Northern Farming Lifestyles December 2011 Their children, Donny, Morgana and Patariki are all skilled riders, either on horseback or motorbikes. Morgana and Patariki ride the rodeo circuit in New Zealand and have done so for the last couple of years and oldest son Donny has left district and now serves in the Army. At 15, Steve was selected to represent Northland in the Northland Colts Polocrosse team and still rides today. Kath says she’s happy to see her children excel in all types of riding disciplines — unlike herself who prefers leisure riding. Pouto Horse Sports, held at Labour Weekend for the last two years, came about after Steve built a rodeo arena. “Steve built an arena on the farm so Morgana and Patariki could practice for the rodeo circuit,” explains Kath. Then he thought, ‘Well since it’s here, we may as well do something with it.’ “More spectators attended this year and everyone was excited, so it went really, really well. We added two more winner-takes-all jackpots, adding to our two existing trophy jackpots, and we included a cross country, introduced ‘The Indian Game’, where contestants ride bare back and Buzkashi. Buzkashi, a traditional Central Asian team sport, usually involves riders trying to grab a headless goat or calf from the ground but thanks to a local family, the Taurua’s, Pouto Horse Sports competitors were able to use a hessian sack ‘goat’ instead. Steve grew up at Pouto and attended the local school before leaving to board
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Horse trekking in Pouto Morgana
at Tipene College, Saint Stevens, which has since closed. He worked in Australia and Auckland until the family moved North and Kath describes him as “a jack of all trades”. Kath is from Auckland but her mother is from the Kaipara and her family used to camp at Pouto when she was growing up. Kath is a talented poet and has travelled overseas to perform her work, is studying Global Environment through the Open Polytechnic and is an ornithologist for a wind farm project — as well as participating in the family businesses. Morgana, 18, has just finished at Dargaville High School, where she was a house prefect and Maori prefect.
Next year she hopes to attend university to embark on either a nursing or sports degree. Patariki, 14, is still attending high school and competes in the steer riding section of rodeo. Donny is based
in Auckland but his partner, Sophie and their son, Malakai live in Whangarei. Gus Nathan is buried on the family farm overlooking the arena. At this year’s horse sports, Morgana won the memorial trophy in his name.
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