It’s Kaimanawa muster time
Horse lovers have an opportunity to save more than 200 Wild Kaimanawas that will be sent for slaughter if no homes are found.
The Department of Conservation is once again holding a muster that will see roughly 200 of the gentle-natured beasts brought down from the mountains to be sold or killed.
The government department conducts the muster every two years to keep wild numbers dwelling in the Kaimanawa Range below 300.
Kaimanawa horses are a population in New Zealand descended from domestic horses released in the 19th and 20th centuries.
South Waikato’s Kaimanawa Wild Horse Preservation Society is on the hunt for willing families keen to adopt the horses.
It is one of only two organisations in charge of homing the animals alongside Kaimanawa Heritage Horses.
Treasurer Regan Sharp said all the mustered beasts must be presold or they will be loaded up for slaughter.
And it has been a good breeding season so the count will be up, she said.
In order to avoid damaging the dynamics of the species, whole families of kaimanawas are mustered in.
‘‘They live in little groups of four to five, she said.
Foals usually sell well, as do yearlings but many are destined for the truck before the selling even begins.
‘‘The older stallions are harder to home . . . they’re not for the faint hearted,’’ she said.
With three kaimanawas grazing her paddocks today, Sharp knows her stuff.
‘‘They make very good kids’ ponies. Once you get through to them, they’re really sensible.’’
And the long-standing dressage horse lover was not an easy sell, she said.
‘‘My grandfather broke horses and I was always involved with elegant horses. One day my husband dragged me off to a [kaimanawa] show and I was dead tired and in a shitty humour.’’
She said she took one look at the animals on show and thought ‘‘god they’re ugly’’.
‘‘But after a while I saw them jumping and I looked at these horses and ponies and realised not one of them had dropped its rider.
‘‘If their riders popped out of their saddles they would stop . . . you could actually see them chuck their heads right back and shake them back in and that’s when I thought man, those are the kinds of horses you want for young riders.’’
Sharp’s nine-year-old daughter can happily ride and play around with her broken-in Kaimanawa.
She said they may not be the most beautiful looking horses, but they are by far the most beautifully behaved.
‘‘When they’re wild they’re wild and you’ve got to get past that but when they trust you they’ll walk on water for you.’’
The muster is due at the end of May, she said.