Practice Jumping day

I'm about to load up and head off to a practice jumping day in Masterton with all four of my ponies. Quite nervous because it's the first public outing. In the meantime here is a video of Connie at the same practice day 3 years ago.

Baby Daddy

Seeing as it's the time of year when all the stallion ads are out I have been perusing for a stallion for Kate who I will breed this year if she doesn't stay sound or the following year if all is well. And I chose one! So here is a nice picture for you to enjoy.

ETA his name is Clearway by Capitol I out of a Lord mare

Goals for the 2011/2012 season

Bills dam Bob with me in the 1.15m class about 9 years ago. Yikes!

I totally spent ages last night writing this post only for it to disappear in the great blue nowhere. That got me sulking and i just went to bed, but I'm not letting myself feed my horses and go to bed until this post is done. I actually hate writing these posts. not because I'm not good at setting goals, every time I ride I have a goal in mind and I finish when I attain it. Or if I have what I want instantly I move the goal posts and aim for something else, but yea goals aren't my problem. Telling other people what they are is my problem. What if they laugh at me? What if I fail? What if they think I'm crazy? It's a bit hard to set really long term goals yet because I'm not sure what comes next to be honest. This December I want to assess where I am and decide whether I sell up and go overseas at the end of the season, or go overseas for the winter and come back to my horses for next season. It's not fair for my very generous parents to keep footing part of my showjumping bill if I'm not going to justify it with a reasonable level of performance.

So then to the goals. I'm not sure quite how to format this really.

First Show- Complete every round I enter on Kate, Connie and Rascal. Assess where each horse is at to make decisions about class options- moving up or down for the next show- and what I need to work on.

Second Show- Complete every round in less than 12 faults. Cope with jumping an indoor ring 1.

Myself- Improve position- keep shoulders open and keep left hand soft when it's my inside hand. I'm unbalancing my horses with it's desire to grab. They all go less well to the left.
- Improve confidence. Trust my own ability to ride and my instincts
- Improve eye and accuracy
- Develop plan for the future

Kate- Keep her sound! Stay in tune to how her knee is feeling and when it needs to be done again
- Improve stillness and smoothness and let her canter more down the related distances so she makes the fence out.
- Get confident jumping 1.20m tracks- look at moving up when possible.


Connie- Get her show fit.
- Jump well in the amateurs and look at moving up to pro-am classes.
- Jump 1.30 track before the end of the season.

Rascal- Sell her! (Hard when no one has called. I suspect she will be here for a while longer but it's not a bad thin really. It's hard time wise but she is going really well so it just means more positive saddle time for me.
- Get her jumping confidently in the 90cm and 1m classes. Look at 1.10m classes before season end.
- Try qualify for Amateur Showhunter of the Year (This one depends on if I have enough time, the showjumpers come first for me.)

Bill- Get her out to some shows!
- finish season doing 1.10m classes.

I don't think there is anything there that isn't attainable providing everything sort of goes to plan and I'm not plagued by lameness and disaster. Connie Kate and Rascal are all feeling really amazing and giving me great rides both on the flat and over fences. It seems to good to be true almost and in a way I find it worrying because it never goes like this with horses! Until my first show is over and done I wont really know where I am at with the horses. It's all very well them going well at home, but can we all hold it together in the ring remains to be seen.

I feel like them going well maybe adds another layer of pressure, like there are no excuses for less than perfect rounds? This is not good thinking at all so I need t cut that out. I'm a capable rider with lots of lovely horses and I just need to go out and get it done. I'm not really sure whether to start Kate in the 1.10m or not, but I have done like 20 1.10ms on her now, we are more than capable, I need to just suck it up. 2 weeks now. I hope to get to Teilcey once more early next week and then there is a practice day next weekend and then the next weekend it's go time again. Already nervous!

