McVean's Olympic equestrian Dream alive

Katie McVean has received an early birthday present.

The Waikato-based horsewoman, who turns 25 at the weekend, is looking to head back to Europe to trial a Dutch horse just a fortnight after she thought her Olympic Games dream was over.

McVean sold her likely Games mount, Delphi, for an undisclosed multimillion-dollar sum to Saudi Arabian interests earlier this month, a move which made her rich but seemed to kill off any chance of riding in London next year.

McVean's new mount is Wavantos VD Renvillehoeve, an eight-year-old brown horse.

She will ride him at an Olympic qualifying event in Aachen, Germany, in July.

“It's game on again,” she said with a chuckle. “My choices keep changing by the day.”

McVean got the call from the Netherlands on Wednesday and said her new mount had already reached the required qualification for the London Olympics with his previous rider.

“That says he's jumping well and at height,” said McVean.

Wavantos, who is by Lux Z, has been jumping at Nations Cup and World Cup level in the hands of his long-time Polish rider Lukasz Wasilewski.

McVean said the owner of Wavantos saw her riding at Hertogenbosch recently and approached her Dutch-based business partner.

“The owner thinks the horse is good enough for London and while he has a lot of Dutch riders working for him, he wanted me to ride the horse. It is very exciting.”

McVean will leave for Europe in mid-June and will be based at the HBC Stud in the Netherlands.

“I'll go for a couple of months, do the qualifier and see what happens. It all hinges on that qualifier,” she said.

If everything goes to plan with Wavantos, McVean has not ruled out bringing him to New Zealand for some of the southern hemisphere season.

“It wouldn't do him any harm at all. Delphi did it, no trouble.”