Battle Hill ODE

Well this season i decided i would be brave and try doing Pre Training ODE's instead of Intro.  

Today was our first for the season, we did quite well in our dressage although need to improve our suppleness and Amy's resisting. (which i new already lol)

Our showjumping was typical for us, a speedy round with miss no it all taking charge often, haha. But we made it round with a good time and only one rail.

We had a big break before xcountry and Amy had pretty much decided she was done for the day when i geared her back up. We had 2 refusals at the first (the little tart!), one refusal at the second, 4 at the water! (naughty pony) We were now eliminated but carried on and had one more refusal  at a gate and the rest of the course she jumped like a old pro.

Lesson learnt from today: Always carry a crop on xcountry and ride the first few fences like my life depends on it cause she obviously takes a little while to settle in.

Next weekend we have off then its off to Te Marua for another ODE, fingers crossed that goes better.

Western Hills Spring Show

Well what a awesome day (weather wise and the horses went great too).

Taani was looking beautiful as usual and all done up for her flat classes.

Her and Jessie ended up with a 3rd in Paced and Mannered, a 3rd in Unity and a 5th in Novice Rider. So for their first show out together we were very very proud of the two of them, and Jessie as come away with a few things to work on. :)

Amy got to watch the surroundings for the morning as our class didn't start till about 10.30am.

She was very speedy in all her jumping and in the first two classes (80cm & 90cm)we got one rail down on the same jump! And in the second class i got tired at the end so she skipped out the last cause it had a filler.

Our last class was a 80cm Table C and Amy decided to pack a tanty and decide she's had enough for the day, but we got through that and started our round, we knocked a rail on the first jump and then floored it round the rest of the coarse (advise from perf ;) and we ended up getting first with seconds to spare despite the pole down. So we are a very happy pair even though she's a crazy speedy redhead. LOL

Blondies impromptu spring makeover

Well Blondie was taken for his usual visit up to the house for the kids (gandkids of landowner) to ride and love.

Well we have now had to take him back with a new hair cut............ Everywhere!

They have chopped his mane at different lengths (dont know if they were trying to make it look natural or what, his forelock has been blunt chopped quite short and his big beautiful thick tail is now just above his hocks! :(

We were all quite mortified when we found out, and their grandparents were very apologetic.

We had all the horses feet done today and while blondie was getting his pedicure i noticed they had taken to his rump with the scissors as there are a couple of very small chops out of his winter coat! 

Apparently he has also picked up some bad manners, Jessie found him a little bossy when bridling and doing up his girth so he is now staying with us for a while to sort him out.

We have combed out his mane and thinned it a little, but you can still tell its been cut with scissors. Mind you from what their grandmother has told me her poor horse came out worse off with her tail now only about 10 inches long and stepped in length. Will try get photos soon.

The tail bag

Because Taani is a grey *sigh*, and because she will only be doing flat classes i decided to invest in a tail bag.  I went shopping and came home with a black rustly synthetic one. Hehehehe.

A little history Taani hates rustly noisy things attached to her or her rider, so i knew this was gonna be interesting.

She actually allowed me to put her tail in it, shock horror!

Then we went for a walk, she was walking ok till it hit her legs, so she started kicking it, (hehehehe) then she tried to run from it, luckily i had her on the lead so was able to calm her down quick smart.

We took her back tied her up and chopped the end so it wasn't too long, then took her for a walk and a trot and it no longer was worrying her so off to bed she went with a nice dinner.

She doesn't like the thing i can tell you that :P but she is putting up with it for us, just shows what a good girl she is. :)

QEII training day

Yesterday was our second QEII training day, we picked up a friends daughter and her horse on the way and me up with perf there. I also got to meet Skrippy and Kaycee so good to finally put some faces to names.

Me and Amy had a blast, got over a few tricky jumps and Perf made me go over a few scary jumps luckily my wee horse is a star and pulled us through. :D

We still couldn't get over the BIG ditch, although we wont be competing that level for a while and so i'm hoping we can get used to ditches at a smaller size for a while, she now jumps the 'other' ditch without too much of a problem so im very happy with how we're progressing.

Next outing will be Western Hills which will be Taani's first outing

Float Practice

Well today after Nicks hangover wore off we picked up the float and headed down for float training with Taani.

Taani hasn't left the farm (by way of floating) in about 5 years. She has a show in two weeks, so we thought we better see how she is considering she was always trouble to get on in the past.

I bought her and Amy out of the paddock cause i wanted to see how they float together, since Amy can get a bit bossy.  We tied Amy up and led Taani up to the float, after a few hesitant steps she wandered in no problem!  So we kept her there for a few seconds then backed her off and booted her up with her floating boots.

Then we tried to put her back on. Well she was giving us one chance and that was it! It must've taken us about a hour to get her back on we tried guiding ropes, a tickly dressage whip, and a tasty bucket of feed. In the end she went on without any props just me at the front and nick straightening her up from behind. So 2 to us, 0 to Taani. :)

We then put Amy on beside her, she decided to fluff around today the little tart and wouldn't go on without some coaxing from Nick behind her.

We took them for a drive around the valley and they both behaved beautifully and stood nice and patiently to back off and did that like proper ladies, so all in all a successful day and they got to relax in their paddock afterwards with a nice bucket of feed each.

Next weekend is the last QEII training day, which looks to be a mini boardie get together, and the saturday after that Taani and Amy will be heading out to Western Hills Spring Show for Taani's first Show in ages her and Jessie will be doing some flat classes while me and Amy do a nice ring two day of showjumping for the start of the season.

QEII training day

Well i took amy along to the training day at QEII, it was a beautiful sunny day and the ground was very nice for jumping.

I went along by myself, absolutely shitting myself aswell. Not long after we arrived i met up with some friends who i was able to ride with yay!

I started looking for the smallest most basic jumps and after getting over a couple i was jumping the big jumps and the others were using us as a lead over the scary jumps cause amy was pretty much point and shoot all day.

I was sooo proud of my little girl and everyone around me said dont sell! Little did they know it was going to be my deciding day on wether i kept her or not, so since it all went well, my little firecracker will now be staying with me.

We will be starting the season doing pre-training aaaah! at perfs instruction and are hoping to be at training by the end of the season.  I think ill be growing some balls fast and we gonna need to work on Amys flat work.