Season looms

Unfortunately I have been away at a wedding in the South Island for a while. suffice to say I will never agree to be on the bridal party again, unless it's my sister. While it was nice to get away and the South Island was beautiful the event was so farcical and poorly managed it put me off for life. I guess a thank you would have been nice for leaving my horses while 2 and a half weeks out from the first show and during calving on the farm but there you go.

Regardless, like I say the season is bearing down on us at a rapid rate of knots. I don't feel ready at all. I'm especially torn about what classes I put the Kate in. I feel a bit chicken on her but you know, she can jump well so I shouldn't really worry. I rode her yesterday for the first time since her knee was done. I couldn't really gauge how sound she was because without work she isn't very lame anyway and the ground wasn't great. She felt very strong and keen and absolutely full of beans. A little bit lighter in condition than I would like but I have time to fix that.

So Connie, Rascal and Kate will do Pukahu in a few weeks and Fielding a fortnight later. Bill will start mid October because I don't have the time right now to get her show ready. Can you believe it's come around this quickly!! I want to run around flailing my arms going "I'm not ready I'm not ready I'm not ready" especially seeing as 90cm looks so freaking massive at the moment. 1.10m almost looks unjumpable again! Possibly worse to because last season I had like now expectations and now I have them. I still have time for everything to fall into place and a couple of jumping sessions and I'll remember what I'm doing I'm sure.

Kate goes to the Vet Again

Well despite the snow- which has turned into an ugly hideous cold wind associated sleet which is horrible- Kate got bundled up to go back to the vet to get her knee sorted out. For the record the lowest temperatures we had without wind chill was about- 1-2 degrees Celsius. I know thats cold for a lot of the world but thats about the coldest it ever gets here (Normally in a short term frost situation) and we were suffering. The snow is mostly gone now, just the stupid freezing sleet.

It was 3 degrees when I loaded Kate up to go to Bulls with a very bitter wind so it was pretty unpleasant. With Truckie being at the garage I had borrowed a float (two horse straight load trailer for the Americans) and I'm not sure she had ever been in one before so she was pretty hesitant about loading, but once she was on she traveled really well. When we got to the clinic it was 8 degrees and the sun was out. I was like 30 minutes early so Kate and I definitely enjoyed catching some rays.

She was fine on the trot-ups but showed mild lameness on the small circle. I'm not surprised it wasn't that bad because she has been getting next to no work in the last week with the weather. You always kind of worry you are being the over-doing it Mum and I think the vet maybe think she isn't stopping because of the knee. However, I know Kate and she is pretty genuine and I am actually a pretty good rider so I know that everything was ok like canter quality and take-off spot wise, so I can only think of pain as being way she is stopping. The knee has been injected with a type of cortisone which has a 6 week action and we will see if that works. He also gave me some bute so when I do a couple of jumping sessions on her, I can see how brave she is, knowing that pain is not a factor. She has such lovely manners. I just held some neck skin while he did the injection and she hardly flinched and then it was back home to the sleet.

I'll keep her boxed for 2 days and then she can go out and will start riding her again when I get back from this wedding I'm a bridesmaid at. Blurk. I'm so not the bridesmaid type. Hopefully it will work and I'll have old bold Kate back.

Ok so I was wrong

Ok so I may have been wrong about the storm. That person is me, surrounded by snow. Did you recognise me off of a horse? I bet you wouldn't know me in the street.Uhh anyway so yes there is a storm and all the denial in the world didn't change that fact. It hit yesterday just after dark and really was quite heavy. We had about 6 inches on the ground in a couple of hours. We have a completely pastoral dairy farm here, with no sheds for the cows so they are all stuck outside. Cows are tough though and as long as you keep food in front of them they are ok. It's the new born calves that really struggle. They weren't even getting up, the poor little chaps. I brought one in about 7 o'clock. Mum did the late check at 9.30 or so and then that was it.

