Dangerous tricks not for faint-hearted

JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/The Press

TRICKY: Dakoda Coldstream performs the Kiwi Star stunt on her mount, Black Jack, during a performance of the Lone Riders Stunt Girls at the Royal Show in Christchurch yesterday.

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Clinging to a speeding horse by a fingernail is not for the fainthearted, but it is all in a day's work for a stunt rider.

With hoofs flying and barely a thought for their personal safety, New Zealand's only all-women stunt-riding team, the Lone Riders Stunt Girls, is dazzling Royal Show visitors in the horse arena at Canterbury Agricultural Park.

In their sparkling blue and silver uniforms, Dakoda Coldstream, Sally Ham and Nicole Chapman executed tricks with the dangerous-sounding names of suicide drag and belly drop. During the suicide drag, the trio hang upside down to one side with their hands reaching for the turf.

Each trick is a breathtaking lesson in balance, poise and steely nerves.

Falls come with the territory.

"I have eaten a bit of dirt," admitted Ham, who was brought in to ride for the Palmerston North-based team from New South Wales where she runs her own troupe.

"Most of the tricks, you hold yourself up by the strap and with your own strength."

Ham said more dangerous tricks were only performed with experience.

The fourth riding member of the team is its manager, Steff Coldstream, mother to Dakoda.

She said working with animals could be unpredictable and the rider had to remain calm.

"There is no point worrying about being scared or having a bad hair day. You have to be focused."

Dakoda gets a thrill from the reach for the stars stunt, standing upright on her thoroughbred, Blackjack, attached only by two thin straps.

"It is a freaky feeling when you stand up on a horse, but once you are flat out galloping you are on top of the world."

The team performs at agricultural shows, race meetings and corporate functions and is stunt-riding twice daily at the show.