Breaking in Three Young Horses in Backcountry NZ

Hi everyone! Come along for the ride while I take three unbroken horses into the backcountry of Marlborough, New Zealand with the aim to break them into saddle along the way. I'll have Sarah joining me riding my trusty steed Dash as our babysitters. We'll be tackling mud, rivers and plenty of big hills on some of the most stunning landscapes in Marlborough. This is my first time making a video and being on camera is definitely not a place I'm comfortable, so there's a lot to improve on, but I had fun and did really enjoy documenting this journey, so I hope you enjoy. If you don't know me already then I'm Sophie of Sophie's Horse Treks and behind me I have three young horses that I'm getting ready to break in. So the plan is to head out tomorrow for probably three days out to a hut and Hopefully break them in along the way. I brought these girls home a couple days ago so they've had some basic training now and are ready for me to get on. But they'll carry the packs for a start and I'll just walk while they settle in and then hopefully feel comfortable enough to get on one of them. Otherwise I'll just be getting really fit walking the whole way. Wish me luck. Hopefully I can get on them all and be riding them back home. Frosty start this morning but the sun is out now and And it's time to get ready to go. All right, we are just about ready to head off. Just going to get these packs onto Charlie, which might be slightly challenging. This is Charlie's first time with these packs on, and they can often be pretty uncertain about it. They only weigh about 15 kilos each, so it's a light load, but it's still a great way to get them used to having something on their back, which then makes my job a whole lot easier once it's my turn to get on. But Charlie coped really well, so we're off to a good start. We're ready to head off for three days out in the hills. Hopefully get the young horses broken in and make it back in one piece. That's about the only two goals. So far everything's been going well. We're about almost an hour in. Now we've just hit a really muddy patch so this could be our first obstacle. If I can make it through it first. Oh god that's deep. Oh my gosh my feet are just sinking. That was worse than I expected. I'm starting to speak. Alright, come on Vienna, someone's got to lead the way. Chose the wrong time to get the camera out, didn't they? Keep coming. Can't stop there. Nice. Alright, didn't have enough hands for that. Easy. Yeah, I've been walking and plan to hop on Cleo pretty shortly. We'll just get down this hill first and then it'll be phase two. Yeah, I don't want to walk through that mud. Don't. Tie this rope up and then I don't know who's going to lead the way through that. Should probably hop on Vienna, she's the one that's the happiest going through it. Phase two, you gotta let me get on. I'd usually try and pick a more inviting place than this to get on for that first ride but I think that mud would have swallowed me alive if I tried to walk through it. So basically the aim when I first get on is just to take my time, let the horse relax and settle in, make sure I can move their head, move their legs and then ask for a few quiet steps. And yeah, none of that happened here, so instead we just went straight off into the mud following Vienna, but at least Cleo was not worried about me being up there. Well that all went much quicker than planned. Come on, literally stuck in the mud. God, I'm sliding in it, keep going. Good girl, good, we're away. Don't run into the bush, you'll get a fright. Good girl, easy girl. Cleo just uh... Hold on and go with it kind of ride at the moment it seems, but I can roll with that. I was smiling too in case you couldn't tell there. Well we'll certainly be able to take mud off their skills list after this. I don't know if I've given the story on the breeding of all these horses but they are all related here. Dash and Charlie, the front two, are both by the same stallion. Vienna here is out of Dash's full sister. Cleo that I'm on is Dash's Granddaughter? That had a cold. Hit inside. Let's go here and that's the family tree. All right, second obstacle, water. I really love this method for breaking in young horses and I've used it on probably well over a hundred. It's not just about getting wet saddle blankets and tiring them out but giving them plenty of time to get used to me being up on their back. And also teaching them to cope with all the obstacles that you come across out there. They get to go out and go forward and generally just really enjoy themselves. And I think it's the best thing for them. Vienna does not know the way, but I like her attitude. She's pretty bold and happy out here. Dash has had enough to like her at home. It normally takes one hour to get here. Took us an hour and a half. So we follow this track along here for a while, drop back down to the creek and then we head straight up and that pine tree way up there is the point where we cross over and then we head out the back. That part usually takes two and a half hours but at the rate these guys are going it's bound to be much longer so I'm just hoping to get there before dark. Lovely big walnut trees