Ever since the screening of the Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson, New Zealand’s South Island is on the map of travellers from all over the world. Horses offer an amazing way to discover the amazing mountain landscapes of what people associate with Middle Earth. In today’s podcast episode I am talking with Angie, who organises horse trails and rides on amazing Kiwi Station Horses on the South Island of New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud as it is known by the Maori, the native inhabitants of the country.
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Our Guest today:
Angie Leckey (New Zealand)
Equestrian Adventuress originally from England, who settled in New Zealand and fell in love with the country. Together with her partner she organises trail rides and breed very special horses.
Visit her website to find more about their rides!
Don’t forget to check out the resources section in this article!
Highlights
- Horse riding country New Zealand
- Best time to ride
- Kiwi Station Horse
Thank you for tuning in and happy trails!
Special Announcement
Today’s episode is sponsored by
Survive Iceland – Icelandic Endurance Ride
Can you Survive Iceland? This year the Icelandic Horse endurance ride will be held August 25th – 28th with 10 teams competing. The ride takes place over 4 days travelling 280 kms or 174 miles, with each day covering 50-70 km or 30-45 miles. Each team will be composed of 1 rider, 2 crew members and 3 three horses in each team. Each day you will ride 2 horses as they are swapped out between the vet checks. Riders from all over the world will compete in this challenging endurance ride over the Icelandic highlands. You can sign up by visiting the Icelandic Equestrian Survive Iceland website or you can contact them via email to receive more information.
Horse Riding Tracker App
Horse Riding Tracker is an app to track all your rides for iPhone and Apple Watch.
Main features:
- After each ride you can see data such as distance covered, duration, max and average speeds and more.
- You can also see gaits distribution – how long and what distance you’ve made in each gait.
- There are detailed maps and you can overlay data from your ride directly on a map.
- You can add all your horses in this app and assign to each ride horse and equipment you’ve used.
- Shareable cards with maps, photos you’ve taken during a ride and statistics.
- Animated summaries of your rides that you can share with your friends
Other features:
- graphs with data such as speed, pace, distance, altitude over time
- compare different rides
- calendar of your rides
- distance and time spend on a horse each month
Equestrian Adventuresses Books
Do you love to read or listen to horsey books and stories, then have a look at our EQA Book Series, now available as paperbacks, e-books, and audio books.
Packed with exciting true-life stories written by women from all around the world about their adventures they had with horses!
Follow a vet on her adventures in the Namibian Bush, an expat winning a show jumping medal in Italy, a British family with two toddlers crossing Patagonia on horseback or a German girl finding her dream horse on an Indian horse market.

Do you feel that we are missing out on an important topic? Or maybe you have an interesting story to tell? Contact Heather or Ute!
Resources
- Horse Riding Tracker App
- Survive Iceland
- Ride 1000 Miles Challenge
- Equestrian tools and resources
- EQA Online Shop
Thanks for listening to our horse podcast: New Zealand – Riding in Middle Earth!
