Wednesday 23 March 2016

Save The Kaimanawa!



Hey Guys so today this post is SUPER urgent and needs to be shared around if you live in NZ, even if you live in another country you can be of a big help.

So I don't know how many you know of the Kaimanawa wild horses and the muster that happens yearly in New Zealand, but this year the muster has been brought forward, which has left the people of New Zealand a little unprepared.

100 Kaimanawas have been mustered, as of now 15 have been assigned homes and 85 are in need of homes or they get sent off on the slaughter truck.
I'm not just talking the elderly and sick, I'm talking pregnant mares and foals!

These horses are so beautiful and intelligent and have so much potential and need to be rescued.
I am going to try my hardest to help them out but realistically I can't help them all, that's why they need YOUR help.

If you have the experience and facilities to house a Kaimanawa PLEASE consider adopting one, or two or like 85! c:
If you can't adopt there is always sponsoring which helps them out a whole bunch as well.


Please help out these beautiful horses, lets try to rehome as many as we can, share this around and make the horse lover world aware of these horses needing homes.



Friday 18 March 2016

To Tackless or Not to Tackless

Hey Guys!

I'm back, as promised! And I am soo excited because my natural horsemanship tack arrived a wee while ago and it is fabulous!

I love, my horse loves it! Everyone is happy.
Before I start talking why my new tack and gear is so amazing I am going to talk a little bit about the company.

Natural Horse NZ

So Natural Horse NZ is a New Zealand horse rescue centre. The are un-funded so they make amazing tack and gear and sell it as a way to raise profits to support their organization. 

I have always been highly interested in Natural Horsemanship and it was a great opportunity for me to help a cause that is close to my heart and get some cool gear. 
What Natural Horse NZ does is truly amazing, they rescue neglected and abused horses and train them and bring them back to their former glory and then re-home them to carefully chosen homes.
Without the support of the public they wouldn't be able to do what they are doing today.

If you live in NZ it would be really great if you could sign their petition to the NZ government to ensure that there are more centers like Natural Horse NZ made available to neglected and abused horses, but it goes wider than NZ too, there are many neglected animals not only horses in the world, but not enough centres available to them, by signing this petition hopefully we can speak for the animals that can't and start a chain reaction to other countries.
Help them get the second chance that they deserve.


If you did take a minute to sign the petition THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Now you guys are probably wondering what the title "To Tackless or Not to Tackless" has got to do with any of this.

So as I said I bought some gear from NHNZ, a Aqua and Black fleck rope halter and clip on rope rein set and a cordeo. The quality is amazing like I'm not even kidding and the price is actually not too expensive and it is towards a great cause. I was very happy with my order and Specs loves it too!

I bought the rope halter and clip on rope reins to use as a bitless bridle and also an easy bridle for when I'm too lazy for putting on a bridle, it's great in winter when you just clip the reins on to your horses halter, jump on and off you go! 
I personally am I HUGE fan of rope halters, I feel like my horses are more comfortable wearing them and I have seen the results. If you have read about my mare Specs you probably know by now she is notorious for breaking bridles and halters, the amount of halters I've gone through with her is shocking. When I first got her I didn't realize that she had never been taught to tie up, and need I say more. Web halters I find she will break within a couple of days, and this isn't even tying up, she can be quite hard to catch at times so I leave a halter on and she always manages to lose the web ones, but then I tried a rope halter and it works like a charm. She use to have bald patches from the web halters rubbing (Yes they were the correct size) but with the rope halters I find that they are amazing, they don't rub or break easily. Yes, people will be saying "Your horse could get caught on a fence of tree, then what would you do". I have been using rope halters for 4 years now, on various different horses I have had, and I have never encountered this issue. If I do, then I'll let you know. 

Don't get me wrong, I still use Web halters but you will find the only time I will use one is A. at a show or B. travelling or C. I can't find my rope halters.

