The best horse riding tours in Canterbury’s High Country in winter

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Midwinter is a beautiful time to experience the Canterbury Backcountry by horseback.Photo / Supplied

Midwinter is one of the most beautiful times of the year to experience the Canterbury Backcountry by horseback, writes Roisin Magee

Aotearoa New Zealand was built on the back of the horse. The first horses were imported by a missionary in 1814 and were quickly being used for transport, farming and even kept in underground stables to work in mines. Of course, after automobiles were introduced, horse numbers began to dwindle, but in the more rugged and remote places where hillsides slipped and rivers flooded, the animals remained an important part of the rural landscape until the 1960s. Even today there are farmers who still use horses and some who like to give young farmhands a horse to "bring on" because they understand what Winston Churchill meant when he said, "there is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man".

Horses clung on in the Canterbury high country as long as anywhere else. Mona Anderson's wildly popular book A River Rules My Life starts with her wedding presents being loaded on a horse-drawn wagon – a "huge, clumsy old conveyance drawn by five great draught horses" as she put it. In fact, when Mona arrived on Mount Algidus Station as a new bride in 1940, only "Dirty Dora" the chaff cutter was mechanised – "Everything and everybody that came or went was carried or carted by horses."

Mount Algidus is only one of a patchwork tapestry of high-country "runs" or stations that sit in the shadow of the Southern Alps. If you stand at the top of Peak Hill, a popular local lookout, you can look across the Wilberforce to Mount Algidus Station, dwarfed by the enormous Rolleston Range, and up the Rakaia to Mānuka Point Station, now an international hunting lodge. Turn around and you can look South across the Rakaia to Mount Hutt with its ski fields and Southwest to Black Hill Station and the Black Hill Range, which was exactly where we were headed on a cold midwinter weekend.

Our starting point was Lake Coleridge village, the site of one of New Zealand's first hydro-electric schemes. The station was built to power Christchurch and still operates today. This little settlement on the southeastern shores of the lake is home to husband-and-wife team James and Deb Cagney and their 14 horses.

James was born in the McKenzie Basin, moving to Hokitika Gorge when he was 7. After starting his career in the RNZAF he has spent much of his life in the backcountry. He gained most of his early horse experience in British Columbia, where horses are used for hunting and camps are so remote that guides have to be very self-sufficient. As a result, James is not just a capable rider – he can also shoe the horses and is an old hand at packing.

The trip began with a safety briefing before we carefully packed the hard plastic cases with our supplies for the overnight stay. James explained how important it was to pack carefully; a static load in the form of a pack is much harder for the horses to carry than a dynamic load like a rider. We then loaded the Land Rover and drove up the hill to the forestry block where the horses run as a herd. The saddle horses were tacked up first so that the pack horses didn't have to stand with their loads for too long and this provided the opportunity for James to give the beginner in the group a quick riding lesson. Squeeze your legs for go, hold the reins still for stop and open the rein in the direction you want to turn… bingo! The magic of these horses is that they are very experienced. They know their jobs so well that all the rider has to do is sit quietly and let them get on with it.

With everything neat and loaded, we mounted up and rode through the village past the power station down to the Rakaia. We travelled along the bank of the river for a little way, before cutting through scrub on to the banks of the river itself to look out to a huge open valley and rushing ice-blue glacial melt, framed by 2000m-high snowy peaks on each side.

The Rakaia is one of Canterbury's unique braided rivers, which means it has multiple shifting channels and banks but also varying flows. This was our second attempt at making this trip, as heavy rains on the West Coast had earlier meant the river was running very high and had been too dangerous to cross. We followed James carefully through one or two channels before crossing the main body of water. Even with the river at normal levels, the flow was quite disconcerting; you could feel quite some force pushing against the body of your horse and it was easy to become disorientated looking at the water as it eddied around the animal's legs. Not something I would have liked to try without a guide as experienced as James. As the horses climbed out on to the stony riverbed again, we looked back and laughed at the odd routes the packhorses were taking; they were obviously much less bothered by the river than we were.

Leaving the river behind, we rode past the station buildings and joined an old packhorse track that wound steeply through a gully. The weather had been a little cold and foggy when we set off, but as the horses leant in and worked steadily to carry us up the hill, the fog drew in around us. James explained that the musterers would have ridden up this track to push the stock down the hill and it was easy to see how useful the horses would have been. As the track climbed higher, we began to see the odd patch of snow and then we suddenly popped out of the fog into clear sky. There was a decent bit of snow on the ground and the view back down the valley was spectacular.

Our little pack train continued to the hut, where Deb met us with snacks, cold beers and a warm fire. The horses dropped and rolled happily in the snow, before galloping off together to find their dinner. James cooked up venison sausages and mash and we sat and chatted, swapping stories and enjoying the fire late into the evening.

The next day, after an enormous fry-up, we caught the horses, repacked and rode back through the station down to the river and back to the home paddock.

Take warm clothes, gloves and a waterproof jacket. Most of the rides James offers are in mountainous terrain and the weather can change very quickly. Merino base layers are a great idea. Sensible shoes are a must – walking boots are ideal as you may need to walk your horse across rough ground. James can provide helmets.

We trekked in midwinter, which can make the weather a little more unpredictable, but also offers incredible views of snow-capped mountains. It was snowing in the morning when we woke up in our little hut, which added to the fun. You will need to book in advance.

GETTING THERE

Air NZ and Jetstar both fly direct from Auckland to Christchurch.

Lake Coleridge village is an easy 90-minute drive from Ōtautahi Christchurch on good roads.

DETAILS

James and Deb offer a variety of guided treks from short day rides to epic multi-day adventures. horsetreklakecoleridge.co.nz

For more activities and information about the area, visit lakecoleridge.co.nz

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