Lina Kurze, 13, flew to Taupo yesterday to attend a workshop on taming wild Kaimanawa horses.
The workshop lasts about three and a-half weeks. Lina will be mentored through the process of taming her own wild horse.
It has been a dream of hers to attend for a very long time.
"I wasn’t expecting to do it this year, I was expecting to maybe do it in two years as they were only taking 14-year-olds but this year they’ve changed it a bit."
She was very excited to meet the host, horsewoman Kelly Wilson.
"She’s reasonably famous in New Zealand and actually all over the world. She’s kind of like my idol so that’ll be very cool."
Lina was excited to soak up as much knowledge as possible from the workshop.
"I think I’ll learn a lot about reading horses’ body language.
"[Kelly] also does a bit of energy healing and emotional stuff that I’m also very interested in."
Lina raised the funds to attend by selling items at local markets and over Facebook.
She will not be going in totally unfamiliar with the process of taming a wild horse, as one of the horses on her family’s farm in Maheno was a wild horse tamed five years ago.
Once the workshop ends, she will bring the horse back home with her.
It was important to find homes for the tamed horses, Lina’s mother, Annika, said.
"It’s getting more and more difficult for them to find homes. There’s a big cost
factor involved but also huge amounts of time so it’s a real passion project.
"Lots of people love horses and they’re happy to buy a horse and pay lots of money for it and ride it every now and then.
"But to actually go through the whole training process is a huge time investment. That’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
"We love the fact that in New Zealand we have access to that because a lot of countries don’t."
While Lina is still new to taming horses, she could see herself doing it as her fulltime career in the future.
"I haven’t actually worked with horses for very long, maybe four years.
"But, I just love doing it and wild horses just seem like such a cool thing to do."
Lina has set up a Facebook page where she will publish a digital diary detailing what the workshop entails.
