Biography

It is a first Badminton for New Zealander Samantha Lissington (33) who is currently based near Hungerford. With Badminton entry Lord Seekonig she was 11^th in Luhmuhlen last year and with Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ, Samantha (nee Felton) completed Pau in 2023 and has won at 3 & 4*L level.

Samantha was born in Australia. When she was eight her parents chose to live on a boat sailing round the pacific for two years till eventually deciding to settle in New Zealand. The family started an avocado orchard in Whangarei before moving to a farm in Kerikeri. In 2008 she won the NZ junior championship winning a 10-day training scholarship with Jock Paget.

From 2009 to 2013 she studied Business Management Studies (Hons) at the University of Waikato then juggling a marketing role with KiwiNet while riding horses at New Zealand representative level. In 2014 she took the leap to ride full time.

In May 2019 she married Brayden who worked for the New Zealand football association promoting futsal (a variant of football), he now works for Keyflow Feeds and runs the Eventing Weekly podcast. Later that year they flew 4 horses to the UK to ‘tackle life on a whole new level’.

In 2024 Samantha joined the EquiRatings horse sales team as a horse sales advisor. She says ‘I love combining my passion of horses and business together with my job at EquiRatings – spotting talent and matching riders and horses’.

Ricker Ridge Sooty GNZ is a 14-year-old New Zealand-bred Warmblood/TB. He is by Caretino out of a thoroughbred mare by Tristaking. He was acquired by Samantha as a 5-year-old after he came to the yard to be sold when she and Samantha’s longstanding supporter and owner Pip McCarroll, ‘fell in love’.  He has been produced by Samantha and the pair completed its first 5* at Pau in 2023.

Lord Seekonig (aka Charlie) is a 12-year-old German-bred (DSP Sathu registered) gelding. He is by the Holstein jumper Lord Fauntleroy out of Seekoenigin by Carpalo. He was acquired from Alex Power who had produced him to 3*L. Samantha describes Charlie as a ‘very nervous person but with a huge heart’.