19/09/2025
Natural horsemanship reigns at Falling Creek Ranch
Falling Creek Ranch is a 91-hectare slice of paradise just a ‘country drive’ from the Whanganui CBD. Owners, Zane and Mel Scott along with son Casey, raise bull-beef as a small part of their business, but their primary passion is the most noble of creatures, the horse. They turned their years of experience and knowledge into their dream business back in 2017 - making a difference to their four-legged companions and guests, the two-legged as well, teaching and sharing all they know to build the best relationships between humans and horses through natural horsemanship.
The Falling Creek Ranch team offers camps and lessons for humans fresh to the saddle through to experienced riders, and for the horse that has no concept of a saddle or needs some re-training.
Both Zane and Mel come from farming backgrounds: Mel here in Whanganui, Zane in the Waikato. The one difference was Zane got into horsing around at a young age, pony club and the like, the traditional horsemanship style; Mel, on the other hand, was wary. All that changed during a ‘baptism by fire’ for both of them.
A chance meeting with owners of a horse camp in Katikati about 17 years ago found Mel, despite her wariness, riding ‘hell for leather’ to beat the tides to Matakana Island through the potential quicksand traps. Terrifying if you’re new to the saddle. Mel hasn’t looked back since, and the meeting led to Mel learning the ropes of riding: the ‘human meets horse’ connection.
Zane, whose background in farming had been working an intensive bull-beef operation, re-fenced the farm to double the number of bulls it could carry, but with time free in the afternoon, Zane was keen to learn the art of ‘starting’ a horse in the natural horsemanship style, what some might refer to as ‘breaking a horse in’.
“So, I learnt the horse game by being thrown in the deep end. “I said, ‘Can I watch you break in a horse’, and he said, ‘No, you can come and do it, and I’ll sit on the railing and tell you what to do. You can’t learn by watching’. It was good, you know, you make mistakes, that’s how you learn.”
With all that experience under their belts, the team understand the depth and breadth of natural horsemanship. Zane explains the difference between the traditional horsemanship and natural horsemanship style, saying,
“The big difference between traditional and natural is rather than forcing the horse or intimidating it into doing something, we work with the horse in a way that is kind and so that it understands. I’m still the boss horse, the alpha horse and the decision maker, and life is sweet for all of us when we all play our part in the team.
“I can force a really unruly horse into good behaviour, but he will still have that underlying tension, wondering if he can get away from it somehow.” It’s nothing new really, it’s been done for hundreds of years, and is now more broadly accepted.”
Zane and Casey work with all horses this way, from thoroughbreds to Clydesdales or miniatures, and both agree that the horses all respond well. Horses are brought to Falling Creek Ranch from all over the North Island to be ‘started’ by the father and son team.
Much like the horses make their way from around the North Island to Falling Creek Ranch, humans from all over make their way too, attending camps for adults and youth. Under the threesome’s gentle care, Falling Creek Ranch’s permanent horses, which number about 50, make for great confidence-building rides, especially for beginners.
Zane says, “People come out here, you could be in the middle of nowhere, they muck in, spend hours in the saddle, muster cattle, cook outdoors, it’s the closest you’ll get to being a cowboy.”
Mel also runs riding lessons for locals and the team offer Equine Assisted Learning, where participants, among other things, learn to catch a horse, put on a rope halter, groom and pick out hooves, saddle up and ride. The benefits are many: physically and emotionally. As Mel says, “Horses teach us so much about ourselves.”
The last 17 years have been quite a journey for the Scott family, but it’s all been worth it.
As Casey says, “I get up in the morning, walk outside, there’s the mountain, the horses are right there. It doesn’t get much better.”
A Country Calendar film crew have visited twice to capture the work they do, and the episode can be viewed on TVNZ +.
Photo: Casey, Zane and Mel attending a competition.