I woke up just before 3 in the morning. And lay in bed with the eerie white snow glow coming through the window thinking about little freezing baby animals. I tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening. So I found myself outside in the snow checking the soon to calve cows and the sheep. I tried to be really sneaky but the squeaking of the snow under my boots woke up the dogs and they kicked up a good ruckus. I'm going it's me it's me shut up, while the parentals and Kim are laying in bed wondering what the hell I'm up too. Actually, they thought I was checking the horses but I knew the horses would be fine, they all have double covers and hay and feeds. Anyway, there were two new calves that were cold and sad, the bull calf more so than the little girl. The little girl was very brand new, so wasn't as chilled. They got tucked up under a heat lamp and then I could sleep. Two more were born after I went to bed unfortunately and neither of them made it. The guilt! Mother and I are going to check them at 9, 12, and 3 tonight. Well I'll do 12 and 3. Mum will take the easier shifts.

The horses were fine though they are feeling the weather. The unclipped hair on the front of their faces is all poofed up which amuses me. I'm keeping a lot of hay in front of them. Today it started out miserable but was clear through most of the middle of the day which meant we could get everything fed on some grass as well as the silage, hay, fodderbeet (sugarbeet crossed with radishes- the cows go crazy for them. It's like cow crack apparently) and palm kernel. A lot of the snow melted but it's falling again now, though not as heavily. Up to 25cm is predicted overnight so fingers crossed that isn't the case. It's so hard on the animals. Well and the people. I was wearing two hats, a thermal, a polar fleece t-shirt, a hooded sweatshirt,a polar vest, trackies and waterproof leggings, a oilskin vest and a rain coat and gloves and still felt cold- though as soon as you move you are sweating. Those people that have proper snow all winter must be tough buggers. I'm sorry this is a fairly average post but you get what I have to give and right now it's not a lot!

Team trip to Tielcey Park 2 Part 2

Apparently there is another massive storm coming coming complete with snow, but I'm pretending it's not because it's going to suck, especially as when the weather turns bad the cows start shooting their babies out at a great rate. I have heard some arm flail reports that it may be the worst storm on record. Truckie also failed it's COF so I'm a bit stuck here what with Kate needing to be at the vet in Bulls next Wednesday to get her knee sorted so hoepfully I can get it fixed in time or I need to start ringing peeps with a float. I'm also on a de-tox for a week eating only fruit, nuts and vegetables in a bid to get my appetite for simple sugars and meat under control/ as an exercise in food discipline. For the reader who commented I must be fit from riding and farming, I am quite fit when I'm running as well, but mostly my lifestyle just means I'm very very strong. No lady like shoulders here.



Anyway back to Tielcey Park. After Connie it was on to Rascal to have a bit of a jump around and she was really really good. When I first brought her she was a really nice horse. Never going to be a super jumper but a really good straight forward horse. Then we had some rough times, with injuries and Kim knocking her confidence, and now after a season of hunting I have that nice straight forward horse back and I'm starting to enjoy her. She is currently on the market but so far no one has called or emailed :(. Still the shows are coming up and having her around will fill up my day and also all saddle time is good for me at this stage. Hopefully she will showhunter really well and be my diesel donkey. I guess there isn't actually much to say about it. Even from bad distances she was always locking to jump and she felt good. Not super powerful but she isn't super scopey. She was just good and easy and grown up.









Kate only went for a flatwork session and unlike last time when she wouldn't focus and relax because of the jumps, this time she actually worked really nicely. She was lovely and relaxed and happy to be out. I hate not knowing if she is going to be sound for the season, but I need to get her fit and lame to take her to treat it, even if that doesn't really make sense.



And then I let Kim canter around and jump some small stuff on her. They both love it, especially Kate. Please let her knee be fixable and let me have a good season on this lovely lovely horse. She owes me nothing at this point but I love jumping her. I paid a lot of money for her to only have two seasons, but she made me brave again, and got me showing, so really I owe her more than anything. Riding her is like riding a ferrari everything happens so quickly and lightly and she is so good for my riding. She is a plain jane, but she feels amazing. I wish I could send you the feeling of a big fence on that horse through the pc for you to enjoy.