New Zealand Girl Rides Cow Like Horse, Teaches It To Jump

A New Zealand girl who didn’t have a horse growing up has taught her cow to jump instead.

The teenager, Hannah Simpson, rides her dairy cow, Leila, on the farm in Invercargill in the country’s deep south.

She has been doing so since being dared by her brother when Leila was six months old and has now trained her to jump 1.4 metres high, according to The Guardian.

She is a cow and I can’t expect her to ride like a horse. Without a bit of prodding she wouldn’t really do anything, she has a very chilled-out nature,” she said.

I have always loved jumping, I always wanted to do show jumping on a horse,” she added. “And Leila was always jumping out of the cow shed when she was young so I think she likes it, too. We started her off with stepping over logs and it just got bigger and bigger.”

Hannah’s Instagram page is filled with pictures of herself and the cow jumping logs on the property as well as the farm and other animals like dogs, goats and sheep.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOcAHEQhyyE/?taken-by=hanney_simpson

Now 17, she actually has a horse but prefers to ride the cow.

I don’t need to compete. She is more special than a horse, more rare.”