Update November 09

Thought I had better update this. Bam has sold and goes in a few hours to a fantastic home. Yay for Bam. Jack is all better after his sore foot and been to a couple of shows. Got a 4th and a 5th in the SH at Manawatu so now has 3 SH points. And completed a Training horse trial yesterday at QEP. 1 rider rail in the SJ and cruised home easily clear XC. Still needs some dressage work though.

Fox has been out and about. 4 SH points at Carterton, then another 4 at Manawatu even though I'm not really intending to SH him. I took him eventing yesterday also doing Novice and we should have cruised home easy but he just wasn't happy and bowling like he usually is. About 5 fences from home he got underneath a big table top and caught his knees and just tipped me off. I landed on my feet but rolled my ankle on the uneven ground and its got a nasty sprain so I opted not to complete XC as I couldn't hold my balance anymore. However I was happy as with his dressage and his SJ was a excellent clear round and he was really tidy and listening to me. Guess you take the good with the bad with horses aye :-)

Jack will be on the market hopefully before Xmas and I will continue to SH him and SJ him until he sells. Hes a cool boy but I dont have the $ to compete 2 horses.

Flaxmere Horse Trial

I almost didn't go to Flaxmere, I was forced to scratch Jack when he picked up a stone bruise the week before and missed to much work. Then the forecast for the weekend was crap! I struggled all week with the weather but got in a good ride on Fox every night even in the cold. Even doing a dressage lesson on Thursday night in the rain.

Friday the weather was still awful but thankfully with my new shed I was able to get Fox ready and plaited in the nice dry shed and then just had to trot the boys to the float and off we went.

Saturday the weather was still shocking but we headed off to Flaxmere cos i thought dressage in the rain can't be to bad. I was first to ride in my Novice start which I thought was mean for my first Novice! But it worked out well cos I got a nice little fine break for my test with no wind or rain and Fox held it together to do what (for us) was a very tidy test. I was please with our score as we didn't embarrass ourselves and weren't last!

SJ the sun came out but the grounds were still wet and the course was pretty decent. We dropped 2 early rails but I was pleased with this.

Sunday and the sun was beaming! What a awesome day. The ground dried out and the galloping was excellent. Fox was a star, he jumped from the start box into gallop and didn't slow down or back off the whole way. He flew round everything, was a bit sticky over the hideous ditch full of black water that I was most worried about, but mainly cos we jumped the jump into it badly. Nothing else phased him, even thou quite a few were on my 'scared of' list. He came charging home with just 12 time faults which was pretty good and we finished 9th overall. I was happy as with this result.

Check out a photo on http://www.takethemoment.co.nz/photos/v/events/2109Flaxmere/Trevethick_P8195.JPG.html

Bam

Well I have made the reluctant decision to sell Bam. Having purchased Jack, I don't have the time to keep 3 horses in work and as Bam is very green and not ready to go out competing at the level I would like, he is the one to be put on the market. I took him out to an Inhand show just for an outing and he was very well behaved and then took some pics of him at home for his ad. Here are a few pics of him. Fingers crossed he sells.

New horse Jack

I bought myself a nice new horse last week. He is a 6yo TB, 15.3hh by Chatham. He raced as Rara Avis and was pretty useless. I bought him off Georgie Thomson who evented him last autumn season at Training level. Hes a lovely boy, forward moving with nice flat work and a super bold jump. He just needs more mileage before upgrading to Pre Novice.

I just need to give him a proper name and register him and then will be out competing him this spring eventing season. I took him along with me to Pukahu Show on the weekend and did a couple of Show Hunter rounds on him and picked up a couple of ribbons as they were small classes. Here are a few pictures of him and I will get more as we are out and about.

Shed Photos

Pics of the shed.

Shed and Calves

Yay our new shed is finished. Rich and I spent all weekend building the 2 horse yards in it. They are 4.5 x 4m yards. Then we picked up a few calves, ok 27 to be exact. So both yards have 11 calves in each and we have 5 younger ones in our old hay barn. Yards are looking good - nice and high for the horses and nice and big. We have enough materials left to build a 3rd yard which will go in front of one of the yards and will be mostly undercover. I will post some photos tomorrow. Have just been a bit busy.

Almost there

Progress pic of the shed. Has roof on and back wall on and tomorrow will finish the sides an its done. Then we have to kit it out with a couple of yards for the horses/calves.

New shed and baby lambs

My shed is under construction! Yay. Will be finished by next weekend and then we have to quickly make some yards inside it as we are getting some calves. Sorry horses you will have to wait for a while cos the calves need it more. Pics of the shed progress.

And today we got 3 lambs. 2 are ours and one is our flatmate Brendons. Funnily enough we have 2 boys and a little girl.... So the lamb feeding races are on and I would just like to announce that race 1 was won by the girls hahaha! She might be the littlest but she can drink! Am yet to think of a name for her but will let you know!

Bams makeover

Seeing as I had some time today I was finally able to wash and condition Bam's tail, which I have been wanting to do for ages... but to be honest, you can't even tell! He had the oddest tail for a bay. Its black with white hairs and half of it is brown to grey.... it just looks dirty. What do you think?

