A horse is the solution to all life’s worries
With Ka¯piti Island as a backdrop, Sharon Stephenson learns the joys, and workout potential, of horse riding.
His name is Coup and he is the kind of gorgeous you couldn’t make up: liquid brown eyes, ridiculously long lashes and skin the colour of lightly toasted chestnuts. I know it’s rude to stare, but I couldn’t help it. Two minutes after meeting Coup, I was ready to take him home.
Sadly I couldn’t because Coup is a horse who already has a loving owner. I also know very little about these majestic creatures, despite having a father obsessed with horses – the sort that run really fast in the 3.30pm at Ellerslie.
To make matters worse, life wasn’t kind to me in the height department, so I’ve always been a little afraid of horses.
Fortunately, Coup is a gentle soul who senses my confidence was low. He looked at me as if to say, ‘‘don’t worry lady, I’ll look after you’’.
We’re at O¯ taki Beach, on the Ka¯ piti Coast. Drive north from Wellington for about an hour, ignore the endless roadworks, and look for the sparkling blue water.
It might be the end of summer, but when we pulled up to Beachbrook Stables, it was a beautiful sunny day.
Gill Hayes, founder and owner of Beachbrook, was busy saddling three of her 16 horses. Hayes bought the four-hectare property 20 years ago, mainly as somewhere for her own animals. Then a horse called Moose came into her life.
‘‘Moose is the gentlest horse you could ever meet, and I would take him to dressage and showjumping events,’’ says Hayes, a former IT consultant. ‘‘He was so kind, and people started asking if they could learn how to ride on him. Some had childhood horse traumas, or were lacking in confidence.’’
Moose is still her lead horse, a gentle Clydesdale giant who my husband rode. I was assigned Coup, who barely flinches when I fell on to his back.
We signed up for a two-hour trek along O¯ taki Beach, but could just as easily have done a onehour trek, or while watching the sun sink behind Ka¯ piti Island. Had we been more experienced in the saddle, Hayes would have led us on a four-hour trek to Waikawa Beach, or hacked through dense bush at the base of the Tararua Range.
But circumstances and time constraints led us to the two-hour version, which was everything I could want from a horse trek: relaxing, fun and in a setting that encourages us to exhale.
Not to mention having Hayes lead us, someone who believes there’s no situation that can’t be improved by a horse.
After a health and safety briefing, she gave us a quick rundown on riding etiquette.
‘‘Heavy butt, jelly legs,’’ she yelled, encouraging me to stop tensing my thighs and push the weight into my bottom.
We were also instructed to keep our heels down and toes up in the stirrups. (‘‘There’s no room for ballerinas around here,’’ she says.) And we needed to ensure our heads, shoulders, hips and heels were in a vertical line.
‘‘If you get sore knees you’re doing it wrong, but a sore butt means you’ve aced it!’’
We turned right outside Beachbrook’s gate, making the slow trek to the water. If you were at Otaki Beach recently and saw a woman trying, and failing miserably, to steer a gorgeous chestnut gelding away from the foliage, that was me.
‘‘Hard right with your lead, then gently kick him to move because otherwise he’ll graze all day,’’ Hayes instructed, as I tried to multitask while not falling off.
Coup eventually got the message, but I could tell he’d rather be eating than ferrying me around. Eventually, I relaxed into his gentle rhythms. Coup has made this journey many times, and knows every inch of this area. He zig-zagged his way through it the way he’s always done.
At the beach, we ride though low tide, a few dog walkers the only other dots on the horizon. We were largely silent, overawed by the blur of surf and sand. It’s easy to forget the rest of the world exists.
Hayes eventually broke the silence with what she considered the most incorrect sentence in the English language.
‘‘People always say, the horse does all the work. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Whether you’re an experienced rider or a beginner, being on the back of a horse benefits you both psychologically and physically.
‘‘For starters, there’s the cardiovascular exercise, with a British study finding that trotting can burn up to 600 calories per ride.’’
Bouncing around in a saddle can also give you abs of steel, because you’re primarily using their core muscles. Not to mention getting a good innerthigh and pelvic muscle workout, along with improved balance, co-ordination and flexibility.
And as for mental health? Research suggests that horse riding stimulates mainly positive psychological feelings, having been shown to reduce depression by 30 per cent and lowering the chance of dementia by around the same amount.
Plus, who am I trying to kid, it’s the most fun I’ve had in ages. Especially when we had to cross a stream and Coup decided it would be a good place to stop. As the water licked his belly, I worried we’d soon be swimming, but he’s sure-footed and didn’t falter. Eventually, we made it to the other side where I discovered both my running shoes have holes in them.
Back at Beachbrook, as I staggered around doing my best John Wayne impression, Hayes had another treat in store – six-week-old puppies.
The mother-of-two breeds schnauzer and french bulldog puppies and we spent far too long cuddling the black-and-tan bundles as their respective mothers looked on.
Had we been more organised, we could have stayed the night in the cute-as-a-button tiny house. Hayes moved on to her property last year. It’s popular with guests who horse trek during the day (bonus: you can bring your horse and dog), or with those who simply like to sit on the porch and admire the equine surroundings.
The only bad thing about our trek was that it had to end. I left Beachbrook with sore nether regions and a greater respect for these amazing creatures.
For more, visit beachbrookstables.co.nz.