Taurimu Farm Quarter Horses

Quality bred Quarter Horses in the heart of New Zealand.

Colin and Helen Holmes have been breeding Quarter Horses on Taurimu Farm for over twenty years, accumulating quality progeny from Australian and American breeding lines. Used extensively for Cutting, the youngsters are trained by Colin and competed on the NZCHA circuit.

SITE UPDATED 12/9/2022 - Latest news below

September 2022 - "Salty" - bred by Taurimu and now owned by our daughter and her friend Gillian. Broken in by us as a three year old and turned out until a four year old . After a few short months of work this green broke mare had her first show in lead line classes with 6 year old Francis.

Peptos Do Rock and Colin

Introducting the newest inductee to the NZCHA RIDER HALL OF FAME
Colin Holmes
Colin has been riding horses from an early age with his first pony, Champ which bucked him off on his first ride and nearly put him off horses for life.
His first competitive riding was on the NZ Rodeo circuit riding bulls, saddle broncs and bare back broncs. He had stints in Australia and Canada where he was chosen to ride for Saskatchewan at the Calgary Stampede. All this experience culminated in the NZRCA Bareback Champion title in 1983.
After retiring from the rodeo rough stock events he changed to steer wrestling and calf roping which included training his first calf roping horse.
In the early 1990’s Glen Campin gave Colin a ride on his champion mare Poronui Worthwhile and from that moment he was hooked on the challenge of training cutting horses and the roping arena became a cutting arena.
His first challenge was Pocket, a horse he had bred by Ellerston Command and with Roxanna Sanko ( the only trained horse he ever bought) they became his first show horses.
After a few years of showing it was the attraction of training young horses for the Futurity that began an on going commitment to train cutting horses and compete at the Futurity show with the following record of horses trained and shown there:

1995 Beena Lee was his first futurity entrant -4th (Sold)
1996 Commander King - Futurity - 4th.
1997 Commander King - Derby - 5th (Sold)
1998 Rawhide Command - Futurity Reserve Champion (sold)
1999 Just Abbie- Futurity - 4th,
2000 Just Abbie - Derby - 3rd (broodmare then sold)
2001 Miss Royal Durack- Futurity 4th.
2002 Miss Royal Durack - Derby Reserve Champion - (broodmare)
2003 Docs Barnibos - Futurity - 3rd, Non Pro Futurity Champion (sold)
2005 Duracks Reflection - Futurity - 4th
2006 Durabar - Futurity - 3rd
   Duracks Reflection - Derby 3rd (broodmare, dam of Spanner Man & Little Nugget)
2007 Durasan - Futurity - 3rd
   Durabar - Derby Champion and Non Pro Derby Champion
2008 showed Durasan & Durabar at the Futurity show
2009 showed Durasan & Durabar at the Futurity show (Durasan sold and won National title)
2010 Duracks Super 8 - Futurity Reserve Champion (sold)
   Durabar - Open Horse, Open Non Pro
2011 Peptos Do Rock - Futurity
   Durabar - Open Horse, Open Non Pro
2012 Peptos Do Rock - Derby
   Durabar - Open Horse, Open Non Pro (Durabar sold and won National title)
2013 Spanner Man - Futurity Reserve Champion & Non Pro Futurity Champion
   Peptos Do Rock - Classic Reserve Champion
2014 All Fyred Up -Futurity - 3rd
   Spannerman - Derby - 3rd
   Peptos Do Rock - Classic Reserve Champion
2015 All Fyred Up - Derby Champion
2016 Little Nugget - Futurity Reserve Champion
   All Fyred Up - Classic Champion
2017 Spin n Lethal - Futurity 4th
   All Fyred Up - Classic Champion
2018 Spin n Lethal - Derby Reserve Champion
2019 Spin n Lethal - Classic Reserve Champion
2020 covid - (no futurity show )
2021 PDR She’s on Fyre - Futurity Reserve Champion
2022 PDR She’s on Fyre - Derby Champion

