Keeping horses in New Zealand

I thought I would talk a bit about what it is like to keep horses in NZ. We don't have "barns" or "livery" like you do in the USA or UK (although they are just starting to pop up in Auckland, our most populated city). 99% of us are 100% DIY. Which means you pay weekly to rent a paddock which may or may not have any facilities and you do everything yourself!

I live about 45km north of Christchurch in North Canterbury. Christchurch as a region has quite a strong horsey contingent. North Canterbury is on the eastern edge of the South Island, and we are roughly where the pink star is.

Like many Kiwi girls I aspired to own a piece of land where I could keep my horses and in 2000 this became a reality when my partner and I bought 12 acres of bare land. When I say "bare land" that is exactly what I mean! It was one 12-acre paddock with a struggling willow tree roughly in the middle and that was it. Nothing else. We built our house, and during that dug out around the willow tree to create a pond. We then had to fence all the paddocks and after that the stables and hay shed where built. This is the layout of our block thanks to Google Earth:

I have outlined our boundary in dark red (hopefully clicking on the photo will take you to a larger image, to show the layout in detail). I am very fortunate to have a fantastic neighbour who is also a competitive dressage rider. She built her arena before they built their house and she lets me use it free of charge. We have kept a space aside for an arena in front of my stables and hay shed and are currently in the process of getting quotes, to see if it is feasible or not. If I don't use my neighbour's arena I ride in my paddock, but this can often be too wet in winter and rock solid in summer.

This is my stable block (you can just see the hay shed and where I park my float/trailer off to the left). I only have 2 stalls and an outside pen. The stables are open which is quite handy, if the girls are in there I only have to look out the house window to keep an eye on them :)

My horses live out, and my stables are only used when we are waiting for the farrier or if it is snowing. The stable block also contains my tack/feed room.

I intend to do a follow up post about "my girls" as I own 3 mares, who make up my wee herd.