Small horses seek saviour

An iconic and beloved visitor attraction near Tauranga is in danger of closing if a buyer cannot be found to take it over.
Twenty-five thousand people a year used to flock to the shows featuring the irresistible dwarf horses at Windsong Miniature Horses until the inspiration and driving force behind the Omanawa stud developed an incurable illness.
Lynda Hawkins died two months ago, leaving her husband Tony with the daunting task of caring for the 35 little horses at the same time as he developed his spiritual retreat and healing centre.
"Lynda was Windsong - the whole energy behind the show was Lynda," he said.
As a last resort, he would sell the herd but what he really wanted was for Windsong to live on as a visitor attraction.
"I would very much like to have someone pick up the whole thing and take it away to their farm. I would even work with them to set it up.
"It would be a real shame to lose it, it's an icon. The Bay would be losing a major tourism attraction."
The horses were so popular that even as Lynda's health deteriorated and the Hawkins stopped advertising the shows, people still flocked in their hundreds to see the cute miniature horses. Bus loads of cruise ship passengers would arrive at Windsong stud.
"They are top show-quality horses with amazing pedigrees," Tony said.
"A lot of them were imported from America."
What started as a single miniature horse to keep the grass down developed into a world-renowned stud with 11 breeding stallions and 18 breeding mares.
A special feature was the number of rare champagne coloured horses - the largest number of this colour in New Zealand and possibly Australasia.
The 20 years of dedication shown by Lynda to Windsong and the breed resulted in her winning 10,500 supreme and champion show ribbons.
Tony said there was a spiritual element to the Windsong shows.
"In all the years we operated, no one left without a smile."
He said it was all about beautiful unconditional love.
"Everyone who comes through our gates says 'wow, what a lovely place to be'."
Tony was putting so much effort into developing the property into an ascension healing centre, that he was struggling to cope with caring for the horses as well.
"It will be the end of an era."
Tourism Bay of Plenty general manager Tim Burgess said the prospect of losing a visitor attraction was never good.
An ideal outcome would be someone with a passion for horses to buy the herd and resume the shows.
"It would be a shame to see it go," he said.