Samantha McIntosh

McIntosh is the daughter of two riders, trainers and showjumpers, Penny Stevenson and Colin McIntosh.[1][2] She was born and grew up in Kaikohe, in the North Island of New Zealand, and began showjumping when she was about 15 years old.[1][3]

McIntosh moved to Europe when she was 17 years old and worked as a stablehand for Thomas Fuchs, Marcus Mändli and then in Germany with Lüthi Orschel. In 1998 she signed a contract with Orschel which included adopting dual New Zealand-Bulgarian citizenship, and began riding for Bulgaria. McIntosh competed for Bulgaria at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games, the World Equestrian Games, the European Championships and the FEI World Cup.[4][1]

In 2008 McIntosh relinquished Bulgarian citizenship and in 2011 she returned home to New Zealand. She spent three years based in Cambridge and built up her own sports horse stable, ran a team of showjumpers and became involved in coaching.[5] In 2014 she was appointed as an advisor to the board of Equestrian Sport New Zealand, and the following year she returned to Europe, to the stables of Joelle Cairaschi-Dagut in La Teste de Buch, France.[2]

McIntosh competed for New Zealand in the FEI Nations Cup in 2017.[1] In 2018, she was part of the team of four New Zealand riders who won the FEI Nations Cup, the first time a New Zealand team has won it.[6]