Horseback view: The sand dunes of Ninety Mile Beach move in an ever changing landscape. Picture by Robyn Wilkie
Two days driving gets us to the long stretch of New Zealand that is Ninety Mile Beach or Te Oneroa-a Tohe, in the Far North.
The beach is actually 88km long and nine years ago my husband and I walked every kilometre of it as the first section of Te Awaroa walking track.
On this adventure I had taken my horse Waiapu to ride on the beach while I was participating in a week-long clinic with Chloe Phillips-Harris, a renowned equestrian, adventurer and wild horse tamer.
The clinics are run two to three times a year and are designed to raise awareness of the wild herds in Northland and how these horses can become great domestic stock.
The horses come into conflict with farmers and forestry as they destroy fences, eat crops, and generally make a nuisance of themselves.
They are often, in a bad year, skinny and can sustain untreated injuries from the wire that litters the countryside. Mares can produce up to 20 offspring in their lifetime and left unchecked the herds struggle to maintain condition and wellbeing.
The Wild Horse Project offers a solution by mustering in mobs of horses and removing them when practical and rehoming when homes are available.
Chloe has recently registered the Wild Horse Project as a charitable trust so she can continue this rescue work with support from donations.
Her methods are slow and steady, with no drama or stress applied to the horses and this appealed to me. How close could I get to a horse that has never had any human touch by just approach and retreat, allowing the horse time to adjust to my presence in the yard and decreasing the bubble over the week until touch and haltering can be achieved?
Each year the horses are named after a letter in the alphabet and this being the third year Chloe has run these clinics, the letter is C. I chose a three-year-old bay stallion to work on and I named him Chiron after the centaur from Greek mythology.
Chiron is the bossy stallion of the boy band that we mustered into the yards off the beach. He came in with a bay yearling, a very ill-looking four-year-old, and a stunning two-year-old black that was named Charm. One horse, a stunning dappled grey that we named Calypso, was too smart for our trap and galloped back out to the beach.
There were wild horses everywhere. A black stallion had a band of mares and foals that came around the yards to check out the action and have a go at gaining some territory off the two older brothers Cheech and Chong, a black and a grey, who stayed around the yards the whole time we worked with the horses. The black was unsuccessful against these two lads, so he took his herd back over the hill.
It was fascinating to watch the dynamics of the herds in their natural environments.Although horses do not naturally inhabit New Zealand ecosystems, they have been roaming this country for generations, making them genuine wild mobs second only to the Kaimanawa mobs in the Central North Island.
After a good wet season, the horses were in great condition, but the worm loading was impressive with round worms being visible in the manure. As I had taken my own horse for after-clinic riding, he was grazing on pastures that the wild horses roam and infect with the parasites. We had to be careful with the domestic horses and had an electric tape set up around the yards to stop the wild horses attacking them at night.
During the day I had my horse tied up to the float with hay and a day yard for him to graze when I was close by. Mostly he ate hay but when we got home he dropped condition and on giving him his routine spring worming he released a load of round worms which I had never seen before in my horses here in Gisborne.
The lodge accommodation was amazing. The building had been the maternity unit of the Kawakawa Hospital back in the day. Graceful French doors opened out to the beach and waking up and seeing the ocean and sand dunes was a great treat. We were looked after with three hot meals a day and some days with the rain, hail and howling wind, a hot lunch was very welcome.
The work was challenging, but not physically. This work really demands the control of emotion and control of physical movement. The horses have never been in a yard, they have never seen a person up close and, as horses can feel the heartbeat of the whole herd they can definitely feel the heartbeat of a person approaching them. So if my heart rate goes up my horse will feel that there is something to be afraid of and he will react accordingly.
In the past I have haltered untouched horses and scared horses using various techniques, but this slow methodical approach and retreat method challenged my impulse to work fast. I needed to slow down. Chloe gave step-by-step instructions all day to five people working on five different animals and how she maintained her composure and positivity was admirable. The weather challenged us too. Only two of the five horses were haltered at the end of the week but all accepted our touch, so after seven days of fantastic learning about wild horses and myself I loaded up my horse and did the return trip to Gisborne.
Fast forward four weeks and after, being gelded, drenched, de-liced, tics removed, halter trained and float loaded, Chiron was transported the 900km to our property to start a new life as a domestic animal.
He arrived last Thursday and today, Monday, he is eating out of my hand and accepting my touch. He did, however, have a mild panic attack when he saw sheep for the first time. There is a long way to go to train him and have him accepting of domestic requirements, but I hope to build a bond with him that that will see extraordinary results.
I highly recommend the Wild Horse Project if you are looking for an adventure with a difference. Horse experience is not a prerequisite but an adventurous spirit and the ability to follow instructions is.
¦ thewildhorseproject.com
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