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!
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