InFocus

It would be a brave person to pick the winner of the Country TV FEI World Cup (NZ series) Final, being hosted on Sunday at Woodhill Sands in Auckland.

New Zealand’s best showjumpers are fighting it out for series honours as well as the right to represent the nation at the Longines FEI World Cup Jumping 2016/2017 Final in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States, from March 29-April 1, 2017.

Each of the five rounds so far has been won by different combinations, and with points-and-a-half on the line at the Continental Cars Audi World Cup Festival, it is anyone’s game. The four best scores count for the series.

Helen McNaught-McFarlane (Taupo) and her....

Each year on the first Tuesday of November crowds flock to Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia, to be a part of the biggest racing event of the year.  At 3pm AEDT time (5pm NZDT) on the first Tuesday of November, this race that stops the nation and other parts of the world, commences.  Cup goers well and truly dress for this momentous occasion, and while they make the most of a great day out, wining and dining and having a flutter here and there, they await with anticipation the outcome of the biggest race of the year, known as the Melbourne Cup.  Around 300 – 400 horses are nominated each year but the final field is limited to 24 starters.  Those 24....

All About Eve at Woodhill Sands

Katie Laurie showed every bit of her international experience today, slicing and dicing corners and turns to take the win today in the Bayleys Real Estate Horse Grand Prix at the Fiber Fresh Grand Prix Jumping Show at Woodhill Sands. The  The Mystery Creek Olympian had both Dunstan On The Point Eve and Dunstan Lucca through to the jump-off – two of five from the original field of 12.

She was early out on Lucca and – by her own admission – went to do a very tight inside turn, only to realise half way in that it was too tight so had to do a circle and while they were clear jumping, they picked up time....

Fundamentally domesticated horses are genetically the very same as wild horses.  The animals we ride, feed and home are at heart the same wild animals that hunt and gather for survival.  This got me thinking about animals in captivity and under what means we should have the rights to toy with the very nature of wild animals.  Whatever the discipline, horses in captivity are programmed to behave.  I have witnessed many a times riders punishing their horses for misbehaving, hauling on their bridles and digging spurs into their sides, all without fear of consequences.  But under what circumstances is this right?

I recently listened....

We all love to hear about a star who has risen from nowhere, particularly in the horse world.  We are captured by the sheer grit and determination shown by hard working individuals passionate about their chosen sport and driven by their goals.  Against all odds they succeed.  Perhaps even more compelling is a success story about a rider and horse that at one time failed in the eyes of many experts and may even have been dismissed and discarded.  For James Arkins and Rosthwaite Vigilante II aka Robbie this was their reality.  

James and Robbie in their early years and at the most critical time of their development had no one truly believing in them....

A friend of mine, a few generations older than most riders of today, told of how her sister who was no rider, woke one morning, threw the curtains back to a beautiful sunny day and said, “Let’s go riding?”

But then she remembered, she didn’t have a horse.  Or any gear.  At all!

At this time it was simply not a problem.  Within a couple of hours the horse was found in Horses and Vehicles for sale - a regular column in The NZ Herald, back in the day!  A second hand bridle and saddle was purchased from there too.  The ex-racehorse was....

"I’ve never actually told anyone this.  No one in the equestrian community knows.  It’s just something you don’t bring up in conversation.  It’s such a long conversation.  To me it’s normal.  And that’s the hardest thing for me to try to explain.  People don’t understand this.  So I don’t talk about it” (Jake Barham, 2016).

My life will not be quite the same after hearing Jake’s story, a story that other than his family and closest friends knew of until now.   This extraordinary young man exudes positivity and a refreshing earthy back to basics style that tells of a....

Traditionally horseshoeing has been a male dominated industry.  Ngaire Bryant is the first ever New Zealand female to become registered as a farrier in New Zealand.  When she was just twenty three she started working as an apprentice farrier in Takanini South Auckland with Kevin Crampton. She worked through her holidays and all around the North Island before gaining contacts to the Stern Family in England who were a family of farriers.  Ngaire then spent two years in England with the Stern family where she became the first New Zealand female to gain her diploma of Farrier from the Dip W.C.S (Worshipful Company of Farriers) with above average.  She then spent six....