"Stallions are pretty dangerous to work with if you don't know them."
When he first met the horses they had never seen humans before and after being mustered they were put into trucks and delivered to him.
"The truck [driver] was too frightened to draft them out. So I had to get in and draft them out into the yards," he said.
Even so, the horses kept "smashing in the gates" and "jumping over the yards", he said.
Since then Mr Waara has worked with the horses to win their trust but for three weeks he didn't touch them.
Instead, he sat with them until they realised he wasn't going to hurt them.
"It's not [about] just jumping in with them and trying to break them," he said. "It's about them letting you into their world - not you trying to bring them into our world."
Mr Waara is now riding both horses and "they're running around in a 100-acre paddock with bush and I have no problem at all with catching them".
Organiser of the challenge, Elder Jenks, said the competition's purpose was to rescue more of the stallions which would have otherwise been slaughtered.
Only 300 wild horses are permitted to remain in the wild in order to protect endangered plants and sustain the natural resources necessary for the wild horses, said Mr Jenks.
The challenge includes two events, the Stallion Makeover held at Equidays, a national equine event in Hamilton this October, and the final event, the Major Milestone, held at the New Zealand Horse of the Year Show in Hawke's Bay next March.
Mr Jenks said at each event, horse and rider teams compete in preliminary classes and the highest placing horses are chosen to compete in the finals with more than $50,000 worth of prizes up for grabs.
"Each horse comes on differently with different owners, but Tom's will certainly be ridden.
"He's quite a miracle worker."
Mr Jenks said the stallions are different to domestic horses because they grow up and live in a family then go off and build a herd of their own.
"They actually place all their trust in [the trainers] in being their family."
It wasn't long until Te One trusted Mr Waara but Tokutahi was more hesitant.
"I knew he was going to take longer by his character and by his movement," Mr Waara said.
"You could get near him but he was very suspicious of what was going on around him".
The trainer said he has given 200 per cent of his time to the horses "but that doesn't pay the bills" and he is thankful for the sponsors who have supported him so far.
Winning the overall prize for the competition would be a bonus but for Mr Waara "it's all about the journey".
"At the end of it I know I'll have two good, faithful horses that are going to be top horses in whatever they are used for."
Jessica Tyson is an AUT journalism student on work experience at the Chronicle