My dad is from New Zealand and a lot of his family are still over there. The last time I was over there was about 7 years ago now. This photo is one of my favourite photos from that trip so today I thought I would use it to actually follow the Blogtober guidelines!
During my 3 week trip to New Zealand, we spent about a week of this time staying with my Nana on the North Island. They just so happened to have a family friend who owned a farm and horses and me and my sister we invited to go and ride. We met them at the bottom of the drive to the farm where they unloaded two ponies, a bay called DJ and a very pale palomino called Sandsa. DJ was this lady’s young daughter’s pony who she used for pony club and the smaller pony Sandsa, was a 3 year old, lightly backed but good as gold.
The ponies were tacked up and we were given spare hats to wear. I was given DJ to ride and my sister was given Sandsa. Once we were on, we were told to ride up the gravel driveway up the mountain until we got to the farm. It was a lovely little hack and both ponies were good as gold. It was walking up this mountain driveway that this photo was taken by my Auntie.
Once we got up to the farm, the lovely lady who had given us ponies to ride, thought it would be nice for us to explore the farm a little bit. So she went and pulled Fern in from the field. Fern hadn’t been ridden in months and was a Kaimanawa, a breed of wild horse in New Zealand. She also used to be wild and was rounded up and rehomed at some point in her life. I got off DJ, so the daughter could ride her own pony and I got on Fern. We then went for a longer hack around the farm with a trot and possibly a canter if I remember correctly.
(Left DJ & the daughter, Middle Sandsa & my Sister, Right Fern & Me)
After our little ride, the lady said I could have a little jump in the field if I wanted to. The daughter was going to jump DJ over some of the logs they had in the field and I could pop Fern over a couple too if I wanted. So naturally, wearing trainers (in fact I have just realized I am wearing the exact same trainers while writing this!), in a borrowed hat, on a brand new horse who hadn’t been ridden in months, I jumped at the chance! And I had a fantastic time even if it wasn’t particularly tidy.
Last Updated on 05/06/2022
