They are affectionately dubbed the Beattie Brats 1, 2 and 3 by their mother.
Siblings Jayne, Kate and Rachel Beattie make up half of the Strath Taieri Pony Club team in this year's Highcliff Trust Springston Trophy competition, being held in Middlemarch.
Their mother, Anne, is event director for the three-day event, which began yesterday with dressage and continues today with cross-country, followed by show-jumping tomorrow.
And the Strath Taieri team's base is fairly crowded, with 19 people accommodated in a one-bedroom house surrounded by horse trucks, along with six horses and ponies, two dogs and four well-fed pet lambs.
The Springston Trophy is a South Island pony club teams event that has been held annually since 1972.
This year's event has attracted 23 teams.
The Beattie sisters are experienced campaigners. Jayne, who is captain of Strath Taieri, is competing in her ninth consecutive event.
It was ''common knowledge'' the Beattie girls were not really into dressage and, speaking last night, Kate (Beattie Brat Number 2) confirmed it had gone ''as expected''.
''Not the best, but that's OK. It didn't help that a dog ran through three out of six of our arenas but hey, that's all right,'' she said philosophically.
Despite being the boss of the event, and also being a cross-country and scoring convener, Mrs Beattie was remarkably calm yesterday morning.
''Do I look stressed?'' she said good-naturedly, as she paid tribute to the ''fantastic'' and experienced committee responsible for organising the event, while barking riding instructions, in her own inimitable style, at one of her daughters as she worked her horse.
And when it came to the Strath Taieri team, her own ''brats'' included, they always had ''good fun'' at the event, she said proudly.
