Peddie Pumped for New Show

Lex Peddie and Kevin Hansen go way back. They have competed against each other, have been on a few rather epic high-country treks, and worked alongside each other at various events, so it’s no surprise that Kevin has called in Lex as course designer in the Bright Star Arena at the Cartown Kiwi Super Classic.

It’s thanks to Kevin that Lex ventured seriously into course designing. “I did a lot of showjumping and had some quite good horses over the years,” says Lex. “Being at events meant I helped out and then got asked to build while I was still competing. It was after I stopped competing that I really got stuck into it. I was out at McLean’s Island one day and Kevin asked me if I would like to go up to the Horse of the Year Show and assist Leopoldo.”

That’s Leopoldo Palacios – one of the world’s top course designers who happens to have a love affair with New Zealand. He was a top rider who has since designed courses for Olympic Games, World Cup finals, World Championships, Spruce Meadows, and more.  He’s a national icon in his home country of Venezuela and is respected worldwide for his talent.

“I told Kevin I would think about it but really I had made up my mind. I just didn’t want him to know I was that keen!”

Lex ended up working with Leopoldo for five or six years and then, in 2015, headed to Sydney to assist him for the Australian league’s FEI World Cup Final. Leopoldo had a big influence on his career, which can be seen in Lex’s courses.

Lex Peddie

“It is all about happy and confident horses for me,” says Lex, who also designed at EQUITANA Auckland twice. “I am a sympathetic course designer with respect to the horses. I build to make the horse come out of the ring keen to get back in there again. I would rather build simpler courses and have horses come out happy and compete again the next weekend. It’s great to watch them improve through the year.”

He says Leopoldo had a real gift and would build courses at any level with a guarantee of getting just the right number of combinations back for a good jump-off.

“I think some of the newer designers get a bit carried away with the technicalities of designing and try to put distances and combinations that are more European based rather than suit our horses here in New Zealand.”

It meant young horses would often go flat to achieve the distances. “That’s not good when you are trying to build horsepower and talent. They need shorter distances so they can get up in the air rather than the rider chasing the distance.”

For a while, he was an FEI Level 2 international designer, but let it lapse when it became almost impossible to go up the grades when based in the Southern Hemisphere. “You really had to go to Europe, and I just didn’t feel I could do that.”

He’s now an ESNZ national course designer, and while he took a couple of years off for a break, he is now as busy as anything with eventers at McLean’s Island and North Canterbury Pony Clubs. “Building for them is as important as building for a grand prix,” says Lex. “People really do underestimate the importance of that.”

He’s excited to be part of the Cartown Kiwi Super Classic. Kevin is so enthusiastic about things. We go a long way back, I can remember jumping against him in the 1980s when he was down in Dunedin, where he used to make horse covers.”

Lex is based in North Canterbury. He says he “retired,” but he still runs quarter-bred merinos for both meat and wool. He’s also vice president of the Canterbury A&P Association and on the Brackenfield Hunt Committee. Hunting was a real family affair, with him, his wife, Shirley, and three children all on the field. “It called for a military operation to get there with three kids in tow.” He and his daughter Amy are the only two still hunting from the family.

Lex is also a huge supporter of young farmers and ensuring they have the right balance of work and play in what can sometimes be a very isolating career. Every so often, he’ll gather up a group of 10 or so who will head into the hills with all their gear for three-day breaks. “It’s good for everybody, that is.”

WHAT: Cartown Kiwi Super Classic

WHEN: December 19-21, 2025

WHERE: Manfeild Park, Feilding

Words by Diana Dobson - The Black Balloon