BARBURY Horse Trials have always been a favourite event of New Zealand rider Jonelle Price but this year there is even more at stake.

The course on the Ridgeway - where the trials were due to get under way today - is just a stone’s throw from her Marlborough home and family dog, Tonka, can often be seen roaming the site, treating it as an extension of his back yard.

However, with the addition of the Event Rider Masters this weekend, she is planning to take this year’s competition more seriously than she may have done in the past.

Jonelle, who lies third in the ERM after the first two events, will be using Barbury as a run-out for one of her two selected Olympic horses, Classic Moet, and believes the new format is breathing new life into the sport.

“I think it is massively important,” said Jonelle, who came third in the last leg at Bramham.

“It is a fantastic new initiative with people driving it forward. It is exciting, creative and I think they are trying to revolutionise the way the sport is perceived and it is all positive.

“I think it is really important that we all support it as much as we can and I have certainly made it a focus for me and I am lucky to have a few horses at that top level, because not one horse can run at every competition.

“I have used Faerie Dianimo up until this point and Classic Moet is going to start at Barbury and then Cloud Dancer is going to do the next leg up at Blair Castle.

“You certainly take it a bit more seriously because there is a bit more at stake.

“Faerie Dianimo is a bit notorious for needing a bit of time and is quite a hot little thing, so at Bramham I was there two days early and I would never have done that for a normal CIC.

“Plus being an Olympic year, it is important that we put scores on the board.”

Price will also be running Kindred Spirit IV in the CIC2* as well as novice Cekatinka and although the event does not come at the best time in the season, it is one that the 35-year-old always looks forward to.

“It always falls in a funny place in the calendar because we have the spring season and then I like to give them a bit of a break because a lot of them are running through to three-day events in October, which makes it a long season for them,” she added.

“I actually haven’t got a lot of horses starting there but it is great to have one in the ERM and she is a good one so hopefully we can put together three good phases and come away with a good weekend.”