Taking reins to victory

Kaipara Flats horsewoman Melissa Kelsey has proved she can hold her own against professional trainers, winning the Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation Stallion Challenge at Equifest on her first attempt.

The 32-year-old, who works full time as a manager at Warkworth Pak’nSave, took the top honours with her stallion Ngaro and finished third overall with her second horse, Carbine.

She was the only competitor to enter two horses in the challenge, making her achievement all the more remarkable.

“Walking into that arena at Equifest was already a dream come true, but walking away with the win is something I will carry with me forever,” Melissa says.

“I don’t have the words to explain how much this means to me, but I guess some dreams are worth every single moment it takes to get there.”

The Stallion Challenge tests the skills of trainers who are randomly assigned wild Kaimanawa stallions and given just five-and-a-half months to prepare them for competition.

At Equifest, the horses and their trainers are judged on a set horsemanship pattern, a freestyle performance to music incorporating props, and an obstacle course.

Melissa was assigned two rising five-year-old stallions with very different backgrounds.

Ngaro was a bachelor stallion who had never previously been documented or seen in the wild, while Carbine had led his own band of mares.

For Melissa, who has been riding since she was four, the competition was the culmination of years of dedication to horses.

She acquired her first Kaimanawa horse in 2014 and finished third in the Kaimanawa Colt Challenge last year with a horse named Archie.

But balancing her passion for training horses with a full time job has meant long hours and plenty of sacrifices.

“This journey has been so much more than training horses or preparing for a competition. It has been about patience, trust, determination and believing in what is possible, even on the days when things felt impossibly hard,” she says.

“Every moment spent with my two horses was worth it. They have challenged me, taught me, humbled me and given me more than I could ever have imagined.”

Melissa says she is grateful to the many people who helped her achieve her long-held ambition.

“None of this would have been possible on my own. This is a dream realised, a journey I will never forget, and two horses who will always have a very special place in my heart.”

The Kaimanawa Legacy Foundation is a non-profit charity dedicated to protecting wild Kaimanawa horses, promoting gentle training methods, developing trainers and finding suitable homes for horses removed from the wild.