Series Finals

So after my first day in my new job, my Aunty and I skipped off down to Hawera for series finals arriving at midnight and I wasn't that amused to hear on the radio reports of a weather bomb that was meant to hit the whole North Island but specifically Taranaki where Hawera is :( Ah man not ideal at all. Arrived at midnight and had to be up the next morning for an 8am start. Still not the end of the world. Then I sat around all day waiting for my class.

Warming up for that 1.20m class was not good, my eye was terrible, I couldn't see a distance to save myself and I felt out of practice. I just had two rails both from waiting rides when I should have ridden up. Still she jumped awesome it was my riding that failed. That night we all went to bed with showground gossip about how bad the storm was going to be. And sure enough we were all woken up at 4am when the wind started to just hammer the truck, so much so it was like being in an earthquake. The roof started to lift of the indoor and they had to evacuate all the horses stabled in there. The roller door got blown off and the iron was damaged but mostly intact. The wall from ring 1 just disappeared apart from one stand, never to be seen again. The picture above is from Patea which is down the coast and they got absolutely hammered.

We fed more hay at 5.30am and then the wind eased about 6 and after all the adrenaline we all slept until 9. I got up and with the dropping wind came absolutely pounding rain. Connie was in an outside yard and despite a magnetic rug and a 2000denier 300gram of fill heavyweight winter rug she was shaking like a leaf. She ended up getting tied in gings indoor yard with ging for the day just to get her out of the weather. A bunch of people left though so later in the day I managed to get an indoor yard for her, that backed on to my friends yards so Connie was still with her buddies.

That day was cancelled and most of the series finals were held on the Saturday so I never got a chance to try and make the top six, which is pretty disappointing. Still finishing 15th is good and there is next year. I am considered an amateur until I place at 1.30m or higher. Much more lenient rules than in the states.

Would you believe the next day dawned beautiful and clear and the ground really wasn't bad so I went ahead and jumped in the 1.2m championship class and the little horse jumped super, really forward and keen and bold and jumped a good clear round. Unfortunately I couldn't jump off because my ride for Connie to get up to my new home was leaving. Nevermind eh a really good note to go into HoY on.

New Home sort of

So yesterdy Bill, Kate, and I moved up to the Bay of Plenty. Truckie being slow it took 7 and a half hours with only a 10 minute stop so they came down the ramp with a bit of wobbling but apart from being hungry they travelled really well.

As for me I'm feeling pretty lost. Bit of culture shock this morning with this small town girl got well lost and stressed in city traffic. I miss my home and as I currently don't actually have a home and will be drifting between my Aunties house and my Bfs flat I feel like I have no grounding. Still it's been one night and a day. I went into work so thats basically all sorted and I start tomorrow.

Also odd, is knowing I will be competing at Series Finals and I have basically no idea how my horse is and I'm not there to manage her show preperation. I know she is fine because I have heard nothing but normally I have absolute control all over everything relating to the horses and now I don't. Uhh my mind is not in the best place, it will all be fine in time.

The other side of the blade

I was thinking today as I rode the tail flagging, prancing snorting version of Connie how sometimes I miss the old version of this horse. She used to be so laid back she was basically dead and she didn't walk she meandered. She would break into a trot in front of fences and spooking used far too much energy to bother with. I was always told I would have to make her hot to be a goo jumper and I guess I have achieved that. It would just sometimes be nice to ride that old unphasable version that would stand and quietly watch other peoples horses go to pieces. The version I could hack anywhere and do anything on.

Now with her slim, trim and feed to the nines I have to be a little more careful. I can't just go anywhere at any speed. The buck and the rear can show themselves and they aren't that much fun. Mostly she is fine and rideable and it's all over-enthusiasm and play, though the rear is not cool at all. The one time I did as they say and hit her over the head she just went higher so I haven't repeated that. But then the kick back is that I have this horse who starts to attack her fences more, who is cattier and more athletic and can hold a really collected canter. The fat version doesn't collect- more pitches and rolls. I love the horse but when she is fit and on form she really needs to be treated more as an athlete than my favourite pony and I guess I miss acting the fool some.

She feels like a million dollars and honesty I can't believe I placed last weekend in the amateur. I thought with the pressure of needing to finish first or second I wouldn't cope but I was second and here we are. Depending how the weekend plays out I need to be first or second again against stiffer competition but why not eh. It's not completely out of reach. A top 6 finish would be like a wildest dream come true. Still showjumping is a sport of millimeters and a rail or a time fault and you are done. If it pours like it did last year in Hawera I'm screwed with the fair weather princess.

