News - Kaitake Sport Pony Stud - New Zealand Sport Pony Breeders - warmblood-bred ponies for dressage, jumping, eventing and hunting - warmblood-bred ponies for dressage, jumping, eventing and hunting

Onetai Champagne and Onetai Gem (pictured at left) both had fillies. Maree Bryant, who owns and runs Onetai with her husband, Alistar, also have their own stallion, but have used Tahi to diversify their bloodlines.

Poppy has been sold to the Sorrensons in New Plymouth, who once used to breed the Gold Dust line. So far they are extremely happy with her.

Tahi has a good work ethic and is settling to his life out and about quite quickly. He is behaving well out and appears to learn quickly, showing patience. The showjumping day was in an area where there were boxes but quite a distance from the rings. Due to co-ordinating the rounds with the other horses being ridden by Mathew meant I elected to stand Tahi in the truck near the rings while he was not competing. Tahi behaved himself extremely well for over 4 1/2 hours before we headed for home.

The day was extremely windy with jumps falling down. Tahi jumped without fuss and appeared very un-phased by the jumps including most fills which he has not viewed before. His attitude to his work to date is very pleasing as he is not yet five until the end of December.

Tahi also had a lesson with Michael Putz, recently, which was held at Vanessa Way's property, Taranaki.

Tahi at the NZ SPORT HORSE PROMOTION BOARD ANNUAL ALL BREEDS STALLION PARADE held at CAMBRIDGE LODGE SUNDAY 26 AUGUST
Pictures by Barbara Thomson

Tahi and Elsa Wrathall at Tielcey Park.
Photo: Cassandra Power

Tahi attended Tielcey Park Dressage at the beginning of June. He competed in the preliminary classes on both the Saturday and Sunday against the hacks as he had an adult rider. One of the judges commented on his nice paces and that they would improve more as he develops as he is only four. We were very pleased with his performance considering it was really his first official outing and competition.

On the first day he came second in one of his tests and managed to place in the top 10 horses for the rest of the weekend which was well above the first half in all the classes.

He has since competed at a local dressage competition in Hawera and received a 3rd placing and fourth placing again against hacks in the preliminary classes. He has scored in the majority of his tests above 60% with his two most recent tests being 65.9% and 62.4%.

He will be competing in showhunter this coming weekend and we are really keen to see how he goes as he has a real natural ability with jumping and a very good technique. He seems to be coping well with other horses around and manages to settle to his work once he realises what is expected of him.

We are just in the throws of completing a round arena and will be starting to break some of the younger stock in. Sirsimmo will be broken in first and we will proceed to start working more with Stella and Poppy. All of the offspring are looking particularly good and have that good strong bone passed down from their Sire. Stella in particular we believe is a really stunning filly with the most amazing nature. She is big and strong with lovely markings and a beautiful kind eye, we think she is rather special and exactly the type we have aimed for when breeding.

Spring has been gelded and is showing the same lovely nature. He has inherited his dam's beautiful paces but also has that really good strong bone and shape plus the nature.

Riley is still at this stage a colt but is showing no signs of it as yet. He too has the kindest nature and really good bone. All of the offspring are in good health and are very low maintenance.

Daisy Mae and Portia are the only two in foal this season as we though we have given Foxy a break after Riley as he was a large foal and born late in the season.

Kaitake Tuatahi was presented for Classification for the NZWHA Studbook as a Sport Pony Stallion on March 4 at Abderry Equine. The classification panel consisted of judges from both New Zealand and Germany.

We are pleased to announce that he passed his classification with very good feedback from the senior German judge who supports the selective breeding of sport ponies to provide capable and sensible mounts for our children to enjoy.

Kaitake Tuatahi's overall score combining conformation, movement and general impression was 78.0% out of a possible 100%. Tahi scored extremely well in the jumping technique and jumping scope. He also made an overall good general impression and scored highly for his temperament.

The judging panel was impressive in both the cumulative and individual knowledge evident in their understanding of the conformation, ability and temperament necessary to produce suitable offspring.

The feedback was delivered in an informative and extremely professional manner with all facets of the stallions presented being evaluated and discussed.

We at Kaitake Stud are grateful to the NZWHA for organizing this opportunity and providing such an excellent venue and judging panel.

This is a first for New Zealand as Tuatahi is the only New Zealand bred Warmblood Sport pony stallion.

Goldilocks foaled on December 21 and produced a very small and quite weak filly who developed pneumonia in the unusually cold conditions for that time of year. She unfortunately developed complications related to feeding and the pneumonia. She died on Christmas day of all days. We named her Flower. She was a little bay and very tiny apparently like her mother was as a foal.