This New Zealand rider recently won the title of Lady Rider of the Year thanks to her win at the very prestigious Land Rover Horse of the Year Show held last March in Hastings, NZ. Cubitt had previously won the title in 2005, but although equally intense, her feeling were very different. In 2015 Cubitt rode Amaretto, a horse she had been paired with for many seasons. After that win, Lisa and her husband, Irishman Sean Cubitt, moved to Australia and then to Holland, spending two years away from home. After their return to a brand new start, the first commitment in this “new life” was to train and then sell a number of horses belonging to a private owner. The horses included Matawai Sentana, a 10-year-old grey that had done nothing special that far, until Lisa started riding him. Six weeks and three shows later the rider won one of the most important shows in her career, one to be remembered and that equipped her with enthusiasm and positive thoughts about the future. There was, however, a trick behind this rapid improvement. Lisa had given her groom Natalie Rowles a very specific task, that of becoming Matawai Sentana’s best friend and his ‘safe place’. It seems that this technique has worked very well!