When the horse galloping towards you is called Killer and his rider is brandishing a burning lance, it would appear wise to get out of the way quick.

Phil Tenberge, however, lay on his back and didn't flinch as horseman Joseph Lumsden stabbed the lance into the ground between his legs.

All in a day's work for stuntman Phil Tenberge who didn't flinch as Joe Lumsden, on Killer, stabs the ground between his legs with a flaming lance.

It's a stunt the trio have performed many times but still requires skill on the part of rider and horse, and trust between all three.

'It's only taken Joe nine years to teach me that trick,” Phil joked when he and Joseph answered questions from an audience at Equidays at Mystery Creek in November.

As well as demonstrating some firebrand tricks and impressive stunt riding, Joseph, Phil and the team showed how to train horses to do some of the stunts they have become known for, including the double knee bow, the rear, the Spanish walk and the laydown.

It's all about understanding the horse, patience, repetition and most of all trust, said Joseph.

Trust is a big factor when it comes to Killer, the horse once destined for a bullet. 'He'd killed a colt and attacked his owner. I was at the stables the day he was due to be shot and the owner asked me if I'd like him. I said ‘yes' and put him in the float and took him home.

'I told the stable boy to always have a stick with him when he went to feed Killer, but one day Killer was hiding and when the boy bent over to fill his feed bucket, Killer ran up and grabbed him by the seat of his pants and carried him around the paddock. He didn't hurt him – he was just playing,” laughed Joseph.

Today Killer will do just about anything for Joseph, who has won his trust and taught him well but did not break his spirit. Killer still likes to push the limits a little before he settles down to work.

The man and horse gave an impressive display of trust when Joseph got Killer to lie on the ground, and then had a cover, snapping and shaking in the wind, laid over him.

He stayed still under the cover until it was removed.

'This is the first part of the stunt. The second is to cover us both up and then Killer to get up with me on his back and walk around, still under the cover. It's going to take some work – horses don't like to be unable to see where they are going.”

Joseph began riding at pony club and became an amateur jockey at 17. Soon after he went to his first rodeo and competed for 25 years in New Zealand and overseas. Returning to New Zealand in the 1970s, he started breaking in and re-educating young horses, and horses with bad habits.

In the 1980s Joseph worked alongside Peter Bell of New Zealand Stunts, stunt-riding in the movie Willow in 1986 and making several TV commercials.

In 1993 he formed a new stunt team, the Rough Riders, and since then has performed trick and stunt riding throughout the country, as well as preparing horses for film and TV work.

At his property in Fielding Joseph continues breaking in horses and holding horsemanship clinics. Phil is among his talented stunt team and performed a number of feats of horsemanship at the Equidays, which ran from November 2 to 4.