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A New Zealand girl may have wanted a pony when she was younger, as little girls often do, but decided she'd make do with what she had instead. What did Hannah Simpson have? A Swiss brown dairy cow named Lilac.
“I have always loved jumping, I always wanted to do show jumping on a horse,” Simpson said.
It started out as a dare from her younger brother when Lilac was only 6 months old. But after some training, the cow can now jump 4.5 feet high. "Lilac was only six months then and I was just a midget. It was a dare from my brother to jump on and she seemed OK with it so we kept going. Before then I’d only ridden a pony twice, and a sheep," she told 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,” Simpson said. "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.”
Lilac didn't like wearing a saddle so Simpson rides bareback with a halter and a small stick to nudge her. The endeavor hasn't come without danger, Simpson has been bucked her off “countless times” during her training sessions.
Living on a farm, she has also tried to train other cows that her family owns with no success. Apparently, Lilac is one-of-a-kind.
Watch some of Simpson's videos with Lilac below:
A video posted by Hannah Simpson (@hanney_simpson) on
A video posted by Hannah Simpson (@hanney_simpson) on
