Horses
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Photo #1 of 12
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The horses are bred and raised on the hill country, so are sure-footed in all terrains, and fast-walking from their Thoroughbred background. They carry more physical characteristics of a Clydesdale though, with hairy legs and strongly built - great for use as pack horses.
Turbo Charge was the sire of over 25 foals for the O'Carrolls, unfortuantely dying from old age in 1987. Luckily, he had left a legacy in Nikau, who was the second stallion producing his own 8 foals before retiring as a stallion to become a riding horse for the safaris. As a replacement for Nikau, two new stallions were bought in 1996, a sire and his progeny, the sire dying just 1 year later after producing two foals for us. His earlier offspring was the other stallion, Wainuka, bought as a yearling, but at 3 was put to work and by the age of 5 had already given us 15 new foals.
In 1996, we also sent one of our brood mares to be artificially inseminated with semen from Jaguar, a well-known Belgian Warmblood dressage and show-jumping horse of the North Island. This produced our other current stallion named Toru, born in 1997 and first serving mares in 2000.
In total there are about 60 horses at Waitohi Downs, and this number is ever-growing. 35 are used as riding horses for stock work and also on the safaris, 10 or so are brood mares, and there are about 15 yearlings, two and three year olds. These younger horses are constanly being handled from an early age until they are broken in at 3 years old. They are slowly introduced to the safaris, often being used as a pack horse and for mustering first to make sure that they are quiet and able to cope with any events that may occur during the rides.
The horses here are not stabled, but live out on the hillside and in paddocks all year round. They always have plenty of feed in the paddocks but in the winter months (May - September) when grass is sparse, they are supplementary fed daily with red clover or Lucern hay, made here at Waitohi Downs in the summer from the lush grass grown on the flats. Before rides, they are given chaff to keep their energy levels high, and there is always a fresh supply of water available from the numerous creeks scattered across the farm
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