A story for another day #6: The Day Red was Horsenapped

One spring evening mum dropped me off at the top gate of the pony club. I was looking forward to riding that night. It was slightly cool, the sun had painted its glory across the skies and I was just happy to be outside after spending all day in a office.

I walked down to the staircase paddock to get Red. First I just stood at the gate calling his name hoping he would come running. But alas it wasn't to be. So off I went to look for him. It was obvious he wasn't with any of the other horses standing around in the open so I went searching for him in the out of view nook and crannys of the paddock. But he wasn't anywhere to be found. I went back to the herd and took a closer look at the horses. Usually I can pick him right out by looking at his cover, but once I spent ages walking around his paddock when my Auntie Sue had changed his cover from a bright blue winter cover to a bright green spring one (she had told me, I had just forgotten). He definitely wasn't there.

Thinking he may have jumped the fence into the next paddock that held the ponies I went over and searched that paddock. But he wasn't there either. Now I was starting to get worried. I had visions of him lying in one of the Staircase paddock ditches with a broken leg and in lots of pain. I went straight back to the staircase paddock and did an extensive search. Nothing turned up.

Then I heard it. Laughing and jeering. I just knew what was happening. Someone had gotten Red out of his paddock and was torturing my poor horse. I grabbed a stick and sprinted towards the noise, ready to risk my life for my horse who had always given me his everything. When I got to the paddock fence I saw what was happening. Some kids were playing tiggy in the backyard of a house next door, and my horse wasn't with them. I dropped the stick and went sheepishly away.

Suddenly I realised EXACTLY what had happened. Red had been horsenapped! Someone must have broken the chain on the gate, caught the first horse they could see (which happened to be Red) and taken him away. The rational side of my brain did wonder how they got him on a float but that thought was soon pushed away with thoughts of the pain and fear he must be suffering at the hands of the horsenappers. I sprinted towards the clubrooms, glad that I had my Horse Information File in the car so I could show the Police what he looked like.

As I got closer to the clubrooms I saw a horse standing in the Plum Tree Paddock. "Hmm must be a loose horse" I thought. Then I saw another horse, and another one and then a few more. I sped up trying to figure out who these horses were. I'm short sighted so it took a while until I realised that THE HACKS HAD BEEN MOVED INTO THE PLUM TREE PADDOCK. I soon spotted Red and I threw my arms around him. My feelings flew from euphoria that he hadn't been stolen, to disbelief that I had been so stupid. Then I just put my head on his neck and laughed. I haltered him and took him to the clubrooms where mum was waiting. I told her the whole story about The Day Red was Horsenapped.

A story for another day #5: Walkie Talkie + Dixie = Nothing Good

Dixie was a gorgeous horse, absolutely stunning in my opionion and I fell in love with him as soon as I set my eyes on him. He was a gorgeous dun with a dorsal stripe and black stockings and an incredible mane that really topped him off. It was black underneath but the top layer was an incredible silvery colour the likes I've never seen before.

I soon found out he had ringbone arthritis and Sarah-Annes family were seeing if he could be used for light trekking. If not he would go back to his owners. After my little escapade in A story for another day #3: The Devil Mare I was asked if I wanted to ride him. I jumped up and he was an absolute dream the whole time. After that he was one of my favourites.

So the next day we went for another ride. I was going to ride Dixie again, I caught him but when I went to swing up he wouldn't stand still and was acting a bit funny. Grace said she would try him. She took him to the water trough, and slowly slid her weight onto him. As soon as her butt was on his back he took off in a bucking frenzy. Huge, huge bucks for a horse with ringbone arthritis. After he had settled down she got off, gave me a leg up and we went for the ride. He was fine the whole time.

The next day camp started so the of us couldn't go out together for various reasons. Instead Grace and Christina took some horses out to exercise, and Sarah-Anne and I went about 30 mins after them. I was on Dixie bareback, and Sarah-Anne was on a horse I can't remember at the moment. We decided to do one of the basic tracks that takes you around part of their farm and then back to the home paddock. We had a walkie talkie on us as did Christina and Grace so we could keep in touch.

