Far North horses get long in the teeth but enjoy their retirement

One is a half blind former movie star who lives in the Hokianga, and the other has trekked all over New Zealand and now has chickens as paddock mates.

Two Far North horses with long and colourful lives are enjoying their retirement years oblivious to banter about the region's oldest horse.

And while difficult to calculate in human years, one thing is certain - they are both getting long in the tooth.

Dubbed "the oldest hōiho in Rawene" Moonie has sure crammed a lot into his 25 or so years.

He was the first horse Rob Pink bought when he returned to Rawene in 2003 following a stint living in Auckland.

READ MORE:
• Letters: Keep horses out of Far North lakes
• Horses injured, put down in Northland after massive electrical storm spooks them
• Sick foal put down, nine horses to be rehomed - says Northland owner

Every kid in Rawene has ridden the former farm horse with excellent bloodlines who went partially blind while being loaded on to a horse truck as a 2-year-old.

"One of my mates now tells me that's 90 years, another mate reckons he's 130," Pink said.

"He most definitely is the oldest hōiho in Rawene by a long way."

Pink is a legend in the Hokianga for getting the local youth interested in riding and caring for horses, having started a "Hokianga-style" polocrosse team and running the Rawene Brumby Races for many years.

Pink reckons Moonie is a legend too.

For 10 years he was in the Rawene Christmas Carnival among horses and riders leading the parade into town, and he was a regular sight at the Waimamaku Wild West Festival, careering through the main street ridden by gun-wielding cowboys.

He was chosen for a role in the 2010 Korean action film The Warrior's Way and spent three months on the movie set in Henderson, west of Auckland.

Their big scene saw Pink aboard Moonie, a full-blooded Quarter horse, towing the "bad-guy" stuntman over the sand dunes at Port Waikato.

Moonie also starred in the television series Hoiho, a series about Māori horse culture and history presented by Annabelle Lee-Harris that screened on Māori Television in 2012.

"He's a bit of a legend, he's definitely done a lot of stuff," Pink said. "He's an exceptional horse, you can do anything with him."

Over on the Far North's east side, Waipapa resident Robin MacDiarmid is taking care of Sam, a big brown horse who turns 30 in October.

MacDiarmid took him in four years ago from a colleague who needed a friendly home where he could see out his retirement.

Sam has trekked all over New Zealand and has left his hoof prints at many beaches in the Far North.

His former owner used to take him on hunts and he's done a small amount of pony club.

His main attribute is his kind nature, MacDiarmid said, and he's the "spitting image" of her former horse Prince who passed away in 1983 aged 35.

"He's one of those horses that everyone wants to ride because he's bullet proof."

Sam, a Cleveland Bay/ Clydesdale cross, now enjoys hanging out with a small flock of chickens in his paddock.

When he was younger MacDiarmid, a scientist at Plant and Food Research in Kerikeri, used to ride him 8km to work once a year for a bit of fun, stopping off at the daycare centre so the kids could give him carrots.

Though she doesn't ride him these days, children who visit the property will jump on his back for a slow stroll around the paddock.

"He loves that, as do they. The kids just love him."

Horsewoman and large animal vet Hilary Shaw said it's difficult to work out a horse's "human age" as they are not comparable and the scale isn't linear.

Horses fully mature at age seven, and having good teeth plays a big part in their longevity, she said.

"If you know a horse that's 25 or 27 that's probably equivalent to someone close to 80. The ones that go beyond 35 would be equivalent to being around 100.

"Life expectancy depends on the type and breed; most horses get to their 20s, then you'll get some, like Arab breeds, they often get into their early 30s. Any horse that's over 30, there's a good chance it'll have Arab in it."