Posty posty.

Haha Sharon you are a litte premature. Te Teko show is the weekend coming. Am I organised. Ahh no. Do i have two horses each missing a shoe. Ahh yes. I'm I starting to get a little stressed?? Ahh yess. Last weekend on the sunday Kim and I went cross country schooling with Rascal and connie. Connie has never jumped a XC fence but once she go the idea she was excellent. Just a few dramas with the ditch haha! And she nearly rolled in the water jump, her knees buckled and I was like " Nooo!". sorry it will be a short update I have a million thins to do but yea in three days I will be in/have complated the first clss for the new season and thats exciting.

Solway Practise Day

Sigh I have to say having had a little much fun this weekend I was pretty tired going to this but havin Truckie on the road again with Kim in the passenger seat and nice horses in the back was amazing. Rascal was very cute but then went amazing once Kim figured out the canter she wanted and they both jumped really well. Kim just neds to learn to trust her because really Rascal doesn't stop.

Kate was also excellent. Required a lot of leg to the liverpool and I have one miscommunication with her about when we should take off and I landed rather heavily on her back and that upset her a little. Thankfully for me she didn't just bury me but it tok me the rest of the ride to get the balls to jump that line again and she did it nice as, I just needed to dogleg more to the liverpool and ride on to it. But basically I'm feeling more and more confident on her, she adores her job and I love her to pieces. When I think of all the fun I missed out on riding Fred wen I could have had something like Kate I kick myself, but then it worked out so I did learn a lot and so that I ended up with Kate who suits me well. I wont ever take that long to pass a horse in again though. Just not worth it. So I guess feeling happy and excited about the first show in a fortnight, just need to go kick Connies ass into gear now.

Entries are out

Okey dokey. Entries to the first show are out. We are starting at Te Teko in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. My Aunty lives 5 mins from the showgrounds and it was such a nice show and it's far far away from anyone we know! haha excellent plan. I plan to stat conservatively even though I think I'm lame for doing so. Better to start low and find it easy and move up. The conundrum is that Kate is experienced as but then as a combination we are pretty green I have no idea what she will be like once we are out, or in the ring.

So all three Connie, Kate and rascal are in the 90 and 95cm the first day and then Kate and Rascal do the 95-1m. Though if it goes really well with Kate I may do the 1m and then the 1.05m so there are options. Connie does another 90cm and 95cm on the Sunday. She isn't fit at all and has hardly any work so I'm heading for a cruisy start to the season. I'm riding her again, she is about 99% now but I wont be jumping her for a while longer yet. The cause of her lameness was a puncture wound in her sole but thats mostly resolved now, I was too late finding it to help much.

Practise day at solway on Sunday so will jump Kate, Kim will jump Rascal and I'll school connie there so at least they have all had an outing.

More gridwork

So we did gridwork again, but this time it was my turn. We did similar grids to what I discussed earlier when Kim jumped Rascal. Started with rails on the ground and cantered throughthem and Kate was just as happy as a kid hunting Easter eggs. She was initially sticky when I first got on because she didn't like the feel of the stud girth but once she had had a canter she was fine.

Then did crossrail to an upright to a small oxer. Built the oxer bigger and bigger and she stayed bold as through it, at one point jumping the first ground rail and the crossrail- a jump of 9 feet across! What was she thinking! But smooth as, I had to ask Kim what had happened. Built the oxer up until it was 1.20m at it's highest point and about the same across. The first time I did a 1.10m oxer she just powered off of the gorund and I was like Damn Kim you have to try this. So Kim went down the grid on her a few times and we both agreed she is a powerhouse. The problems we did come up with are that I unfold too fast and Kate pulls left over the big fences, so there is plenty to work on there because I really have to stay forward to encourage her to loosen up behind.



Then we went to a big Cross behind, and as I said before they back horses off and Kate stopped the first time because I didn't put enough leg on her. After she had been over it once she was good as gold. As you can see from the photos it encourages her to loosen up behind (she still doesn't have a nice trail though I think I should get a chiropracter to her because she has an inflexible back) and made her knees super cute and tight in front.



You can see her power off the ground here, she really springs off of those back legs.



Ah love! What a good horse.

The latest post

Oh man oh man, I am living groundhog day and i'm having trouble with my registrations. I do believe I will be sending of my third check to ESNZ tomorrow for forty dollars owing to Kim's horse, for a reason I don't understand but joy oh joy they wont register Kate until it is done. I'm getting really tired of being financially pillaged to fund our high performance programs which seem to achieve sweet F all. Money seems to just fly away from me, sigh. I'm sure I shouldn't be this broke. Perhaps I need a better job, but that would mean sacrificing alot. Such as free grazing, help with costs,time to ride in the middle of the day.

Connie is still lame. It's really mild but still there. I think it's in her foot but can realy find not alot wrong with her feet. Treated a bit of trush but it shouldn't have been bad enough to make her lame especially as she was totally unreactive when I stabbed at her foot with my hoofpck so who knows. The farrier comes on tuesday so will be interesting to see what he says. I wonder is perhaps it is muscular and related to changing the angles in that foot which is clubby?? But that is also very expensive especially because I will get an epic lecture about how her saddle doesn't fit perfectly. It doesn't and I know this but she needs a custom saddle and I'm poor. It fits her about as well as any non custom saddle could and she has never had any back pain so What can you do?

And Kate?? Oh my word I love Kate, what a cool horse. She has been packing me around so nicely. Has gallops the other days on the hills and she was a lot faster than I thought considering she never even trialled as a racehorse. I love how sensitive she is. Riding rather behind the leg steady types has made me a bit of a blunt tool as a rider and she is making me regain some finesse.She is picking up the schooling super fast so it's mostly about building strength and going forward more now. She can be a bit backwards when I first start working her and I have to get her more forward off of the leg.

I had a good play today just jumping crossrails (So as not to kill us both when I missed) and trying to figure her out. She likes to run to her fences, but not if I stay really quiet, and I can steady her in front of the fence but I have to do it very smoothly and quietly. If I can steady her she doesn't get so deep and jumps much nicer. She felt really good though and I love how she is a grumpy old mare until you put a fence in front of her or have a gallop. She is all about the fun parts of being ridden thats for sure. And she is a hungry little pig. She lost some condition over the winter which I'm kicking myself about but she is picking up quickly despite the reasonably heavy workload.