The first part of the ride went fine, and then we came to the bottom of a hill that we always cantered up. Suddenly the walkie talkie that was sitting in the front pocket of my hoodie came alive, it was Christina "Katie, this is Christina. Come in Katie." I pulled the walkie talkie out of my pocket, and held the reins in one hand. "Recieving Christina, go ahead." (As you can see we had fun using all the walkie talkie type phrases). "We're just up the top the hill in the trees" she said "We can see you." Suddenly Dixie skittered sideways, but I easily sat on. "Oh I can't see you" I replied "Where abouts are you talking about?" "Um we are about..." and thats when it happened, Dixie started bucking. Small bucks at first but they got bigger and bigger as Christina kept talking. I jammed the walkie talkie back into my pocket and tried to calm Dixie down while trying to stay on at the same time. But he got more upset the more Christina talked. I prayed and willed with all of my heart for Christian to just shut up but it wasn't happening.

So my options raced through my head, I could either pull the walkie talkie out and toss it onto the ground and hopefully Dixie would stop. But it was an expensive piece of equimpent and I didn't want to be responsible for it breaking on impact, or perhaps having Dixie smash it when he was doing his little bucking dance.

OR

Throw the walkie talkie to Sarah-Anne. But unfortunately my aim is bad at the best of times and trying to do it while on a bucking horse would just be silly. It probably wouldn't reach its target and end up getting smashed on the ground.

OR

Somehow pull the walkie talkie out, press the right buttons and tell Christina to be quiet all the while trying to stay on and calm my horse down.

OR

Just jump off. I really didn't want to do this as I hate horses getting the better of me in these sorts of situations . If I could ride the bucks and get through this it would be better in the end for both of us.

Still Christina talked, I could hear her trying to explain where they were standing. I knew she could see us as she said so before so I knew she could see what Dixie was doing. I hoped that she would put two and two together and stop talking but she didn't and as a result his bucks just got bigger and harder to sit.

It was (as they say) 'do or die', I knew that I would probably get bucked off in the next couple of seconds and I would probably land hard, maybe even breaking the walkie talkie while I was at it and so I just jumped off.

Dixie stopped as soon as I was off and just at the time the walkie talkie went silent. I was so angry! If I had stayed on that second longer I might have been able to get him to stop. I pulled the walkie talkie out of my pocket, walked up to Sarah-Anne and gave it to her. I was not going to have the happen to me again.

I had to walk a bit to find a slope so I could vault back on as Dixie was quite a big horse (don't dispute me on this Sarah-Anne haha). We went on with the ride and Dixie was fine after that except for one small buck when I wouldn't let him trot when he wanted to.

Christina and Grace were back at the home paddock when we arrived. "Oh hey we saw Dixie bucking" Christina said when we jumped off "What was wrong?" I couldn't help but laugh as I explained why Dixie had been bucking. "Oh I'm so sorry!" she said. I told her not to worry, these things happen.

A story for another day # 4: The Choice

One day Sarah-Annes dad asked us to help herd some sheep to another paddock. So we jumped on two of her horses bareback and set off. The sheep we're wayyy down the road so we rode all the way down to their paddock and rounded them up which was no easy feat, especially since I had to go along one track that had a lot of thorny bushes head and arm height. Finally we pushed them out onto the road and we took them down to their new paddock.

When we arrived at the gate we saw that one of the male ostriches had gotten out and was on the road in front of us. Now I don't know if Ive mentioned this before butI hate and am totally scared of ostriches. Espcially males. If I could choose one animal on the planet to die it would be the ostrich (horrible and mean I know, but thats how much I hate them). Its mostly an irrational fear since Ostriches have never really done anything to me (except for Aussie) but Sarah-Anne has told me many a tale about her parents being attacked by ostriches and how they almost died (ostriches can kill). Also ostriches have this revolting mating call which sends shivers down my spine.

So anyway this ostrich was on the road in front of us. Sarah-Anne and I decided the safest thing to do would be to move over to the side of the road and not provoke it in anyway. So we turned around and started moving off to the side of the road. I looked back and saw the ostrich running down the road straight for us. I didn't know what to do! I had no chance of galloping away and out running the ostrich because they run faster then horses. But there was really no where to go! It came closer and closer... and then just ran past us. So now the ostrich was behind us on the road we decided to move the sheep into their paddock, Lance , Sarah-Annes dad, was at the gate. He told us just to hold back a second because Zee Zee, one of the stallions on the farm, was by the gate and was trying to get through. Suddenly, and I don't know how it happened, Zee Zee was out on the road!

