More Scavenge Hunt Finds

Sometimes it is all or nothing...!
I can find several items within hours of each other and sometimes it can be weeks before I find that 1 item I needed.
Seeing as this lovely scavenger hunt finishes next week then I had better get a move on...

#10 A Horse
Now how hard could this really be??? I mean I live in the middle of New Zealand surrounded by farming communities as far as the eye can see and there are horses all over the place BUT do you think I ever had the camera with me?? Yea exactly never!
Eventually I remembered where there was a horse and I was determined to picture it.
So we trapsed all the way to the field at the end of a road and here is what we found...

a sign that a horse is near by

even more of a sign they are near by

Oh look, there they are in the farthest field away

#18 A Movie Poster
The main cinema in town closed down due to 2 huge ones opening outside of town in the shopping malls. But the last time I went to either mall was ages ago. However when I had to go to the largest mall for another shop that too has closed its branch in town, I remembered that the cinema was out there.
So with camera in hand I zoomed up the escalator to capture a suitable movie poster.

Only problem I found is that this particular cinema has decided to go all high tech and the movie posters are now only shown on the screens high on the wall.
What happened to a nice big picture on the wall? What happened to them being advertised at bus stops nowadays? The internet and phone apps sure have a lot to answer to!

And just to add to it all, the pictures changed every 20 seconds.

Memories

Has the Olympics sparked any memories for you?
One of the events I love in the summer Olympics (and I don't like many as I love the winter Olympics much more) is the equestrian events.
The show jumping and the cross country in the 3-day event is enough to have me glued to the tv for the entire event.

They actually do a 3-day event in Auckland at the beginning of December. Steve and I have been once or twice, think we may have to go again one year and take the boys. It is such fun.

Anyhow, back to my memories......the equestrian events make me think of an amazing film that I loved as a child, must have been a child as it was made in 1978.

 International Velvet

That wonderful sequel to National Velvet

I was never into National Velvet, although when you look at it today and see the wonderful cast involved, I am amazed at who was in it Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, Angela Landsbury all as young children.

However I loved the sequel International Velvet. The story of a young girl Sarah, who is orphaned by a car accident and goes to live with her aunt, Velvet Brown (yes a now grown up). She still has her famous horse Pi and when a foal is born of Pi's Sarah falls in love with the foal and names him Arizona Pi and what follows is her story of horse riding and eventually attending the Olympics for the British Team.

It contains some amazing actors:
Nanette Newman plays the aunt, Velvet Brown

Her partner in the movie is non other than a young Christopher Plumber

The other main character is Captain Johnson, the horse riding coach who is played by the wonderful Anthony Hopkins, a very young Hopkins I might add

The young niece, Sarah is played by Tatum O'Neal and she does a great job, seeing as the whole movie is based around her.

Now you do have to remember, if you ever get the chance to watch this movie, that it was made in England in 1978, it is old and will show in the style of movie and the acting. However it is a lovely story and will sadly be one that you require a box of tissues for, because even though there are sad parts the happy parts will have you reaching for a tissue just as fast. It is heart warming.

Horse Training in the Future

High-tech horse training buggy today, bionic horses tomorrow

Sometimes the power of one horse is all you need — especially if that horse is one you're looking to train and keep tabs on. The Roush horse buggy lets its operator do just that, providing them with a steady stream of information about the animal's well-being, all the while trotting and galloping the horse at different speeds in a controlled manner, up to almost 40 mph. The cabin is mercifully motorized, and (as if the horse didn't have enough of a burden) it holds three: a driver, trainer and a vet.

The cabin, which is mounted rearward of the horse, includes a centrally mounted drivers seat.

On board systems include 12-volt and 240-volt electrical supplies, to power systems such as computerised heart, blood oxygen and fitness monitoring. All this just for the horse!
Roush Technologies developed the buggy for horse-and-camel training equipment company Kurt Systems out of Turkey. Is this a bold new age for training super-horses or, like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV, will technological might still get trumped by an underdog horse with some heart? Roush expects the vehicle to enter production soon.

What will they come up with next??

Maybe someone will come up with something like this for people training for the olympics! Wonders never cease to amaze me!

A & P Show

We have taken to this country living with no problem at all.
Cambridge is a small town about 15 minutes drive from us. Very famous within New Zealand for being the horse capital and where all well known horse breeders live and train.
So you can imagine that if they hold an A & P Show it would be good.
Well it was small and cosy and we spent several great hours there.
The boys got to ride on tractors, or at least sit on them whilst I took their pictures.
We got to see lots of demonstrations from animals and lots of horse shows.

We got to sit and watch some wonderful show jumping, which the boys thought was great, even more fun when they kept knocking the poles down!
And we also saw some displays of ClydesDale horses which were magnificent.
All in all a good day out for free.

Horse Racing

We had a day at the races. Rotorua Races that is. What a lovely day we had too. Took a picnic lunch and had a few little flutters, came away even, so no loses! The boys thought this was great. the horses walked right past us to get their saddles etc and then back past us to go onto the track. As we were stood by the winning post we saw them as they all finished, then they walked back past us to do the parade in the winners circle where the jockeys dismounted and the horses were lead away. So the boys got to see so much of what was happening. Ben thought it was all fabulous and had a wonderful day.