36 – Tigger’s First Rides and Pukeatua 2* for Lace
Tigger had been improving – there was room! It was time for his first endurance ride at the Leslie Road Putaruru forest. Just 28km, quietly, trying to keep him civil, surviving!
We set off ok, having stayed in one piece for the briefing and start. I ended up riding with Tash and Tahi, always entertaining, Tash was teaching me about the ninja properties of silver ferns and the deadly nature (Tahi’s opinion) of certain shades of dirt!
The thing about the Putaruru rides was that the forest was not very big. So the 40km rides usually involved going around a couple of times. Thus it was inevitable that at some point they would come up behind us on the narrow track. Yep and you guessed it, it flipped Tigger’s brain into panic spin mode, which would have been not so bad if he hadn’t been head tossing at the same time and managed on more than one occasion to cause the clip on the rein to come off! So there I am on a psycho horse with only one rein!! Rapid dismount time!
By the time we got to the paddocks by the Blue Springs Tigger was in a state – the first time I rode this course I went home and told Bill “We rode above the most beautiful river I have ever seen”. In order to prevent major meltdown I kept him trotting, especially along the narrow track above the river – cliff on one side, plummet to your doom on the other. Just before this we caught up and passed some slower, nervous riders, “Could you just walk please?” “No, sorry, he isn’t safe to walk here”. Once we made it safely to the next paddock I did try to walk but as soon as we stopped trotting Tigger immediately started to plunge and spin, the walking request rider saw what I meant and opted to stay well clear of us from then on!
However Tash and Tahi stuck with us like troopers and once we were on some farm tracks we were even starting to relax. Fatal! There was a killer gate leaning all innocent-like against the fence, 180 degree shy, horse no longer underneath me! It wasn’t even a spin really just a very good shy. Nothing damaged though so we continued on our way. I survived, we qualified.
Next outing was at Pikowai, 40km with Richard and Sparky. Now Tigger had only done a few very small stream crossings by this stage, he was doing ok but was in no way confident about them. This was the first ride at Pikowai so we didn’t know the course and thus had not prepared… for the river crossing from hell – Tigger’s opinion and one Sparky shared with him.
Not only is the river quite deep – girth level – but it is also a ford. So the bottom is concrete, which gives great footing sure, but it is raised to give a level drive through, so on the left is a waterfall. After much persuasion and following other horses Tigger and Sparky made their way into the river, got about half way across and then exploded out the other side in huge leaping bounds, nearly flattening the quad bike and rider up the road a bit! It was ok, between us Richard and I had two stirrups!
To make matters worse it was only a 20km track, and so we had to go around and do it again. Tigger stood at the top of the track down to the river crossing and shook. He was terrified. With much persuasion – and Sparky not being quite so traumatised – he was able to follow other horses across, wedged behind them in a safe non-bolting position. But he was scarred for life and to this day is likely to panic and spin if he hears running water. Sometimes he’s ok, sometimes he loses the plot, you get that with Tiggers!
Meanwhile Lace did 100km at Waitomo in February and then we had a 120 2* at Pukeatua. Because Waikato were running the ride I was on my horse one day and in the caravan doing vet-gate timing the next. Consequently Lisa would be riding Tigs in his second 40km on Sunday.
If you remember back to the Ngaroma NI Champs where George was on base having treatment for a sore eye and Lace had arrived and gone completely nuts, this was now the first time since then that she’d had a paddock mate on base, and it wasn’t pretty! Every time we came back to base at the end of a loop Lace would announce to the world “TIGGER I’M BACK, WHERE ARE YOU?” Strapping was a nightmare, she was neurotic and not paying attention at all. Perhaps she was in season, it is always hard to tell with Lace, and she was never that bad again. Thankfully after a few loops she started to get less fresh and better behaved!
However in spite of that we won the ride and later the Best Conditioned!