Now onto my rope reins, I LOVE EM! 
My first introduction to rope reins was 2 years ago and my friend used them on her pony. At that stage, I didn't wear horse riding gloves so the web or leather reins were the worst. But the rope reins are so nice to hold and you really feel like you have a great grip.

Now onto the cordeo. If you don't know what a cordeo is, it is a round rope that goes around your horses neck and is used in tackless riding, 
It is used as a guide, quite like reins to help your horse understand which way you want to turn, they also help assist your horse to stop. 

I would be very surprised if you have not heard of tackless riding, as it is the current rave in the Equestrian  world. Our very own NZ star, Alicia Burton has brought it to the spotlight as she rides her horse Classic Goldrush over high jumps with only a cordeo to guide him.

To ride with a Cordeo your horse must have very good trust in you, and you in him\her.
Also your horse must be sensitive to simple commands such as clicking to speed up and woah or whatever word you use to slow down.
I do not advise riding your horse in a cordeo until you have mastered those simple key commands.

So the other day I decided to take Specs for a spin with the cordeo.
I have never used one on her before, but she is very sensitive to bridles and bitless bridles. I have ridden her around the paddock with no reins at all before, but I haven't been able to turn her.

I started off in the safety of my paddock.
She took to it like a duck to water. The key to tackless riding is to use the cordeo as reins.
If I wanted her to turn left I would apply the pressure  of the cordeo on the right and open up the left and shift my weight to the right. I also found from using the cordeo that you get a much more responsive stop than with the bridle.

After a few days I took Specs out into a large paddock, I was putting my complete  trust in her. 
But I had nothing to fear, she loved it, she was so happy.
No halter or anything, just the rope.

I really enjoy tackless riding as I feel like my horse is happier because of it and our trust is getting stronger in each other.

If you do choose to use a cordeo and try tackless riding, I would recommend starting off in a small yard, don't try anything too extreme until you and your horse are comfortable. 
Well I hope you guys enjoyed this!
Cya











Sunday 13 March 2016

These Days

Hey guys and girls!

Sorry it has taken this long to get a post to you, it has been yet again busy.
You are going to have to realize that I can't always make the deadline for posts as I set as I still have to live my life, and life doesn't always go to plan.

So what has happened?

Well Horse of The Year 2016 has been and gone and I think it is safe to say that it was one of the best weekends Opal and I have encountered! Just the atmosphere and the people was great.
There is nothing better than being somewhere with thousands of people that share the same passion for horses as you!

It was truly a great experience and the horses and riders were amazing, as could be expected at such a level.

There were horse shops for millllllllleeeeeees. 
I honestly was not aware of how many horse\tack shops we have in New Zealand, its crazy!
But I did a heap of shopping for Cas.

Oh yeah, by the way in case you are wondering who Cas is.
He was formerly called Nevada but I changed it to Castiel (Cas for short) because I think it is better fitting. Speaking of Castiel, due to being busy that weekend, breaking him in has been postponed till after easter, so we are talking the first week of April currently. My fingers are crossed because I can't wait to see him and get some shots of him for you guys!

Back to my HOY haul. 
I bought two exactly alike saddle blankets because you can never just have one, am I right people?
I also bought a beautiful black bridle, it was a little pricey but I'm sure Cas will love it, as a show bridle. I also bought myself a jumping whip, a new helmet, some jodhpur boots and socks. 
And a signed Singlet from Free Riders.

Alicia Burton!

Omg Opal and I saw Alicia Burton and Classic Goldrush in the flesh!
It was the most exciting thing ever! 






Opal and I really admire Alicia Burton and her way with horses and it was so cool to see her in person, Classic Goldush was way bigger than I imagined but he was beautiful, we watched as people took photos with them and Goldrush performing tricks for the audience. It was great.

Next guess which NZ favorites we saw amongst the HOY crowd..

That's right!!!

THE WILSON SISTERS!!!
Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to meet or say hello to them, but seeing them in person was amazing. And we watched from the sidelines as Amanda and Cassanova showed the crowd what they are made of as the soared around the jumping course.