here and now we are going up. Pretty good climb up here. These girls, while they haven't been ridden, have been out running on hills so they should be relatively fit. Now we've got Cleo here who's not used to having any weight on her back. I'll probably have to get off and walk a fair bit of this. We'll see how she goes. Running out of steam. Come on. Good. I'm not gonna make it. We'll have to walk then. Oh you've been such a champ. Come on. Where's she gone? I've left her. Did anything happen? No, she just stopped. We're most of the way up the steep bit of hill and the horses are really running out of steam, as am I. Been on foot for quite a while now, trying to be nice to Cleo, but we're almost there. View will be worth it from the top. Not sure who's sweating more, me or the horse, but we have finally made it up. Well done everyone! Okay. Swapping horses now. I'll get on Vienna. These packs have gone on to Cleo. So now we carry on we go down this hill and then up and over that one and up and over that one and the hut's just down back there. An hour maybe hour and a half. I feel like I'm walking on stilts now, this clay just sticks to your boots. I can't even get it off. Kind of better. Horse number two. It's a bit bigger, can you do it from the ground? Can you go? You know what's coming? Good girl. Oh. Okay. Okay. Good girl. You know, we've really done it from the ground, haven't we? Yeah. Good girl. Good girl. Don't forget to check your girth before you get on. For this time getting on Vienna went a bit more according to plan and we were able to play around for probably five minutes just bending and doing little circles before we tried to get going. Are we going? You're right. That's right. It's just not been so amazing, you kind of assume that you just hop on and go, not like two days, yeah it is kind of bizarre. Just go a few steps and then stop for me. Come on, I promise you can still move with me up here. Vienna was quite the opposite to Cleo here and wasn't too sure on finding that forward movement. So it took a while to get that momentum going, but once she figured out what it was I was wanting from her, she was away. And that's horse number two under saddle. Let's see. Good. Yeah, now we got it. Spotted the goats. All on high legs. Look, Leo. Too busy eating. Right. Who's brave? Gonna lead the way. They stink. Can you smell it? Yeah. Leo, now is not the time to try and push past us. We're on explicit. I'm getting tired and grumpy now. Look at those gears. It's not grumpy in me, it's just grumpy and Cleo getting too close. Cut these gates and I'm gonna be a paddock farmer. Home sweet home for the next few days. Freedom! So we'll get all our gear packed away. The fire lit but it's gonna be a cold one. And we're at the hut! I don't know about you but I'm feeling pretty exhausted. I probably walked half the way to give the young ones a break. And there's a few good hills in there. We're all feeling pretty tired I think. And even when you're riding them, I mean these young ones have never been ridden before so you've got to be pretty switched on the whole time really. But I'm super happy with how they all went. Charlie carried the packs the whole day so I'll take her out tomorrow and have a good ride on her. And yeah, successful day. Two thumbs up for that. Really happy. Good morning. We're off again. This time we've just got Dash and Charlie. We'll head right on out to the back. Off the property. Hopefully make it down to the river but I haven't actually been down there before. And I'll walk Charlie all the way down and then hopefully hop on and ride all the way back up. But we'll see how she goes. She's the more worried out of the three of them which is why I've left her till this last day. Carry on down but she just needs a bit of time to think about things really so hopefully we can go nice and slow and have no drama. Where I'm hoping to get to down the Have some lunch. I'm pretty sure this is the track. See if we can make it. I really wanted to get right down to the river. You can hear it down there but there's enough of a track. I think we had to follow the stock track to get down there which I'm guessing I'm on but it's pretty overgrown and slippery. Young horse with me. It's probably not gonna happen so this might be as far as we go. Lunch break and then try to get on Charlie and head back up the hill. Good lunch spot. To attempt to get on Charlie. She's a bit more worried than the the others so we will just be going really slowly. and see where she gets to. If I don't make it on today then that's fine. It'll just be a long walk up the hill for me. But we'll see how much she can handle and hopefully succeed. Safety first. So now that I've got the camera set up on me, you can see a bit more of the process that I use when I'm getting on these horses for the first time. So generally I'll just get up and down a couple of times and then just have one foot in the stirrup leaning across them and do a few circles so that they can get used to moving with my weight on them. And then I'll hop on, do the same thing, a few circles. In this case I use Dash as a way to get us moving forward so Charlie would just follow Dash around but she was listening really well, had