She didn’t have a horse, so this New Zealand teen rides her cow instead
|
Hannah Simpson: I just jumped on and rode her. It’s kind of like a horse, I guess, except she’s slow and it’s a slightly different motion.
HM: What made you decide to start riding a cow like it was a horse in the first place?
HS: I didn’t have a horse. I’d always wanted to ride. I was reading stories about little girls riding their horses on ranches in America. I think it was a dare from my younger brother to ride, so I just jumped on her and expected to get bucked off, but she just trotted forward and then stopped. I thought, ‘Oh, we can do this!’ She’s not going to buck me off. She doesn’t mind. So I just went from there. I started doing things with her, taking her for rides, and she listened to me really well.
HM: You have posted videos on your Instagram account of you riding this cow who’s leaping over things. It’s pretty unusual. What kind of response do you get from people when they see you riding by?
HS: People usually just glance over, like, ‘Oh, she’s riding a … Wait, no, she’s riding a cow!’ And then they usually come over, like, ‘So why are you riding a cow? This is really crazy. What made you ride a cow?’ They ask a few questions like that. I was riding my cow up the road. Actually, I was riding my other little cow. My younger brother, who took the photos and videos, he was riding Lilac. This lady saw us and stopped us and said, ‘Oh my goodness, this is so amazing!’ She was talking to me for a bit. And she said, ‘We’ve got a wee horse at home that we need to get rid of. Would you like him?’ I went back home and was like, ‘Mom, can we please have a horse? I’ve really wanted one for ages.’ She said OK. Dad wasn’t so keen, so it took a while to convince him. But they both really like the horse.