A love of horses at Kamada Park
Kamada Park’s owner Kevin Pratt and office manager Olivia Hill talk race horses to Jill Galloway.
Alove of horses is uppermost for anyone wanting to work at Kamada Park. The six staff at the horse stud and agistment - taking in and feeding horses for payment operation near Palmerston North all meet this criteria.
Kamada is a combination of the names of the Pratt family - Kevin his wife, Margaret and their daughters Desiree and Andrea.
Horses are Kevin’s great love and hobby. He travels widely for the business.
‘‘I have been to Christchurch, Dunedin, Sydney and here in the past five days.’’
Pratt says he lives in Sydney, but also has a house at Kamada Park.
He and the rest of the staff love and respect horses, including the maintenance man.
‘‘The horses come over to see what he is doing , they are inquisitive,’’ says office manager Olivia Hill.
‘‘Business is business, but horses are my hobby. I make money other places, and spend it here at the Kamada Park,’’ says Pratt.
When ever he quizzes his wife about a new dress she might have bought he is quickly reminded of his own purchases. ’’[Her reply] is ‘It is less than you spent buying your last horse’, she tells me’’. And it is a fair cop, he laughs.
Kamada Park is a one stop shop for horses. ’’I have 40 of ours here now. Half of those are 100 per cent owned by us [he and his wife]. ’’The other’s are syndicate owned. I have the majority holding in them too.’’
At the park, about 45 hectares are broken into small paddocks. There is a grass race track, and new starting gates for practising. Lime laneways can be ridden on regardless of weather.
Alongside them are two arenas, two stable blocks, a six horse walker and an operations box. An arena is specially designed for breaking horses in.
Nearby vets are castrating a colt. The operation on the new gelding was all over in an hour and the young horse was standing up soon after.
The operating theatre is a new addition to Kamada Park and three post-operative stalls adjoin the theatre.
Hill says once horses are gelded, they recover fast and are walking two days later, and ridden a few days after that.
Kamada Park was established 10 years ago. Pratt and his wife bought the 30ha property three years ago. The operation has since been expanded at Whakarongo, in the heart of the Central Districts Racing Hub.
With a family member unwell in Palmerston North, Pratt decided to base his horses near the city.
He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars improving the facilities.
Pratt is the driving force, and loves his horses, but the day-to-day functions are usually carried out by staff.
White boards show what horses are coming and going, and which ones need injections or drugs.
Staff feed and check all horses and muck out the few horses in boxes. In the boxes are two horses, and staff keep an eye on the one recovering from his gelding.
Hill says the horses are usually kept on pasture and fed baleage and hay as well as a mixture of hard feed such as grain.
Most of them are kept in paddocks ranging in numbers to as many as six and only one for those unable to cope with others. ’’I like paddocks with four to six horses. But it depends on the horse. If it is larger, they are better socialised,’’ says Hill.
Variations of hot wire fencing are used throughout the property to keep them in the paddocks.
The newest features on the property are starting gates, which race horses practise in. They get used to the ‘clang’ of the gates opening so they can be fast out of them. Pratt is proud of the gates and racetrack. The track is grass at the moment, but will be sand in a year.
Experienced horseman Bruce Herd lives on site. He breaks the horses in so they can be ridden and checks on all of them.
Before he gets to them a horse might be used to people, but has never had a person in a saddle on its back. Hill says it takes between four and eight weeks to break a horse in and the average is six weeks. Breaking in horses is big business for Kamada Park and he works on about 100 horses a year.
‘‘Bruce decides when a horse is ready to be broken in. It is entirely up to him,’’ says Hill.
A round containment area is used for breaking in horses with a post in the middle covered with tyres and comes with a viewing platform. The sandy surface and round shape helps prevent a horse from becoming distracted as it gets used to people..
More recently horses have been sold from Kamada Park, at the ‘Ready to Run’ sales in Auckland. with a top price $600,000. These horses are broken in, and have run in a few races.
Hill says they tend to get less than those at the better known yearling sale at Karaka. Although not broken in, they usually go for far more, on the promise they might be a top racehorse.
Pratt says he has two racehorses working in Australia, and one in Singapore.
Running horses is an expensive business which he accepts is the cost of an all-consuming hobby.
Kamada is a combination of the names of the Pratt family - Kevin his wife, Margaret and their daughters Desiree and Andrea. Horses are Kevin's great love and hobby.