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I tend to
always wonder who's behind a
web page.... Well, you don't have to
wonder who's behind this one! May
I present: the horses and humans of 'Gaited Horses Down Under'!
The Horses
First
things first! Since this whole web page is about gaited horses, I
should
really introduce the horses first. Besides, their fotos are a lot nicer
than those of the humans involved!
| Tiquita. I found my beautiful girl
sort of by accident. I had been looking for a gaited horse for quite a
while when I found a purebred Peruvian gelding for sale on Narrawin's
home page. I actually wanted a mare, but hey, that fellow was a
purebred Peruvian, so I figured I should at least have a look. I went
to check him out - and that's when I met Tiquita. She's not purebred
and she's probably the grumpiest and most opinionated horse I've ever
met, but I wouldn't trade her for any other horse, purebred or
not! Wantadilla Tiquita, her official name, was bred by Yvonne Lehey in the Adelaide Hills. She's out of a gaited Arabian mare (Miss Teak) by a Peruvian stallion (Paco), therefore qualifies as a 'Paso Creole'. Before bringing her to Queensland, I started her under saddle and had her bred to Precioso, one of Chris Yeardley's Peruvian stallions. As with most things, Tiquita had her own ideas about the date of birth: she had a beautiful colt on Boxing Day 2004, almost 3 weeks early... |
 Tiquita after a good roll |
 Henna |
Henna. In her 'former life' Henna
used to be a harness racing horse. Under the name of Paint Brush she
won a whopping $29 in pace races. I think that's when her trainer and
owners decided that a change in career might be in order. Fortunately
they contacted the Standardbred Association Queensland (SAQ) instead of
sending her straight to the
knackery. Around that time I had already found my horse, but we were
still looking for a gaited horse for Gerald and had signed up with
SAQ for adoption of a Standardbred. They told us they'd contact us
when a
suitable horse would come along.... On the way to work we used to drive past training stables near our place and I always admired the beautiful bay in the paddock closest to the road. Guess what! That bay turned out to be Henna, recovering from a strained tendon! On Easter Saturday 2004 I got a call from SAQ telling me about two mares available for adoption, on Easter Sunday we had a look at both of them, and on Easter Monday Henna stepped off the truck at our place. Talk about the Easter Bunny/Bilby dropping off a present! |
| Bendecido. Before I brought Tiquita
to Queensland I had her bred to Precioso, one of Chris Yeardley's
Peruvian Paso stallions. Well, this is the result! Bendecido (the
blessed one) was born on the 26th of December 2004 - what better day
for a
horse to be born on than on St. Stephen's, patron saint of horses. As
soon as he could walk it was quite clear that he'll be hard work for
Tiquita: she had to follow this inquisitive little fellow, not the
other way round. 4 hours after birth he showed trot and
sobreandando, with a bit of paso llano in between - although he clearly
preferred to canter. At the moment (end of August) it's mostly gallop,
with bouts of trot in between. Or various aires and twists above
ground. And he is more curious than
ever! Tiquita is by now more than happy for him to wander off and seems
to enjoy the quiet time when he does... |
 Tiquita and Bendecido (about 8h old) |
The Humans
Time to
introduce the people, too!
 Gerald & Henna on their first ride |
Gerald. Gerald sort of got thrown in
on
the deep end, as it happens to most partners of horsepeople, I guess.
His first 'proper' horse experience was a lovely trail ride in Austria
on
a quiet, old Icelandic. Both of them did really well! But other than
the
odd ride every couple of months and being dragged off to various horsey
places, Gerald's riding career was a rather slow one.
When I
started looking for a property and horses here in Australia, he didn't
protest too much - maybe he knew that it would have been invain anyway.
Fortunately Henna did the rest: Gerald instantly fell in love with her!
Gerald now rides Henna every now and
then (as in: once every two months, maybe), has also started to take
riding lessons - and generally puts
up with me and my horse priorities! |
| Manu. I have always been horse
crazy, as my parents will attest. I started my riding career in Austria
on non-gaited horses, doing mainly dressage, a bit of jumping and trail
rides whenever I had the chance. I also used to visit a couple of
Icelandic horses that lived in a paddock close to our home. And one day
I met
the owner. At that stage she and her family had about 20 horses, all
Icelandics, but she was usually the only one who had time to ride them.
That chance encounter turned out to be the best thing that could have
happened to me, and I'm not only talking about 'discovering' gaited
horses! For the next almost 10 years I not only got to ride sometimes
several horses a day, but also gained first hand experience with pretty
much everything horsey, from mares in labour to strangles epidemics to
starting youngsters. I met other Icelandic breeders and trainers, went
to a couple of World Championships, got introduced to TREC and just
thoroughly enjoyed the time! And then I came to Australia to do my PhD
- no more horses for quite some time! Once the PhD was done I figured
it was time to persue my dream again: to breed and train gaited horses. |
 Tiquita & me shortly after she arrived in Queensland |
The Surroundings
 Henna & Tiquita in the backyard |
In 2004 we
bought a 5 acre property about 40 minutes out of
Brisbane. Since we both work in the city, that was about as far
'country' as we wanted to go at this stage. The setup is still rather
basic (for example the 'dressage arena' is a slightly sloping paddock),
but hey, it works! However, we soon found out that with the still prevailing dry conditions in Australia, hand feeding is a must for a big part of the year when you're on five acres without irrigation. Keeping my eyes open for something bigger while waiting for my Gold Lotto win to finance it.... |
Drop me a
line on ozgaitedhorses@yahoo.com.au!