Hoofcamp has come about by a huge interest from horse riders of all different levels of riding and disciplines, wanting to enjoy some good riding country and socialize in the evenings after a ride.

We established ourselves as Hoofcamp in 2006 after trailguiding clubs for over 6 years on stations throughout the bay of Plenty region. We also have a successful little Saddlery store in Whakatane called Hoofcamp Saddlery.

Kathryn who has over 30 years experience in the horse industry, starting off with pony club as a child, then eventing, hunting and competed successfully at A&P shows throughout the North Island in Hack flat classes and RTR showjumping.  At 17 yrs she was a trail guide on Waione Falls Ranch and also instructed children and adults to ride.  After travelling overseas to work on a Quarter Horse stud in Queensland, she returned to NZ to marry and have a family.  She returned to horse riding when her youngest daughter Nadesha aged 3 showed an interest in horses.  Getting back into riding after having a family and discovering I had a failing health problem was difficult, so I choose to take up Western riding. After dabbling a little in the Western shows and riding in a western saddle, I found my passion again in trekking and trail guiding.

Mathew only rode as a child on his parents property where he had a naughty little pony who loved to run under the trees and swipe the kids off his back, or run to the gate and stop suddenly. He rode 4wheelers on the job working as a shepherd on stations over the past 10 years and never really thought much about riding a horse. After supporting Kathryn back into riding and encouraging and helping his daughter Nadesha to ride as a young child, he took up riding again in 2006 and decided to aquire himself a trusty stead. Her name is Butter and she is a lovely Dun mare. Mat took her to a Parelli Natural Horsemanship clinic and enjoys teaching and schooling horses with natural horsemanship technics. He now takes part on all the rides trail guiding and enjoys the company of other riders on our treks. Recently Mat has studied the art of teaching Horsemenship and has started giving lessons to adults returning to riding or riders who have lost their confidence.  Mat also takes in horses who have issues, need some life experience & ride outs, which include beach riding in the waves, getting used to traffic and truck or float loading is a speciality with 100% success so far.  We aslo do prep for selling and  sell on behalf.

Nadesha is now 14 years old as at 2010 and has had her own pony and been trekking since she was 4 years old. She has helped trail guide from a very young age and has managed to ride in some extreme places to assist in mustering sheep in for the stations we have worked on. Nadesha is a confident young rider who has competed successfully at local gymkhana's and shows throughout the Bay of Plenty. She is currently studing the parelli method of schooling and has used this to train several project horses, turning them into willing accepting partners with their riders. Nadesha hunted for the first time in 2008 and finished the closing hunt clearing all full wire, gates and tapes, much to her delight. She is off to Australia in July 2010 to represent the Wakatane Districts Pony Club in a NZ team they are sending over to compete in an Australian exchange. She will compete in competitions over a two week period in which she will be required to ride two different mounts for competitions.  Nadesha has done several project horses, some have been started by her and others who have had issues have now become lovely quiet horses who have been sold to homes with great success.   She teaches horses to jump, hunt or general trekking etc.   She is also available to instruct children with Kids Horsemanship lessons, general riding and jumping.