{"id":290637,"date":"2026-02-18T22:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290637\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T22:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:56:12","slug":"farmer-revives-horse-sports-in-far-north-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290637\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmer revives horse sports in Far North community"},"content":{"rendered":"

Far North farmer Robert Everitt is on a mission to return horse sports to Te Kao\u2019s local scene. <\/p>\n

More than a hundred people turned up at an event he organised and hosted on his farm over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re trying to bring something back, like back in the late 80s,” says Everitt of Te Aup\u014duri. <\/p>\n

“We used to have a big horse sports day at Te Rangi Station, and it just died all away. [So] to get all these young ones back on the horse is awesome. We got all ages here, the next generation, even the little wee ones. It’s cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Supporter and kaum\u0101tua Apiata Paraone said horses once played an essential part in everyday rural life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHoki ng\u0101 mahara (I think back to) way back in the day [when a] horse was our main resource, main transport\u2026 I think when I was a kid everyone knew how to ride a horse cause on our farms they had no quads, had no bikes so a horse was the main transport to getting around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paraone added: “Kids are being brought up in a different culture and in different ways, and a lot of that horse stuff sort of disappeared and died, and it’s good to see the likes of Robert trying to revive the horse riding around our young ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Source: Te Karere)<\/p>\n

Horse sports at the event included obstacle course, barrel and pulling races, as well as horse rescue where riders had to pick up partners in a race.<\/p>\n

Rider Aramaera Wiki said it was great for wh\u0101nau: \u201cKo te painga he akiaki i ng\u0101 taitamariki, o t\u0101tou nei wh\u0101nau, kia kake h\u014diho ng\u0101 kaupoi. N\u0101 reira, \u0101e, he r\u0101 tino pai t\u0113nei m\u014d m\u0101tou.\u201d<\/p>\n

(“What\u2019s good about it is that it encourages young kids, our own families, to ride like cowboys. So, yes, it\u2019s a great day for us.”)<\/p>\n

\"Rider<\/p>\n

Rider goes through obstacle course. (Source: Te Karere)<\/p>\n

For Everitt, the goal is to instil a love of riding and competition into future generations and grow keen horse riders. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis will end up being an annual thing. I’ve got young boys that are in their 30s – they’re keen to carry it on. They’re here today and I know they’ll carry it on. Gimme two more years and [then] they can run the reins. It’ll be all up to them. They’ll keep it alive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Far North farmer Robert Everitt is on a mission to return horse sports to Te Kao\u2019s local scene.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[161135,12553,4432,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-290637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-hakinakina","tag-iwi-hapu","tag-maori-issues","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}