We are excited to introduce KARAKA AND TANESHA THOMPSON, the first of our 15 combinations that will be competing in the ULTRA-MOX STALLIONS AND PROFESSIONALS competition at Equidays.
Karaka is 14.2hh and 10 years old. He was named due to his very orange colour, Karaka meaning orange in Maori. Although initially challenging, this Kaimanawa stallion soon found reassurance in Tanesha and has gone on to become a very trainable and willing partner.
Just 5 1/2 weeks after he arrived Tanesha rode him for the first time. Since then he has been gelded and enjoyed a three-week holiday in the paddock to recover. It is now 13 weeks since the muster and Karaka is confident to walk, trot and canter under saddle. He recently attended his first show; Tanesha’s original plan was to just take him along for the outing but Karaka was so calm she entered him in the in-hand and ridden green horse class and he came home with reserve champion.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe Karaka was running wild just three months ago! The KHH team is very thankful for the time and love Tanesha has invested into this mature stallion and we will be keeping you updated on their progress in the lead up to Equidays!
ABOUT TANESHA (of Kaimanawa Krazy):
Tanesha Thompson has been involved in horses all her young life, but started working with the Kaimanawa horses in 2012 when her mother took on three mares and foals from the muster. Tanesha ‘stole’ one of the foals from the yards and trained her as her own. Then one of the mares, Rosie, took her eye! So, after Rosie had her initial handling and had the foal she was carrying, Tanesha took over her handling and started her under saddle. Despite Tanesha’s young age, the challenge of working with the wild horses had bitten her and she has handled Kaimanawa horses every muster since, taking Chester from the 2016 muster to Equidays as part of the 2016 Kaimanawa Stallion Challenge. Chester was a challenge and still is special to this day. But Tanesha managed to get him to Equidays under saddle and completed the competition on him. Her current Stallion Karaka is different in every way to Chester.
Tanesha tries to work with her horses as naturally as possible, riding all her horses bitless and keeping them all barefoot. She has watched many different people working with horses and taken a little from each to make her own methods of training. But each horse is treated as an individual and each training session is different to suit.
This year as well as karaka, Tanesha has started an older mare from the 2018 muster under saddle and has worked with another older stallion from the same muster who was proving difficult to settle to domestic life. Her stallion from 2018 is Teddy, who has half of his ears missing, and he is proving to be a calm sensible little horse under saddle.
