[QUOTE=kinnip;5606586]
You have successfully exploited every romantic notion of hunting I’ve ever had. How do sign up for citizenship?[/QUOTE] Just book a plane ticket and come for a holiday 
COTH forums need to have a “Like” button!
LIKE!!! A LOT 
Gorgeous!
[QUOTE=whicker;5605916]
WOW!
I’m in awe of your country and your horses! Otterhound and Phoebe, would you please cross post these photos over on the event forum? We have a thread going there about why hunt? What does it do for you that practicing in an arena or cross country practice course doesn’t.]
Not sure how to do the cross-posting thing, but perhaps you could just refer them to this thread? We don’t really make a big deal about teaching our horses to jump plain wire - just pop them over a couple of “spars” (lowered wire fences with a rail on top), then ride them into a plain wire fence the same height. You’d be surprised how easily they take to it. We just take it for granted that our horses will jump it - after all, it’s only another obstacle we’re asking them to jump. Wire is really a rider problem, not a horse problem. If you think about it, a horse in a paddock will not run into a wire fence - so obviously they have no trouble seeing it. A couple of ours happily jump full height fences, just 3 strands of wire with no up-right battens to make it more visible. They all jump a single strand of “hot-tape” which is only about an inch wide with nothing underneath it. Those are often used as gates on the dairy farms we hunt.
[You are hunting jack rabbits, right? The rabbits here don’t go far and quickly circle. How do yours run? ] Yep, I think what we call hares, you call jack-rabbits. They do run circles, but they’re HUGE circles! It’s not uncommon to get an hour and a half hunt from one hare. Of course some of that time will be taken with hounds trying to find again after “she’s” given them the slip.
I now want to come visit you and brigin home some horses. That’s a new dream. And my family wants to go, too![/QUOTE]
Well make sure you get in touch with me if you ever venture to our part of the world! The bonus is that when your hunt season finishes, ours is just starting!
Hmmm - have just noticed that I have no idea how to use the “quote” thingy properly!
I was trying to answer some of the questions, but my post hasn’t come out right! I’m better at riding than computing!:winkgrin: Would be ever so grateful if someone could explain how I can quote parts of someone’s post and reply, then quote some more. :uhoh:
Whicker - Don’t know how to cross reference stuff here - may be you could just point them in the direction of this thread? I’m better with horses than computers! Very few people in NZ have access to an arena so do most of their schooling/riding out in the open, even if it’s just in the corner of a paddock to do some flatwork. We tend to be much more into working our horses wherever we can. For example I have no flat land at all available, so all my schooling is done while I am riding through the 3500 acres of forestry behind the kennels. Of course serioius competitive riders will either have an arena, or truck to one, but even then a lot of their work is done out on farms or through forestry, or on a beach etc. That’s just the Kiwi way I guess! We have to make do with what we have available.
Over here we just take it for granted that our horses will jump wire. It is very much more of a rider problem than a horse problem! To start them off we just pop them over a “spar” (slightly lowered fence with a light rail on top) to give them the general idea, then straight over a plain wire the same height. Once they’ve done that, it doesn’t really matter what size the fence is, they just jump it (assuming of course that the horse does know how to jump!). Our hunters will jump a full height wire fence with only 3 strands of wire and no upright “battens” which would make it more visible. They also jump a single strand of “hot-tape” which is less than an inch wide and commonly used as a gate on dairy farms. When you think about it, horses have no trouble at all seeing wire - after all they stop when they come to a fence in the paddock, even if they’re going flat out hooning around.
We hunt hares, which I figure is what you guys call jack-rabbits. They do run circles, but they’re HUGE circles! It’s not uncommon to hunt a hare for an hour and a half - bearing in mind that some of that time will be hounds trying to find again after she’s given them the slip.
There’s really no reason for you not to come here for a visit, especially as our hunt season starts almost exactly the same time as your’s finishes! 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/huik2em/5721446982/in/photostream Here are 2 of our horses - Heidi (jumping) is my favourite;) She’ll jump whatever you put in front of her, at any angle, any distance. She’s only 15.1 hh, but then I’m not over-endowed with height either!:winkgrin:
nice comments. but I need a little innovation.
Absolutly magnificent! Thanks for sharing!