Bill is taking the back burner until I get packed. Apparently there is winter showjumping up here so I'm not too worried she will be ready to NZEF the coming season. Certainly didn't reach my goals with her, but learnt a valuable lesson about reading your horse and pain issues. It's all been so surreal and now moving is getting really real. I nearly cried when I had the farrier out for the last time. He does such an amazing job and he is awesome. Anyone in the Tararua/manawatu region who wants a great farrier call Crowley Forge. I'll have to make sure I catch up with him when I'm down visiting because he is such a great.

I'm moving away. Hard out. Packing is going ok, but it's three days until I pull out of the driveway not to return for sometime, to a new job and new life and a new social scene. Unreal.

Masterton A+P 2012

Wicked cool show. Jumped my first 1.25m class with Connie (4'1" for you metric shunners) Man I was SCARED. They had a little version of a water jump (It wasn't 3m wide, only like 2 but a legit water jump) and Connie had never jumped a water jump but she really didn't mind it at all. It was a reasonably hard track, and fully to size. She just had a rail at fence two when I pushed to hard to the second fence and she just rubbed it out. There is a video I'm praying makes it to youtube so I can share it with you guys.

Today she jumped in the amateur series class and was second with a double clear. I thought our jump-off was fast but it sure wasn't compared to the winner haha. She just isn't a super fast horse bless her but she jumped super and was so confident through the treble after jumping those huge combinations the day before so I was very happy with her. Didn't give her the greatest ride into the double in the jump off so will school doubles soon just to keep her confident. Shit she is a good horse though. The ground was hard enough so I withdrew from her classes tomorrow and she can rest instead and I'll save her legs.

So the Kicker is that how things stand now if I do really well at series finals I could make the top 6 for the series which would be amazing. It's not likely, the competition is so fierce at finals but I'll give it a good shove anyway. To come this far this season has been amazing anyway. To jump a 1.25m track with such confidence and finesse (on her part anyway) and to have amassed 28 amateur points this season compared to the 4 (might have been six) I made last season is just amazing hey.

Huge Changes Ahoy

Such a small version of myself. Over 2 decades ago.

Anyway, huge changes are coming. And in the next couple of weeks. So I'm pretty frantic with cleaning and throwing things away and organising my future. My family has lived here for the last 11 yrs and my parents are selling the herd of dairy cows and on the 1st if June will be starting a brand new future. Which is good because it's a hard lifestyle and now they will get a break and an easier life. I'm leaving in a fortnight though.

I'm moving about 5 and a half hours of driving away to the Bay of Plenty and I have a job at a farm supply store and my partner is hunting us a flat. 2 Weeks to shift my whole life haha, what a nightmare. Still, I am very very excited to do something new and to be with my partner. Connie and Bill are coming with me definitely. I don't know what I'm going to do with Kate yet. Its such a conundrum really. I wish she wasn't so reactive and she would make a nice pottering around horse, but she just isn't that horse, she is an intense wee lady.

Huge changes ahead, just massive!

Taihape SJ Champs

Man what a hectic lead up to a show. Job interview on the Wednesday, travelling back on the Thursday and the garage calls and says truckie wont be ready. I text a friend on the off chance she was going past and she was but after a 6 hr drive home I had 10 mins to pack for the show and get back in a vehicle and travel 3 hours. Lame! I had left so much gear in the truck so I had to borrow studs, grooming gear, chaff, breastplate, bit, jacket, long boots (Sorry Kim I raided your wardrobe, thank goodness we have the same size feet) ear bonnet, number, and roller spurs. I'm lucky I have good friends.

Anyway, it seemed like a lot of effort but it was an awesome show and I'm so glad I went. The first day was a 1.20m class in ring 1 and i was a bit nervous. It went pretty well but I was a bit picky and didn't really flow as much as I would have liked. Took the last rail though, mostly because I was looking beyond it at the first part of the speed phase I think. I was 7th to ride in the first class of the day but was kept pretty busy by my friend helping her warm-up and working in some of her horses because she had 10 classes to ride in one day.

Saturday was the amateur class and it was the last class of the day so it was a fairly boring wait. My goodness only one horse makes for slow show days. Still rode better- more forward and committed and my lovely wee pony jumped an excellent clear round. She is just jumping through her combinations so well this show, no hesitation and just confident as. It was a call back jump off and there were five of us so I knew I would get a ribbon haha. Went pretty quick, direct down the dogleg, but needed to get off her back and let her really travel more really. Still she went clear again and I ended up third which was a great result. Good pony. Lots of kisses and food for her.

