Highlanders coach Jamie Joseph is still bearing the brunt of a few good-natured jibes following his participation in a leadership course which involved getting the best out of a small stable of some very different horses.
It did not help that the former All Black loose forward was photographed leading a diminutive pony around. The massive man appeared to be at least twice its size.
All jokes aside, Joseph described the course as "awesome.
"I'd never done anything like that before and it was just awesome," he said.
"We worked with lots of different horses and unfortunately I was photographed the day I had the smallest horse.
"The first day I had a wild ex-race horse called Nutter which was quite challenging. The second day it was a Shetland pony - or Shetland pony breed - but it was stubborn and didn't listen. Then I had quite a well-trained horse. It was quite an experience."
And valuable, too. The coaches quickly learned to adapt their leadership style to get the best out of each horse. In that sense it was no different from working with professional athletes.
"While I understood that concept it was a nice way to reinforce the message." he said.
The Highlanders assembled at the University Oval for the first day of their preseason yesterday.
It was quite a different scene from last year when the players could be seen running up and down the field carrying heavy truck tyres and other chunky objects.
Yesterday, it looked more like a scene from any office anywhere in the world first day back after a break.
People were greeting each other warmly and drifting in and out of meetings. The goodie bags were full of the usual socks and shorts and rugby equipment. The players' nutritional plan is still bland and lays out what the athletes are allowed to eat from now until a couple a days before Christmas when, mercifully, they receive a brief reprieve.
The preseason is much longer this year and Joseph and his management team have more time to tailor plans to suit the individual athletes.
The Highlanders will be without their All Blacks until next year, and James Haskell and Tamati Ellison are playing rugby in Japan and will join the squad later.
Otherwise everyone was back, even those in the "operation dip" - rugby speak for recovering from off-season operations.
There is a team-building trip to Glenorchy to look forward to next month.
Once everyone is together, Joesph said the side would "rip into more rugby detail then".
For now it is about re-establishing the culture and working on fitness levels.