Farmers sold the leaf for an average of $2.81 a kilogram,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/huik2em/5720893991/ Here’s my OH on Clyde, with his hounds at a property we hunt about 2 miles from our kennels.
That is simply epic
Such beautiful country! Please keep taking photos when you can. We are really enjoying learning about your hunt…
Tell us about Clyde, too.
Clyde is a 19 yr old half Clydesdale gelding who has pretty well done nothing but hunt all his life. We had borrowed him on the odd occasion over the last 4 years when we were short of a horse and tried to buy him, but no go. However about the beginning of April I got a phone call from his owner saying he wanted to give Clyde to us! His son had been hunting him but has little or no respect for the horse so the owner decided he’d have a great home here and would probably last a lot longer! We keep him as our spare horse and pick and choose the hunts he does depending on terrain etc, and he always goes out first then when Stephen changes to 2nd horse I bring Clyde in. He’s such a staunch old boy and although in his distant past he’s been badly mistreated he love nothing better than his hunting. We look at this as his semi-retirement home where he gets to hunt hounds up front but never gets pushed too hard. And when his time comes, he’ll go to hounds as all good hunters do.:sadsmile:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/huik2em/5763201226/ Another of our awesome coastal properties, where each season we have a weekend hunt, staying overnight on the Saturday. It’s about a 2 and a half hour drive from kennels, but worth every minute of it.
I’m speechless. That is insanely awesome.
Fabulous photos Otterhound and Phoebe :). I think hunting in NZ will now have to go onto my ‘bucket list’
Much like Otterhound says. In a past life I have hunted "professionally’ I guess you could say - being paid to hunt horses for various owners - usually starting from newly backed or unbacked and taking the young horse through the season and making him into a reliable mount for his rider. Terrible life that was - paid to hunt 2 -3 x a week:lol:.
Anyway, first teach your horse to jump. It only needs to be jumping around 2’ before you teach it to jump wire. Use an existing wire fence or a specially made one (most fences are wire and lots of riding people have free standing wire fences for training). Pull the wires down low. For a horse who has done very little jumping that will often be enough - give him a lead from another horse and he’ll pop over. Horses that are used to jumping proper jumps may need more convincing that this is a fence like any other. I’ll build a SJ fence around the wire one, including fill if I have to. Gradually remove fill (all in one jump lesson - remove one bit of fill each time you jump the fence). I end up with the wire fence with a single jump rail and jump stands. Remove the rail, jump fence, remove the stands, jump fence. Move along the fence to where I have another lowered fence - jump that to test the learning. At the first hunt that I jump a horse over wire fences I pick and choose which fences I’ll jump.
Wire fences will swing quite a bit if a horse hits them. The other thing that I have found is that horses that learn to jump wire and only hunt for their first season or so, often don’t learn to stretch well over a fence and need to really be taught to lengthen out over oxers and spreads. Now I tend to get my own horses going XC and SJ first and then take them hunting. Hunting is for fun. I have great country side to hoon around and hills to gallop up and down. Most people in NZ have access to that sort of country.
Taupo Hunt week is a great week - 4 hunts in 7 days, parties, sometimes a ball, heaps of social occasions. Lots of overseas visitors come to it - they hire horses and get to ride experienced, fit hunters over great country.
Our hunts don’t divide into first flight, second flight like yours sound as if they do. Anyone can hunt if they contact the master and get his permission before hand, or if they go as a guest of another member. If you can keep up, you can ride alongside the master. If you don’t want to hunt, you can “gate”. Some of this group ride a good speed, while others trundle along at a very lesiurly pace. Its okay to move from group to group to give your horse a spell or to chat or whatever.
Having said all of this, I haven’t been out this season - but have got a young horse who would benefit from it. Must og and look up the card.
Oh, and whicker, thanks for the compliment:D.
Well yesterday we had the pleasure of the company of the huntsman from Sedgefield hunt,and his wife, hunting with us! He jumped his first ever wire fence (in fact he jumped quite a lot of them!) and had a great day out. They’re here in NZ on a touring holiday and rode horses lent to them by members of our hunt. He went out on foot with my OH on Thursday hunting hounds as our ridden hunt was cancelled due to foul weather, and it was great to meet and get to know the two of them and learn a little more about hunting in America. Will post a photo from yesterday asap.
