Horsing Around

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Apologies that i am now a month out of date with my blog. i knind of forgot all about it!!! anyhew...we will now go back in time to February and my time at Fyffe View Horse Treks in Kaikoura, on the North East coast. I spent 3 weeks there learning to ride horses and then (far too quickly) guide treks!! I had my own little cabin (called a 'sleep-out' over here) with a slightly strange bunkbed thing but with a double bed on the bottom!! it had power and lots of lovely warm blankets so i was very comfortable. The other two guides, Ines (from Uruguay) and Amanda (from South Australia) lived in similar rooms and we all shared a kitchen, where we made breakfast (and ate it on the sofa on the verandah) and bathroom. All the other meals were at the main house with the family - bosses Linda and Simon, son Ryan (20) and daughters Mandy (13) and Bekha (9). Everyone was really friendly and i had a really awesome time, fitting in very quickly.

My first day i learnt to saddle up the horses (i had absolutely NO clue which was which at the beginning, they were almost all bay and about the same size!), including western saddles and a range of bits and bridles. Then i learnt how to get novices (and eejits!) onto horses safely before joining the back of the ride. For teh first week i rode at the back so i could pratice and learn the routes. In the mornings, before the clients arrived, we went on exercise rides. These were my favourte rides of the day, usually involving going up as many hills as possible to keep the guide horses fit and train them for a show jumping clinic the others went on in the second week. My main ride was a very dark bay, almost black, called Prince. We were well suited as he is bossy and sometimes grumpy and likes to bite other horses if they try to over take him! he was really good though and would always try really hard. this helped when we were flinging ourselves up very steep banks through gorse! he also ahd a really fast canter and loved to race which made it really enjoyable.

At the end of the second week i started guiding on the half hour kids rides. despite having ridden at the back several times, when it came to my turn to lead i got lost! to be fair the trail does wind through the kanuka trees and there are lots of cattle tracks through it so its kind of confusing! Luckily i had Amanda at the abck so every time i got confused i looked back to "check on the kids" so she could point which way to go! then she tied red tape to the tree on the correct side so i would know for next time! the kids never noticed anyway! so otherwise i was doing fine but i was riding Star (prince doesnt like to lead) who is a really big, strong bay and she was getting mroe and more impatient with only walking and kept surging ahead. it didnt help that she has a massive stride and i was being followed by Nellie who is the world's slowest horse! so i kept having to go around in small circles so they could catch up. when it came to the first trot the kids did fine but Star shot off and i soon lost them in the trees! we continued in teh same vein for the rest of the ride, as Star gradually pulled my shoulders out of their sockets trying to go faster or surge for home. when we got abck i was over 20 feet ahead but i really couldnt do anything about it! Amanda and i had a good laugh about it, and all my getting lost, but i swapped to Dale for the second and third rides and it was much better. Afterwards, i wanted to practice my rising trot so i took Dale up and down the drive. but someone let the rest of the horses out to their paddock while i was doing this so Dale started to trot very bouncily and fast, nearly took my foot off on the car park fence post and then skidded to a halt on the other side. i turned to go back and he broke into a mad flat-out canter back towards the stables. i was briefly worried that we were going to hit tghe mounting block but then he veered off towards the deck. Linda looked up to see me charging towards her but all she said was "keep your seat!" That i managed and he finally stopped in teh corner of the yard. that was enough excitement for me and i decided to call it a day!

Every day i rode up to 5 hours, mostly on the same trails, but always practicing, and in the second and third weeks my riding really improved and i really started to feel confident. i changed horses to Shadow and Gossip, for more advanced riders, and was much more bossy with them and didnt let them muck around. Shadow was a bit of a liability as when she gets in the river she puts her head down and splashes. this eventually makes her dizzy so she lies down!! She was great on the 2 hour rides though. they were more fun as we didnt take novices so we could trot and canter more without worrying that they would lose control, and we could go up the really steep banks on the river, which Shadow really loves. Most clients were really nice and good to talk to but we ahd a few really weird ones. One pair of Belgian girls had a ride to themselves, with Ines guiding and me at the back. they registered as novices so we put them on quiet horses but as soon as we got off the end of the drive they wanted to trot. they werent amused when we said they had to wait until we got to the river, and so asked again and again every 5 minutes for the rest of the ride! we always put the horses in a certain order depending on rider ability and the natural pecking order, but they wanted to change places and swap sides all over the road so that they could take pictures. When we got to the river they decided they were too warm so the girl in from took her bodywarmer off and demanded that Ines carry it on her saddle!! while the other one laid her coat over her lap. this was fine until we trotted, when the coat flew up into Prince's face, making him spook and veer sideways, nearly throwing me off! of course i then had to dismount to pick it up for her and carry it for the rest of the ride. then they wanted Ines to carry a camera so she could take pictures of them as they rode. generally they whinged and moaned the whole ride, dombarding Ines with questions about her life and work and saying New Zealand and Kaikoura were boring! We were thoroughly sick of them by the time we got back, after the girl dropped her coat again and then had some strange cameras-swapping session because of batteries and full memory cards or something. they never said thank you or anything, but insisted on posing with Pilgrim, Ines' horse, while she was trying to groom him and take him back to his paddock! Another time we had a couple of guys from Hong Kong, who also said they were novices, so we put them on the quiestest horses, only to discover half way through the ride that they were actually steeplechase jockeys!! That was a bit embarassing but they were really good and had these slow, ploddy horses right on the bit and even got Dreamer into a canter - never been seen before!!

During the last week Anna came up for a few days to see Kaikoura. We were planning on going for a ride together but it rained torrentially for 2 days and on the last day Amanda and Ines were too busy to guide us. I could have borrowed Amanda's horse Madam to guide with, but in the end Anna decided to walk up Mount Fyffe instead. i have to admit i liked it more when Simon was incharge because he was more relaxed and let me do more stuff whereas Linda worried a bit too much, but we still had lots of fun. Pete, the farrier, lives next door and used to own the business so he knew all the horses. He was such a laugh, doing the voices of the horses and pretending to kiss the guide horses! He did the "hire your own guide" treks because he does enduro with his so they need the exercise. i adored his horse Titan - he ahd a full western saddle with all the trimmings! We had to rope Dash to do her feet because she is such a muppet over everything but they were getting rid of her anyway because she was too unpredictable.

At the end i went down to Christchurch with Anna before flying out. It made more sense than getting a coach down the next day. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone as i had had such a good time, but i was really excited to be heading off to Australia. i was glad of the extra day in Christchurch to get myself sorted out. If anyone goes there, have breakfast at the Cathedral Cafe - they do the world's most awesome eggs benedict!

And so....my time in New Zealand came to an end. I had an awesome time - a few traumas and not everything went to plan, but overall i learnt so much and made so many friends. i STILL havent seen the North Island but perhaps i'll do that on the way back....

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