Now I really didn't know what to do. Here I was, standing in the middle of the road next to my best friend with a dangerous Ostrich on one side and a dangerous stallion on the other. To make it worse, we were both on geldings. The ostrich was further away then the stallion so we slowly started moving towards the ostrich, trying to give Zee Zee some space. I was looking around, hoping an escape route would present itself, but alas I could see nothing. We really only had two choices, move towards the Ostrich and risk the claws of death or move towards Zee Zee and risk his wrath, hooves and teeth. I really didn't know what to do, I mean it was like choosing my death! But then the choice didn't need to be made because Zee Zee turned around and cantered off down the road in the opposite direction.

PHEW!

Lance jumped in the car and went after Zee Zee. He managed to herd him back and into his paddock. The sheep went to the cprrect place and the ostrich was established back in his rightful paddock. And we walked alllllllllllll they way back.

A story for another day #3: The Devil Mare

Every summer I go to camp. This isn’t any camp; it’s a horse camp (surprise, surprise). Horse Camp is one of the highlights of my years. I absolutely love it! The people are amazing, and we always have tons of fun! In fact Camp is where I met Sarah-Anne; the camp is on her parent’s farm and all the horses we ride are owned by them. The camps are run by Scripture Union
and anyone can come. (The link takes you right to the Horse Camp page). Exciting things happen every year at camp and we always have the best of times.



This past summer I went to two camps Senior Girls aka Farmyard Fillies (they recently gave them these silly names) and Senior Co-Ed aka Hard Core. This story takes place at the first camp Farmyard Fillies ‘snigger’. At this camp I mainly hang with one group of friends (people come back year after year) Lizzy, Kimmy and Sarah-Anne. Lizzy, Kimmy and I came down a couple of days early just so we could hang with Sarah-Anne since we only get together once a year at this camp. We also wanted to get some extra riding in. So out we go for a first ride of the summer. It wasn’t just us four, Grace (the co-director of this camp) and her sister Christina were down helping break in horses at the farm so they came with us too. Now I can confidently say that we all love McLeods Daughters and on this ride we were joking about how we could totally be the McLeods Daughters characters. We decided to ride bareback just to make it authentic (even though the characters of McLeods Daughters ride with stock saddles).

I was on this little pony called Tosca aka The Devil Mare. Apparently Tosca had a problem with bolting which was why she was no longer with her previous owner (I’m not sure if I was told this before I got on), she also had a jump which was absolutely fantastic. Now off we go on this ride. We rode along one of the familiar trails when we came to a gate, while one of the others was opening the gate, Tosca decided to go AWOL and she went for a little gallop up a hill. We soon sorted this out and we rejoined the others. About 5 mins after this incident we reached a small ditch. We jumped it and kept on going (the ditch has significance a little bit later on). We rode about another 5 minutes when I decided it was time to take a photo of the group. My camera was hanging around my neck so I got the others to stop and turn around. I had one hand on the reins and with the other I picked up my camera and took the lens cap off. As soon as the lens cap tapped against the camera I felt Tosca tense. I took the picture but it was blurry, so I held the camera back up to take another. The lens tapped again… twice. Tosca tensed again, and then did a little dance on the spot. I managed to take one more picture and then WOOSH! We were off. She had to get rid of this tapping monster on her back. She galloped straight for a small but very vertical hill. I wasn’t worried, I just knew she would stop when she realized she couldn’t get to the top of the hill. So I just tried pulling her to stop with one hand and kept hold of my camera with the other, not really worrying at all. But oh boy I was wrong. As soon as she realized she couldn’t get to the top she spun and started heading back the way we came. She was at a full gallop down the trail, I felt so secure with her small, quick stride that I still wasn’t worried. I just kept hold of my camera so it wouldn’t set her off again.
Then I saw the ditch, now up until then I hadn’t done much bareback riding. And I defiantly hadn’t done any bareback jumping. Seeing the ditch I realized there could be the possibility of me falling off this quick little minx. And I had to make a hard decision… when I fell did I want to protect my head or my camera (I wasn’t wearing a helmet! And yes I agree, my pony club instructors would be all aghast). You think the obvious decision would be to save my head and sacrifice my camera but at the time I was quite afraid of any wrath of my mum if I broke the camera. But before I could make this decision the ditch was upon us! She took off with a mighty leap and somehow I managed to stay on her (WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Go me! I was so proud of myself). And then suddenly she did one of those evil pony spins and BAM I was on the ground. Thankfully I didn’t fall on my head OR my camera… I fell on my butt. It hurt but there was no permanent damage (lol). The others soon arrived and I got back on and continued on the ride.

