– Photo by PlayCreative –

This is a recap of Sunday of my trip to Equifest. You can read about Friday evening and Saturday here. Or check out my shopping haul here. 

We woke up to a cold and wet day on Sunday but thankfully we were snug and dry in my SUV. Did I tell you how much I love car camping now?! It’s definitely going to be a good option for future horse shows. 

-Wet and Wild day at the show –

We were a bit late getting up so arrived just as Vicki Wilson was finishing up her session in the round pen before Murray presented. Lilly was on her toes today with the weather and the umbrellas around. Much more so than yesterday. But Murray again worked his magic and took lots of time getting her focused on him in the session before moving on to bridling. Lilly was a champion again and accepted the bit and the bridle with little fuss. She is such a lovely horse.

One of the main points that Murray reiterated over his sessions was something that really made sense to me – he said that because horses are prey animals they seek peace and relaxation over rewards such as pats or treats. Humans, as predators, seek reward (such as catching a prey animal) to release all the happy chemicals in our brain but that only happens for horses when they can relax and chill. The happy chemicals are released when they are safe. So as humans, we need to create a safe space for them and be a safe space for them if they are going to trust us. It also means that instead of praising horses with pats, rubs or treats like we might think is a good thing, we instead praise them by letting them chill out. You do that by taking a deep breath which they can then also do, allowing them to drop their poll and start licking and chewing which releases the dopamine and gives them the reward that makes them want to do it again when you ask.  

– Look at that poll drop. She is so relaxed –

It’s a lot more complicated then what I’ve written but creating a safe space for them to look to you as their safety involves asking them to concentrate on you as the leader and not look at the things around them. You want their concentration on you and you want them to understand that they dont need to worry about the rest of the world because you will keep them safe. You do this by giving them a job whenever their mind flicks away from you such as backing up. Once they have backed up and they concentrate on you, you take that pressure off, take a deep breath and let them chill. Eventually they are looking to you only for their safe space and not worrying what’s going on around them. This gives you the trust you need to start training them. I really don’t know if I explained that well but the concept really stuck with me and made sense. 

– Beyond the Barriers competitors even get matching show shirts –

Anyway, by the time Murray’s session was over I was freezing despite my big rain jacket so I popped back to the car for more warm clothes and then went to watch some of the Beyond the Barriers showjumping competition. If you don’t know, Beyond the Barriers is a competition series that is set up for off the track thoroughbreds who are being retrained as sport horses. It’s designed to showcase the versatility of the thoroughbred and encourage people to take on the challenge of retraining an OTTB into a new discipline. Hundreds of thoroughbreds are retired from race work every year and need a new life instead of being culled so this competition is an incentive to encourage people to do that. Watching the competition really made me want to enter with Birdie next year so if things go well, we may be able to. 

It was then off for a bit more shopping. I had seen that prices had dropped even further thanks to the show coming to an end so I scored two more riding shirts for half price – such a bargain. I’ll write more about them in my haul post. 

– Back with my baby –

By then it was lunch time and I called it a day since I wanted to stop by to see a close friend in Taupo before making the drive home. Unfortunately I got a migraine on the way home so I had to pull over to sleep for an hour before continuing on. Thank goodness for my bed in the back of my truck. By the time I got home it was almost 8pm but I went out to feed Birdie and give her some pats before collapsing in bed. 

Overall I really enjoyed Equifest, the organisers did an amazing job of putting on a big show within a year and doing while COVID was happening. I cannot wait to go back next year and maybe bring Birdie with me to compete in the Beyond the Barriers competition. 

– Equifest at the National Equestrian Centre –

This past weekend was the inaugural Equifest at the National Equestrian Centre in Taupo and it was amazing! 

Equifest was created in the gap that was left behind when Equidays was canceled earlier this year and was full of competitions, seminars clinics and demonstrations to cater for all horsey people. And shopping, lots of shopping.  I posted a bunch on my instagram stories throughout the weekend so if you want up to date updates in the future, make sure you are following me there. Here’s the link to my account. 

I was lucky enough to win one day pass from Vicky Wilson, one of the Equidays Ambassadors, and bought a second one so I could make it a weekend. I even managed to get a ticket for Friday night show before it sold out. I would have loved to go to the Saturday night show which was apparently amazing but they sold out super quick.  

The event started on Friday morning but I decided I would just go Friday evening so I wouldn’t have to take a day off work since I’m using those for my summer holiday. I did work some extra hours during the week so I could shoot off a little early on Friday afternoon and packed my horse mobile Petal for the trip, Taupo is about 3.5 hours from New Plymouth and the trip went quickly. I’ve been wanting to try out my SUV as a camping option for future horse shows (because I’m trying to be more budget-conscious so I can put more money into fun things like clinics and lessons) and it was great. It fits a double air bed perfectly and I had the best sleep the two nights I was there. I’m going to sort out some curtains and other bits and pieces to make it even better but it was a great trial run.