To add to Colins rider profile the horses he trained and retained to show went on to win these NZCHA National titles:
Miss Royal Durack -   2002 CPCHC Superstakes Champion (Retired as a broodmare, dam of Peptos Do Rock)
Durabar - 2010 Novice Horse Champion, 2013 Open Non Pro Champion - (sold and                won a national title)
Peptos Do Rock 2015 Champion Stallion (retired to stud to sire Aged & National Champions)
Spanner Man 2014 Champion 4 year old, 2014 Superstakes Champion- (sold and won                    national titles)
All Fyred Up 2015 Champion 4 year old, 2016 Champion Gelding, 2017 Open Non Pro Champion, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021 Open Horse Champion,
     2022 Horse Hall of Fame.    ,
Little Nugget       2017 Champion 4 year old (sold and won national titles)
Spin n Lethal       2018 Champion 4 year old, 2018 Superstakes ( retired as brood mare)
PDR She’s on Fyre 2022 Champion 5 year old

In 2017 Colin was inducted into the Non Pro Hall of Fame with the help of Durabar, Peptos Do Rock, Spanner Man, and All Fyred Up.
He is now in 2022 inducted into the Riders Hall of Fame based on his achievement of 3 NZCHA Derby wins with Durabar, All Fyred Up and PDR She’s on Fyre.
Currently in training is his 2023 Futurity prospect PDR Saffyre so his story continues.

Miss Royal Durack

Durabar

Peptos Do Rock

Spanner Man

All Fyred Up

Little Nugget

PDR She's on Fyre

Introducting the newest inductee to the NZCHA Hall of Fame Horses
All Fyred Up Q3424
Born in 2010, a Quarter Horse chestnut gelding by Docs Durack (Imp) out of War Belle by Colonels Pep (Imp).
Bred and owned by Colin & Helen Holmes, trained and ridden by Colin.
The story behind All Fyred Up is very special to us and the reason for his paddock name Nolan and his AQHA-NZ registered name A few weeks before our friend Nolan Fyres died we sent him a picture of our roan yearling colt Peptos Do Rock. Nolan’s daughter Kim got back to us saying that Nolan had always wanted a roan horse. So a plan was set in motion that we would have one of Nolan’s mares to breed to PDR and we could use her to breed from until we were breeding with PDR. How fortunate were we, unbeknown by us then, that by having a mare by Colonels Pep, the stallion Nolan Fyers had imported, we were acquiring amazing bloodlines in that Colonels Peps full sister Colonels Destiny is now an NCHA Australia Hall of Fame inductee. Combined with Docs Duracks genetics the stars must of been aligned for Nolan.
So in 2009 War Belle went to Docs Durack and the story of Nolan started. (to add to this story Warbelle did produce a roan filly by PDR for Kim)
Nolan is a nondescript gentle horse with a few quirks but in front of a cow he is strong, very cow related in what he does and has more than enough ability to control a cow with big stops and agile movement with lots of eye appeal.
If he has one fault it would be in the warmup pen when occasionally he will “lie” to Colin and in the show pen he will be too cow fresh and pig root across the pen but he will stay cutting and settle into his work.
Nolans career started at the 2014 NZCHA Futurity and since then his highlights have been:
2015 CPCHC Superstakes Reserve Champion
2015 NZCHA 4 Year Old Champion
2015 NZCHA Derby Champion
2016 NZCHA Open Horse Champion
2016 NZCHA Gelding Champion
2016 NZCHA North Island Open Horse Champion
2016 NZCHA Classic Champion
2017 CSCHC Classic Champion
2017 NZCHA Open Horse Champion
2017 NZCHA Open Non Pro Champion
2017 NZCHA Classic Champion
2018 NZCHA Open Horse Champion
2019 NZCHA Triple Crown Open Horse Co Champion
2021 NZCHA Open Horse Champion
2021 NZCHA Open Non Pro Reserve Champion
2022 KCCC Gelding Stakes Champion
2022 NZCHA Open Non Pro Reserve Champion
NZCHA COA and COM
Only four horses have won the NZCHA Open Horse Championship three times in their cutting career: Poronui Worthwhile in 1986, 1987 and 1988, Docs Durack in 1998,1999 and 2000(Nolan’s Sire), Starzacre in 2014, 2019, and 2020. Nolan is the first horse in the NZCHA’s history to win the Open Horse Championship four times in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2021. (Starzacre accomplished that in 2022)
And now the honour of being in the NZCHA Horses Hall of Fame and as he is only 11 years old as this is written, we hopefully can look forward to more of his achievements.
Colin & Helen Holmes June 2022.
https://www.nzchacutting.com
Photos were produced by Helen of Holmes Cutting Horse Photography