No more happened that day, but I never like her after that. I was put on her on another ride later in the summer and I was so worried about her taking off it was making her nervous (yes I know, if I had been relaxed I would’ve been fine) but it was all good because I got to ride Shelby who is my second favorite horse in the world and I cannot wait for her foal that better arrive soon! And that is the story about Tosca… she now has been bought by one of the campers and thankfully I will never have to ride her again.

PS. I just want to apologize for the two long posts I wrote today… I couldn’t help it.



PICTURES:

Pic 1 is of Lizzy, Kimmy, Me and Sarah-Anne. Look at us! It looks like we are having fun doesn't it. We even have warrior soot on our face!

Pic 2 is one of the pictures from that ride. I'm in the back in yellow. Obviously this isn't one of the pictures I took on my little adventure. But that little biddy I am riding on is Tosca.

Pic 3 is Kimmy on Kimmy (actually the horses name is Lady Kim, but it is named after her) and Shelby. Thats right, the big hunk of gorgeous horse flesh is Shelby. Isn't she just awesome! I love her to bits! And Kimmy is just the cutest appy ever!

A story for another day #2: Lost at Woodhill

Well Red and I are just in limbo at the moment. Pony Club season starts next month so we're just hanging about hoping it will come soon. As a result nothing too exciting is happening with us, we're just doing what we always do basically. So to keep all my faithful readers entertained heres a account of one of my past adventures.



Every year our pony club has an awesome 4 day camp at Woodhill Forest, about 30 mins from Auckland. We pack up our horses, tents and a couple of dogs and go camping on the grounds of Woodhill Endurance Club. Its truly an amazing time. When I first took Red last year he wen't nuts at being out of the pony club. I had a hard time controlling him the first day, all he wanted to do was GO GO GO! Needless to say I wanted him to just lumber along with the rest of the horses. The next day my friend Kate helped me do some work with him in the round pen and after that he was an angel!



So this year off we went off to another time of fun. Most of my friends have their C+ so we were allowed to go off without instructors or adults provided we had a map. We went on a lot of rides but one will always stick in my mind. It was the day before the last day of camp, the last day we could ride. I was going on a ride with Kelly, Jo, Chelsea and Emily. Kelly had to be back by 11 because her mum was taking her horse home a little bit early. So off we set. We didn't pay much attention to the trail markings along the way and soon we became helplessly lost. We had no idea where we were, or where to go next. We had no cellphone coverage and even if we did we couldn't tell anyone where we were. So we just kept riding. Eventually we found a large deer fence, the boarder of the forest. When we saw that we realised we were a long, long way from camp. And to make matters worse the horses were going crazy, it seemed everyone of them had a bad race brain. They were galloping anytime we gave them a little head, we had almost no control.



Jo was having trouble with her girth too, so we got the horses to slow down a little so she could fix it. One foot was out of the stirrup and she was bending down to fix the girth when the horses took off again. I was last in line, and Jo was directly in front of me. As soon as her horse went, the saddle started slipping so she sat up and put her leg out to the side trying to keep her balance. I could see she was almost falling so I tried calling to the others to slow down but alas it didn't work. Jo managed to keep her balance a bit longer when suddenly I saw the saddle slip to the side and suddenly Jo and Inky (her horse) dissapared down a bank. "Holy Crap! Guys come back!" I yelled as I slowed Red down a bit and jumped off him mid stride. I turned around just in time to grab Inky who came galloping towards me. I ran down towards the place I had seen Jo fall, I was really worried Inky had fallen on her. She was climbing the bank when I got there, laughing loudly. Apparently when they had gone off the bank Inky had missed her completely but she had fallen into a massive patch of cutty grass and had cuts all up her arms and on her face. Other then that she was fine. Jo was putting her saddle right, and had almost got on when the others finally arrived back. She told her story and off we went again trying to find a way home.