When I got to Taupo, I checked in at the campsite and then went straight to the National Equestrian festival for the Friday night show. It was speed night with a Table C showjumping competition with a pony and horse class. It was a hard course and the arena was tiny thanks to the grandstand taking up lots of room. The distractions were numerous too which lots of the horses had issues with. The majority of show jumping is done outside in New Zealand and many of the horses were obviously having a hard time with an indoor arena full of hundreds of people. The big screen in particular was causing issues, It was right next to jump two and almost every rider took their mount near it before they started to try to get them used to it. There was one slightly controversial moment when the screen was turned off when one horse was really losing their mind over it. The combo went on to win the class so there was a lot of mumblings of the unfairness of it all in the stands.

– Friday night speed event with the dreaded screen in the background –

It was an entertaining competition though with lots of disobedences, crashed into jumps and a few falls. No horse or riders were hurt though. There were some amazing saves too when riders almost fell off but managed to scramble back on and keep going. There were quite a few retirements which I think was mostly due to the atmosphere and the worked up horses. I don’t know why it worked out this way but the majority of the pony class were appaloosas which is not the most common breed in NZ and the horses were mostly dark browns (probably thoroughbreds).  Amanda Wilson was one of the commentators for the night and also competed her World Cup gelding Showtym Cassanova but didn’t go clear. I called it a night after the Table C competition and headed to the campsite instead of watching the polo match since I was pretty tired. 

– SA and I in our Kaipaki Horsemanship Cheer Squad tees –

Saturday was a stunning, sunny day and I got there before the gates opened. I slathered on the sunscreen but decided I didn’t need to do my legs despite wearing shorts which was a bad, bad idea because I got so burnt thanks to sitting in the sun. The gates lead you cunningly straight into the shopping area so I had a quick look before deciding to come back later. I headed off to the indoor arena to watch the vaulting demonstration which was amazing! Those riders (and the horses) are fantastic! I kind of want to give it a go sometime but I’m not sure about how flexible my 31 year old body is these days. I bounced around between a few of the other clinics and competitions before meeting one of my oldest and best friends to spend the day with.  I also managed to fit some shopping in and got some awesome deals which I’ll do a haul post later about. After the shopping we went to watch Russel Higgins who was doing an Introduction to Liberty educational session. He was amazing and his horses were so in tune with him. He ended up showing us some liberty work with three of his horses at once which was wicked. Really made me want to do one of his clinics one day. 

– The vaulting was amazing. They made it look easy which I’m sure st very misleading –

One of the main reasons I went to Equifest (apart from embracing my true horsey self) was to see and support another of my friends, Murray, who was one of the educators. Murray runs Kaipaki Horsemanship in the Waikato and specialises in starting young horses, schooling and coaching, drawing together the fundamentals of dressage and horsemanship to do this. He also breeds some amazing sport horses out of his Clydesdale stallion Saint Clifford Bay. 

– Murray with the gorgeous 3 year old Lilly –

– Murray is so kind when training, This is Lilly’s first time with a saddle –

He ran three sessions over the weekend educating people on his methods for starting a young horse which are so gentle and kind and really focus on working with the horse and not against it. He bought one of his Saint Clifford Bay babies Lilly to show his techniques with. She was fresh off the King Country hills and had only been lightly handled before Murray started her at the show. I wasn’t there for the first session on Friday but most of the session was spent getting her locked on to Murray and look to him for leadership and safety in the midst of the massive show. On Saturday she was soft and locked on quickly which meant Murray was able to introduce the saddle and get on her. She was such a generous and chilled out horse on Saturday but Murray is so kind and experienced that he got her to that stage fast. He reiterated multiple times though that this was just a demonstration and it usually takes at least 6 weeks to get a horse started and Lilly was being extremely generous. He was careful not to push her just for the sake of the demonstration.  It was a great session and it was awesome seeing Murray doing his thing. 

– Spot the Katie in the crowd –

We headed back to Murray’s stand after the demonstration to congratulate him and hang out for awhile. We had a look at a few more of the stalls and I ended up talking to the NZ racing people about Birdie to go into the draw to win a prize which turned out to be a great experience since they were able to find some videos of Birdie running (and losing) some races before I got her. It was so exciting to see her before she came into my life but I felt pretty sad when I saw her jockey whipping her lots in one video. I’ve got the videos for myself now so I’ll do a post about it at some point. 

We were nearing the end of the day by then so a bunch of us who didn’t have tickets to the night show ending up going to one of the many hot pools in Taupo for a chilled evening and then to dinner at one of the houses. We reminisced about the old days and had an awesome evening before heading to bed. 

This post is super long so I’ll do another post to cover the Sunday at Equifest. It was a cold, wet day but it was still lots of fun. Right now I need to head out into the bad weather to feed Birdie.