ROPATA, Bruce Tane

[CaraGenie]

BRUCETANEROPATA
<<Played by Cara>>

Shine a light through an open door

Full Name>>Bruce Tane Ropata
Nicknames>>N/A
Age>> 15th March 1998; 34
Staff >> Mounted Games Instructor
House>> Brown Ribbon Apartments
Gender>> Male
Sexuality>> Heterosexual
Play By>> Te Kohe Tuhaka
Alias>> Cara

Turn away 'cause I need you more

Personality>> Bruce, or Boy as he is known back home, loves the thrill of being outside in the wilderness. He is as open as the surroundings he enjoys. Bruce is also known as being a practical joker - but never in a nasty way. Sure, he'll set up a bucket of water to fall on you as you walk through the door, but he'd never do anything to hurt anybody. With joking aside though, Bruce is pretty quiet and likes to keep to himself. If he can't be found, you can probably place your bets that he's on the top of a trail somewhere under a tree with his nose in a book.
Likes>>
Farming
Horses
Spiders
Mounted Games
Open Spaces
Dislikes>> Being cooped up
Thunder Storms (they spook animals)
Mice
Purse dogs
Abusers
Fears>> Ocean
Closed Spaces(Claustrophobic)
Hopes>> To raise a family
To lead a mounted games team to the nationals
Secrets>> He killed his father's sheepdog.

It’s the way I’m feeling I just can’t deny

Appearance>> Bruce has throwback genes, which give him his dark tanned (Maori) skin. His great grandfather married a Maori woman, and he is the first in three generations to get the colouring (not one of his three older siblings share his colouring). He has a finely chiselled face with a hint of a goatee when he doesn't shave. His deep brown eyes are soft but even after years outdoors, his face doesn't have a weathered look.
Markings>> None (though his older brother did threaten to brand him once)

But I’ve gotta let it go

Medical History>> Been in an out of hospital with broken bones after he started riding.
Criminal History>> Nope, though he was stopped by a police officer for galloping down the side of a road, as the officer was worried the horse was bolting.
Full History>> Bruce grew up on a sheering farm in the depths of the Cadrona Valley in Central Otago New Zealand. He is the youngest of four children with a large gap in the ages of each child (Bruce's eldest sister and her husband managed the family farm when he was born). Being born on a farm also meant that he was pretty much born in the saddle and is a self-taught rider.

At school, he heard about Pony Club and quickly joined the Hawea Wanaka Branch. During the weekends he was at Pony Club and during the week he helped muster the family's 2000 head of sheep. By the age of ten he had his own team of sheep dogs.

After he had finished school and had completed all of his PC Certificates, Bruce decided that he wanted to teach younger riders. Even though he loved the wilderness of the farm, farm-life just wasn't for him. So, packing up his belongings and his three horses (leaving the dogs at the farm where they belonged, he left home and began his studies. After training, he decided that he would "major" in mounted games.

His journey for a great job brought him to the USA and it wasn't long before he found an advertisement for a Mounted Games Instructor at an Academy in Kentucky. After a phone call, he packed his things into his car and headed toward a town called Blue Ridge.

We found love in a hopeless place