By now it was 12.00 and we were a bit worried about the wrath of Kellys mum. We finally ended up in a clearing, and we stood contemplating what to do next when suddnely an endurance rider appeard out of nowhere! We fell on her with shouts of glee and thankfulness, and after hearing our horrowing tale she told us we were about 2km away from the camp and if we took the path she showed us we'd be there in no time! We quickly set off and soon we were back in camp. Surprisngly Kellys mum was nowhere to be seen, but Kellys truck was still there. Someone told us she was still on a ride! So at least we weren't in trouble. Oh what an adventure that was.



So now I am impatiently awaiting next years camp! They are always great fun and I promise to keep you informed during it next time! But for now I'll just be waiting for the PC season to start!



This is Brooke, myself and Simone at camp. Observe my wild fringe, I didn't have access to a hair straightner at camp. Also observe my weird expression, I think that is the result of too much sun and little sleep. I would also like to add that I am actually not THAT short compared to Simone. She is tip toeing in that picture!

A story for another day # 1: Those Ostriches

For those of you that have/had horses you'll know that they are always handy when a good story is needing to be told. Horses make good stories happen, they bring to life to an otherwise dull situation and inject a bit of humour when things aren't really that funny. And so I shall tell you one of my more memorable horse stories.



It all started when I was at my best friend Sarah-Annes house. We set out on a trek with Murray (SA's brother), Cameron (a boarder), Heather(SA's sister) and possibly Richard (a friend) but I can't rightly remember. I had been given a little pony called Cocoa to ride and no one seemed to think that the fact she was scared crapless of ostriches was a thing to tell me. This wouldn't really matter in many other situations as ostriches are not wild animals that roam New Zealand freely. But you see Sarah-Anne and her family breed ostriches. Most of the ostriches were kept in ostrich pens at the front of the farm, except for one cutie called Ozzie (Aussie?). Ozzie had free reign of some of the paddocks and she happened to be in one of the paddocks that we were riding through. As soon as Cocoa saw Ozzie she went crazy, I can't remember all that happened apart from the fact the Cococa was backing up on the edge of a very steep bank. I managed to get her to start moving forward which she took as a cue to get away as fast as she could from the scarey demon bird. She bolted up a hill, while the others tried to scare Ozzie away from the gate we were trying to get through. I managed to turn her around, which was no easy feat, and get her through the gate and away from the scarey ostrich.



We kept on with the trek and nothing happend until we had almost finished. We were coming through a paddock called the Burn which happened to have all the yearlings and other young horses in it. As we rode along singing (oh yes we were singing) the young horses were galloping mindlessly around us. We were having a great time singing a round robin when suddenly Cocoa jumped up onto a bank that the young horses were milling about on. I kept singing, utterly proud of myself for sitting that very unexpected jump, when all of a sudden the young horses took off. Cocoa obviously was feeling young at heart because she bolted too. I was galloping along in the middle of this wild (ha!) herd of horses trying to gain control of my free spirited mare when I realised that my singlet top had slipped down my arms and was exposing my bright aqua blue bra. Needless to say I was quite embarressed. I could hear the laughter of my friends behind me and I could imagine what they were saying. I managed to pull my top up with one hand and pull her to a stop with the other. We shamefacedly walked back to the others, well I did, I dont know how Cocoa was feeling. They were all cracking up making jokes about the incident as we made our way back home. I remember Murray saying 'wouldn't it have been so funny if you had fallen off with your top like that'. The others found that hilarious, but I didn't.

We made it back home and I unsaddled Cocoa and went to put her away, unfortunately I didn't realise that Ozzie had been put in the pens close to Cocoa and upon seeing Ozzie walking close by Cocoa pulled back hard. It felt like she ripped my arm out of my socket. I put Cocoa away and then declared that I hated horses and never was going to ride again.

As you can see I did ride again, although I don't think I've ridden Cocoa since that day. But that story has gone down in history and I don't think I'll ever hear the end of it.