good steering, good brakes and she was pretty happy with me up there so Felt pretty good to get going. Alright, first time on her back. Okay, next place is Charlie. That's not a bad spot to put a first ride on a horse, is it? I'm super happy with Charlie. She coped even better than I thought she would. But we'll just walk across the clearing now and um... Hop back on on the little trail and we should be good to ride up the hill. When I get on a horse for its first ride I do generally try and pick a spot that is enclosed like this track and the trees here. It just gives you one option essentially of the way to go. And also if you're going up a hill that's even more of a bonus. Well, essentially makes it harder for them to buck you off or they'll run out of steam sooner. That's the theory anyway, but in reality if you've done the right prep with them beforehand then you don't really have any issue once you get on them, but that's just my backup plan to be safe. And we've made it back up the hill. I didn't have to walk at all, which was amazing. Charlie did perfect. And coming to the end of day two and it's been another Really good day. Charlie had her first ride. You never quite know how those are going to go. It's all quite unknown. So to make it back in one piece without drama is always a pretty amazing win. Which we managed to do. So really happy with that. Tonight's a bit warmer than it was last night. Even with the fire cranking in here yesterday we could still see our breath and it was a cold night. So we're feeling a lot better today. We should be pretty toasty in here. And then get packed up in the morning and head back home. Always sad to see these trips end, but it's so good! Just about packed up at the hut, and horses look ready. Hey Dash, home time. Cleaning up last for the breakfast. I decided to stick with the same system for the ride home, putting the packs on Charlie, just to keep it simple. And then Vienna was my pick to ride for the first stretch, because that's where the biggest hills are, and she's the strongest out of the other ones. And we're off again. It took us about five and a half hours on the way out to get to the hut but hopefully on the way home everyone will know their jobs and it'll all run a bit quicker and smoother and we'll get back hopefully closer to four hours. It's still just so muddy here. And we're back at the top of the hill, making good time today, the girls all seem to know what they're doing pretty well but we'll stop here for a bit of lunch, give the girls a break And then I'll swap on to Cleo and ride her the last couple of hours home. I'm walking the whole way down the hill and I'm kind of looking forward to getting on. These girls don't have shoes on, so the stony ground is a bit hard on their feet, so I'm trying to be kind to her by walking down and I'll get on and ride the last hour and a bit and take home. Anyway, I'm going to attempt to film Mystic on Cleo, she's the boldest out of all of them so hopefully she doesn't mind, but if I come off when this is hanging down around her face somewhere, I blame you guys. I hadn't been filming using the camera on the stick before this point just because with young horses it could be something quite scary for them. And things can get a bit unpredictable in these early stages and I thought I'd better play it safe and keep both hands firmly on the steering wheel. Leo loves the sword. He does not care about anything. We got stuck for a while trying to get Charlie across the last river crossing. She's obviously been through plenty of water before this point so it was just a combination of her getting pretty tired and also being barefoot, her feet getting a bit sore on the stones and she really did not want to move. Come on Charlie! Charlie is stuck. I might need to get off and help. But I ended up finding a handy second use for the camera and we got her in the water eventually and back on her way. I'm going to rock the top. We're probably 45 minutes from home now. Last hill to climb up. The girls are getting pretty tired. We're on the final leg of our journey now, just a few corners away from home. Hopefully I'm not too early in celebrating, but these horses are all just done. So amazing, really proud of all of them. It was a pretty big undertaking bringing three of them out here. I did get called mad to be bringing three of them when I could have just been doing one or two at a time but I do like a challenge so it's been good fun. Certainly a lot to juggle especially when I decided to attempt to film this whole journey as well. So I've been trying to three horses. Awesome. And camera, everything. It's been a lot. I hope that's all worked out and I can put some of this footage together. I haven't been able to see any of it so I have no idea if any of this has turned out or what it's gonna look like. So we'll see what happens, see what I can put together and hopefully it's worth watching for everybody. And they're home. Well they've just realised they're home. Vienna is off. I know, I was so comfy, I was so excited. Made it, we made it back. Feed some hay out for them, get everything put away and it's been a great trip. Yeah, they're a bit slow. Tired, understandably. Good job, darling.