Changing Lives on Horseback - The Opiango Hills Project

Harriet Kuru has a lifetime of experience with horses and polo from her family farm, Opiango Hills, at Porangahau. She has set up the Opiango Hills Project to change the lives of young maori through learning the discipline and hard work of breaking in, caring for and training a string of polo ponies and all that entails. The reward is to learn to play the extremely competitive game of polo and to take advantage of the opportunities for an exciting international career.

Four years ago Harriet was asked to take on a young 14 year old from Tokomaru Bay who was a good horseman but couldn’t see where there were any opportunities for his future. Wirihana Kururangi has been coming down to her ever since and is now a hard working horseman playing polo for Wanstead polo club often in the A team. Last year he went to England to experience grooming horses and playing polo in a professional atmosphere. An eye opening experience for a boy who had never been on a plane before! He has come back with a dream of being a 5 goal player and making polo his career. One life changed forever.

Two years ago, a similar request and another 14 year old from Tokomaru, Waitakeo Banks, joined the mentoring program. He also has a dream of playing professionally and recently played in a 6 goal team by invitation as he had been noticed by other players and was in the winning team of the Dewar Cup tournament. The youngest ever player to do so in the 81 years of the tournament's history. An extraordinary achievement for a boy of 16. He also won Most Improved Player of the Tournament and had to make a speech – a huge deal for a shy boy from up the coast.

As a result of all the hard work, both boys have been invited to go to England in March for the English polo season. A wonderful opportunity.

However this opportunity and the ongoing training, care and maintenance required for both horses and young people seeking a lift in life through Polo all costs money. Money Harriet and her family simply don't have.

- Harriet lives on retirement funds and some pony treking income.

- With that she feeds and houses the boys.

- She gets them to polo club days and to tournaments.

- The horses need to be cared for and shod and then there’s gear, feed, vet checks etc .

- Filling the horse truck, RUC charges, maintenance, insurance and repairs all cost.

- Harriet’s son takes time off work to drive the truck to tournaments.

- Harriet’s sister takes time off work to help groom the horses.

- Harriet books and pays for motels and food and any other necessities for everyone.

All this is done because the results are there to see and lives are being changed. It is an incredible commitment from the Kuru family and they need help to continue. Harriet would like to offer this mentoring program to other young riders. The older boys will take on more responsibility and help mentor the younger ones.

This can only happen with your help so any donation, either as a one-off or as an ongoing commitment to the programme would be hugely appreciated.