Bam learns to jump

Rich came out and helped me pop Bam over a few little jumps to give him a taste of jumping and to see how he coped. He was very good about it, trotted the first few without even bothering to jump so had to put them a bit higher. He picked it up immediately and had a nice little spring. Here are a few pictures, will give him another go and might take him to QEP this weekend to go for another hack.

Weaning Time

Today was finally well over time to wean Haylee. She spent the day in the yard to settle and had some feeds and Bam next to her to keep her company and then later this afternoon with a lot of help from Dana, who was down for a saddle fitting, we loaded Haylee onto Danas float and took her the 200m down the road to where she is going to graze with Ed and Lexi. She was not the most well behaved once we got her out of sight of her mother, but we got there in the end. Angel is currently grazing with Fox to keep her company but is a little upset. Hopefully in a few days time they have both settled in. Haylee has both the old boys to keep her company so lets hope they are a good influence.

Taupo XC Training

Had a fantastic weekend away up at the National Equestrian Centre in Taupo with Dana. We did 2 cross country lessons over 2 days with Margaret Lees who was just awesome. Taupo has such a huge range of jumps to choose from. We arrived there after dark on Friday night and popped Luca and Fox into some covered yards for the night with lots of hay and feed. We were staying in the hall at the NEC and well lets just say it took us an hour to get the fire going and then it was barely worth the effort. Please someone donate them a new fireplace!!!!

Sat morn we had out first lesson with Margaret at 9.45 which we started slightly late due to some stirrup leather dramas (DON'T ASK!). But we had an awesome lesson. Worked on stringing some jumps together and playing with some skinnies as they seem to be the new black. Everything is skinny! Then we had a play in the water which Fox is always a bit sticky thru. Sure enough he had a decent look first time in. But with a few goes he was popping thru quite boldly. We finished our lesson jumping a Pre novice palisade, over a few skinny logs on a turn and then around over a decent sized Novice pallisade. Both Fox and Luca flew the pallisade, the best jump of the day for both of them!

Then we settled the boys into a paddock for the day and Dana an I headed off to Taupo for lunch and extra blankets for Dana. And of course a 1 hour soak in the Hot Pools at De Bretts. Ahhhhhhh! Then we headed back to the Hall as everyone who was having the lesson was having a pot luck in the hall. Was a nice meal and a lovely evening drinking some wines and meeting new people. But did I mention the weather forecast that night.... -3 degrees.... hmmmm

Yes we did wake up on Sunday morning. I was buried under 2 sleeping bags, a doubled up Mink blanket and a brand new WB Landa that Fox has never worn yet. Fox was ok, he had 3 rugs on too! Wow it was cold. The pic at the top was taken at 8.15am as I was heading to saddle up the ponies, yes we rode in that fog! It made things a bit interesting as the sky was white, the ground was white, and the jumps were white. Hence the first jump I put Fox at which was a skinny, we went around! Yep he was just too confused with white white white to figure it out.

But we did get it together and popped over some tractor tyre skinnies and then strung the bank and then the roll top, 2 strides over a log into the water. And I heard Dana and Luca break the ice from a good 60m away as they jumped into the water!

We had a play over a tough combination thru the water, and I was stoked with Fox who was nailing the water finally. Yay a bold water pony! We headed into the land corp block and had a play with a couple of other combinations before we finished out lesson. Margaret is heading back to Holland soon but she promises she will contact us next time she is back in NZ.

Trucks were arriving in droves as we unsaddled and packed up our gear as Taupo Hunt week was starting and the first hunt was riding out at 12! So as we were leaving bang on 12 we pulled over and watched them all ride out.

An awesome weekend but just a tad cold!

Haylee gets a cover

Well I managed to pick up a little 3'9 rug for Haylee and it arrived just in time for some nasty weather. So Rich came out and helped me put it on her. She was really good about it even in the wind, just stood there while I adjusted all the straps and did it up nice and tight, even crossing them between her legs. Shes all grown up now :-) Go Hails.

Saddle Fitting and Bams first float ride

Dana and I got Tom from Berry's in Levin to do a saddle fitting. Good news was that my dressage saddle fits Fox well. Yay. My jumping saddle was also pretty much fine but was sitting slightly low at the back so this is getting padded at the back and then we will be all good. Pic is of us pottering around while testing the saddle.

Bam had his first float ride today as he came for a ride with us to the arena to have an outing. He walked straight on (his first time ever in a float) and travelled like a pro. He then stood for over 3 hours while we had the saddle fitting and then walked straight back on float for trip home so I am very proud. BUT he did attack the front padding of my float so he will be getting a grazing muzzle for future trips! A productive day though and now I know Bam floats :-)

First Post

Well hello! Seeing as its Winter there is not a lot happening with my horses. Paddocks are too wet to do much riding. Fox has the hairest legs you have ever seen on a TB! But on the right are the 3 horses I hope to have out and about this season. Haylee I aim to get to a few inhand shows, Bam I might do a few little training Show Hunter outings and perhaps a bit of flat stuff but will be taking it fairly easy with him as hes only just rising 4 and still a baby. Fox will be out eventing, SJ and a little SH.

In addition to these 3 I have 2 others. Angel is Haylees mum, she is rising 14 and I have owned her since she was 6, and Ed is 24 and has been with us since he was 18.

Photos of Angel (top) and both together (bottom) so they dont feel left out.

Check back as I will update this as we get back into gear for the new season!

Ciao