The final day she had the 1.20m class. It was a good sized track, definitely built to size with a very tall upright into the double. I wish I had videoed this round, I would love to have seen it. Anyway had my canter very organised and away I went. She was jumping awesome, giving everything lots of height and feeling confident and happy off the ground. Straight through the double and then to fence six which was towards the gate I ran out of brakes. I went wait and she just blew through my aid. She ended up very deep and did this insanely awkward jump but cleared it and then finished the round really well. In the jump-off I let her travel more but she was awesome. She is starting to enjoy her jump-offs. She always bounces on the wrong lead before we start them. I was able to turn her up tightish to the double and an oxer later in the course I turned so tight we only had a stride in front of it and she was just like yup sweet as.

Then I had to leave because my friend wanted to get home but my other friend got in touch with the good news that I had won the 1.20m class out of 21 starters. How mean is that! My best placing at that height by a long way. Last year Connie got a 6th and 10 yrs ago I got an 8t on Bob, so I'm really improving now. It feels great to have my hard work pay off, I just hope it lasts. Horses can be very humbling.

Langdale Horse Sports

Some of the pictures are too large and I can't resize them but if you open them in another tab you will be able to see the whole picture and it will be worth it :)

So on Saturday I went out to Langdale horse sports with Connie, Bill and Kate. A horse sports is the most grass roots competition we have around here, just a small local event. Kate was only along for the ride to make sure that Bill had a good influence not just the hot headed Connie who would have thrown her toys about being left alone at the truck while I was riding Bill. And Bill did not need to have the shrieking Connie distracting her so Kate is a godsend in that regard. And yes Connie is very naughty but I give her some slack because she jumps good.

This was not Bills first show we did a small one ages ago and she was pretty good but got eliminated at the double and she was wearing the evil girth so it was going to be pretty different this time with her super special fleece girth. Now Bill is a bold wee horse, the biggest issue is she is pretty horse shy. She thinks that strange horses cantering and jumping are going to eat her. She makes up for her shyness by being aggressive and wanting to lunge at the other horse so I will red ribbon her tail next time. I suspect she would kick.



The warm up arena was pretty hairy with lots of people charging around so I did a lot of trotting and then went in for a practice round hoping to get away from the chaos. The chaos followed me into the practice round however and there were soon five people charging around the course sometimes nearly crashing into each other. Le sigh. Still apart from some hairy moments it was pretty good for her to be exposed to this kind of madness. The first practice round she had a good look at one picket and a stop at the picket further on around the course but then jumped it straight away the next time around.





Her first round was 60cm and she was awesome. She trotted around well and jumped everything quite confidently. Just getting a bit crooked to some of them but still jumping really happily and taking me to the fences and seemed to be enjoying herself which is excellent.



After that class I took her bridle off and let her rest for a while and then she went in the 75 cm. I only walked her around for her second warm up as it was such a hot day and for a while she even stood ringside with the other horses and rested a hindleg so I was very happy she was getting so relaxed. The 75cm looked huge to me I wont lie and she obvious thought it was worth some effort because man was she jumping.



She also decided she has figured out doubles so she jumped in from the trot took one or two strides depending which double and just launched out of them even though she was miles away. Bold as brass this horse. But I'm happy she was so confident to get so straight to them and canter through.



I then did the jump-off for that class but just trotted around quietly. She did have one little tiny buck but I think it was more a I'm tired and hot and a bit over this than anything else. certainly nothing concerning. I was going to let her canter the last half of the jump-off course but she broke to the trot and I was content to let her trot and finish strongly. I can start jumping her from the canter at home now because she feels so good. She also loves that long distance.



My friend who has Ginga had 4 horses in one class and was pretty flat out classes only being about 20 people so after 6 weeks apart Ging and I joined forces again for the 95cm class. He is such a goober and definitely we have lost a bit of the connection we were forming but he is a nice guy so it was nice to jump him again. Had one stupid stop at the brush because we both got sucked to the base. I needed to have been more attacking and got him more forward and confident to it and it would have been fine but there you are. It happens. Like I say I haven't even ridden him for 7 weeks so to get on and go basically straight into the ring was fairly tough. I still feel like I ride him pretty well which is good.







Connie was in the 1.10m class and felt really awesome. She is a great. Cruised around the course easy as. Rode up for the five strides down to the double and she did back off it a little but then jumped through really confidently.



It probably wasn't visible to spectators but I felt her be all hmm this is a double. But the doubles were really short at this show so she found it easy as. Saved my butt to the last fence when I was a long way off the take off but didn't have room for another stride and she just left the ground and jumped huge. The picture is quite dark and small but you can see how high her body is. Go pony.



Put in a good jump-off and she was awesome as usual and she ended up in second place. She really is a great little horse. she is starting to really enjoy her jump offs and she just was so smooth and easy to ride in both of her rounds. She makes me look good haha.



A huge thank you to my friend Fe who came out and took all the photos and was chief cheerleader and a huge help.