Overall Horse of The Year was a brilliant experience and we can't wait to go back for 2017 and one day compete there!

  On to my next news!

I have a Youtube channel called JustJaz
Which will be featured on the side of the blog.
I try to post as regularly as I can but it does take a while to get enough clips to create a full video.
I do appreciate the audiences support of Subscribing, Liking and commenting.
Also letting me know what you want to see more of :)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7v9YDmtRYDpEt4BjFQQm5g/videos

Also if you are a big facebook user like me...

https://www.facebook.com/JustJaz-1562906477313865/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
Go like my Youtube Facebook page for updates 

Thanks for your support guys and hope to hear from you!

Saturday 20 February 2016

Sorry About the Lack Of Posts

Hey Everyone!

I'm really sorry I haven't been posting anything in ages, its just life has been busy and I honestly don't know what to post about, so maybe you guys and girls could help me out by commenting below what you would like to see more of on Horse Buzz!
It would help us out a lot so we can write posts that interest YOU.

So some interesting events that are coming up that you will be seeing posted on here are:

Horse Of The Year 2016, yes Horse of The Year is coming up and its one of the biggest equine events in New Zealand, the best riders from around the country are coming together to ride at a week long equine event. Sound like heaven to you? I know its heaven for me.
So you will most likely see snippets of HOY and my little shopping spree which I plan on doing for my beloved Nevada.

Which brings me to the next topic that you will be seeing posted on here..

NEVADA! In a couple weekends time I shall be backing my new horse with the help of a family friend, so there hopefully will be pictures and maybe even some videos.
So i'll keep you posted!

I'm sure once Nevada comes home you will be seeing a lot of progression posts, and of course we also have my beloved Specs and Stanley! 

Another reason why I haven't posted in a while is that I have just been and still low key am recovering from an accident (YES HORSE RELATED).

So naughty me forgot her helmet one morning when I went to work on the farm mustering some cattle to take home. Long story short, I was riding Stanley and a Calf wouldn't get off the bank of the side of the road, so I rode Stanley on the bank to make the calf move, when I turned Stanley around to go back on the road, there was a lowkey ditch in front of us. Now before I continue you have to know that Stanley isn't a jumper, I don't ever expect him to jump anything and he doesn't even try (Ask Opal if you don't believe me), but Stanley decided he was going to be a Grand Prix show jumper and did this massive jump over the ditch. It took me by surprise I must admit, and slightly unseated me, what made me actually fall off was that I thudded in the saddle which spooked Stanley, which caused him to bolt, which caused me to fall off backwards onto the road.

Dun dun dun!!

Yea, I split\cut the back of my head and I'm not even being dramatic when I say blood was literally pouring out of my head. EW.

Should've seen my mother's face when she saw me ahha.

Anyway...

I had a mild concussion and had to go to A & E for stitches. 
That happened on the 1st of Feb, 5 days before my birthday, the joy.

I haven't been on a horse since, not because I'm scared simply because Mother won't allow it quite yet. 

Now before people jump to conclusions and start bashing me for not wearing a helmet. 

1. Whether you choose to wear a helmet or not, the decision is simply up to the person riding. Although I do advise it, and did actually forget it that day and I ride around quite a bit without one so it wasn't a biggy for me. 

2. If I had been wearing my helmet that day my injuries would have been far worse, including the possibility of a broken neck simply because the way I had fell, with a helmet it couldve snapped my neck.

~~~~~~~~~~~

So to top my story off, I do advise wearing a helmet if you are on a road, doing something your horse is not used to , riding somewhere where it is unfamiliar or riding a horse that you don't know,

I personally feel safer without a helmet on, but that is my opinion.
 But riding on the road with a helmet is advised, Because falling onto hard surfaces hurts a hell load more than grass.

Well I hope everyone has learnt something, I know I have!
Have a great month and watch this space!