

The first competition for dressage's supreme award, the Burkner Medal, was held in 1956, although a dressage sub-committee had been formed in 1951. Several young riders/instructors had gone to study in England and were pushing the value of dressage hard, and there were also some experienced instructors from overseas spreading the message of how important dressage was, not just for its own sake, but in the training of horse and rider for show jumping and eventing.