Sunday -- free time -- horse riding

Today we had a free day, and i decided to go horse riding. I was up early to walk down the hill to Lower Hutt, to catch the bus to Wainouimata where I would be picked up by Mac.

After a half hour bus drive, and met up with Mac, we drove through to the horses. The horses graze out in the fields on the slopes of the hills overlooking Wellington. We first had to cross the river 3 times before we reached the horses. We then needed to go out there and catch the horses. We used loads of carrots to get them to come to us. I had a new thoroughbred mare which he had only 6 months which i needed to walk down to the trees and where the trailer was. While I'm standing there holding this lovely horse, then next thing out of the blue it starts to rear on its hind legs and pulling at the rope, after like 3 rears, i finally got it to stop and stand still. Apparently this horse, an ex race horse, does not like being tied up at all. Well I soon noticed afterwards, while the horse had been tied up to a tree. While the horses are being saddled up, and this horse already had a saddle on, the next thing a foal comes in the area of the mare, and starts to rear and go bananas, and breaks the branch of the tree that its tied to. After rearing a couple of times, it falls down on the ground and just lies there, as if its broken its legs or something. The horse is refusing to get up, not even trying to get up and at the same time the rope is still very tight around his face, but she is refusing to get up. Mac then tries to loosen the rope from the branch, but there is no slack in the rope to undo the knot. So Mac, then starts kicking the mare in the side to get her to get up, but no luck. He then gets another rope, and hits her across the nose to make her get up. She then eventually gets up, but then not even a minute later, she rears again, and then just falls down to the ground again, and stays lying there. Now you can imagine what is going through my head. I'm thinking what have i got myself into. I'm going riding with these people. I really felt sorry for the horse, but when I say how it just went through his legs and stayed lying down on the ground I could see his reasoning. Mac then just left her lying there and i'm thinking she is going to die here in front of me, but I can't do anything. Then mac, get a rope again and hits her real hard again on the nose and she gets up again and stays standing. Very weird. Mac then explains this is typical of a thoroughbred race horse. They are apparently so spoilt that the horses don't know how to fight and many just give up and actually just die. WOW that was quite a start of the morning. Oh yes, to top it off, when we were driving the car to the horses, the dog was running next to the car, and the next minute we hear this squeal. The dog had gotten trapped under the front tyre of the car, and it seemed ages before the driver, Pete, reversed and the dog was released. He was walking okay, but his whole inside of his back leg was open and red. Shame. I thought what cruel people.

the horses tied to the trailer.



Then while saddling up, i see all these very old saddles and they just get chucked on the ground. My mind was spinning and getting pretty nervous and thinking what have i gotten myself into. Anyway, he seemed to trust my riding skills, as I had to take across 2 horses to where we needed to meet the other riders. I first was riding Chasey, who apparently stared in the movie Lord of the rings 3, riding next to the king of the movie. When he found out what the riding capabilities of the other people were i got to ride callops. A nice dark bay horse, which is apparently also used for polo cross. Nice horse. I first went for a hour ride, and then went for a 2 hour ride with different people. The horses are extremely strong, called station horses. They literally need to climb 45 deg hills or go down these very steep hills. It was mainly going galloping up the hill or walking down the hill. Sometimes we even went galloping down a hill. OOh that was scary. I must say in the end I was very impressed with Mac, and the way he handles his horses. They are amazing well mannered horses. On both rides, he had people that have never ridden before, and before they knew it they were galloping up the hills. Because of the style of saddle, the people could hold onto the saddle, and they would hold on to the horses mane, and just leave the reins, and the horses knew exactly what to do. Really amazing. I had a good time out there. On top of that we had some amazing views of the sea and of Wellington harbor and the bay area.

Views from the ride