So when Susie Latta was selected for the New Zealand team to go to the World Equestrian Games in France next month, there was elation all round.
The only drawback was that to get her and horse Tkiwa there, she had to find $55,000. It appeared the only way to finance the trip was to sell her horse when she got there.
But, having bred the 10-year-old Arabian standardbred cross and ridden her for so long, Latta, a Nenthorn Valley farmer, was loath to do that.
So the community decided to get involved.
A few people got their heads around the table and came upon the idea of a casino night and auction at the local Middlemarch hall.
Businesses were contacted from all over the South and they generously gave goods and time.
It was a typical rural auction.
There were not many of those beauty packs or spa sessions up for grabs; it was more aligned to the country and the man on the land.
There were big bags of fertiliser.
A whole lot of lime to put on the paddocks.
A load of gravel.
A $1000 worth of time for a sheep conveyor.
Weekends away in holiday houses.
A couple of large concrete water troughs.
Middlemarch cafe owner and Dunedin City councillor Kate Wilson said it was a brilliant night and people, knowing it was going to a good cause, paid well over the odds.
Wilson said Latta was slightly embarrassed by the amount of money given but really appreciated the gesture.
More than 200 people were at the event. The blackjack tables got a good working out and, by the end of the night, the $55,000 had been raised.
One of the organisers, Jack Booth, said they thought they might make about $30,000, so to get that much was great.
Endurance riders ride over a course multiple times for up to 10 hours, covering more than 150km a race.
Latta (44) has been competing for about 15 years and this is her first time in a New Zealand side.
She is the mother of Dion Latta, a teenager tragically killed after being trapped in a waterfall near Wanaka in early 2012.
Latta and her husband, Logan, left for France earlier this week, driving to Auckland with the horse in tow, before flying halfway round the world to the event.
