Another setback for Te Karaka riding school

Ponies take shelter in the arena at Pine Hollow Riding School in Te Karaka, where the ground turned to mud after the latest deluge of heavy rain. Picture supplied

Pine Hollow Riding School in Te Karaka is in clean-up mode again after the heavy rainfall of recent days left the property sodden and covered in mud.

Owner Jacquie Paull and her husband David had gone away for a much-needed break when the heavy rainfall came on Thursday while the kids, Anelia and Noy, were on standby in case the water breached the nearby stopbank as it did in Cyclone Gabrielle.

“We had all the horses ready with their halters on in case they needed to be moved across the road quickly,” Jacquie said.

“Thursday was a very stressful day. We had to get our son home from work. Our daughter was here to move ponies.

“We were lucky to get home on Friday in the 3pm convoy.”

Jacquie fractured her back during Cyclone Gabrielle when she fell while trying to push over a fence to evacuate the horses in the middle of the night.

“We were all out in the dark trying to move the horses and heard the roar of water as it came over the stopbank,” she said.

The entire 4ha paddock was flooded and turned into a lake, with water destroying the horse truck and a rowboat the only mode of transport to get around.

They lost 1000 bales of hay during February’s flood and are now using the bales they salvaged to feed out yo the horses which have been moved to higher ground across the road.

The smaller ponies are taking shelter in the arena which has turned to mud.

Jacquie said the bad weather was the last thing they needed after months of work to get the riding school back up and running ahead of the school holidays.

They are still hoping to be able to operate during the school holidays and have scheduled the official re-opening a month from now.