Neo Advertised

So it's finally been done. Neo is for sale - advert up on trademe:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=229761707
Have had a few enquiries so far, so hopefully the perfect home isn't far away for him.

Also took Tui home today. Very sweet & trainable young horse, but just not ready to be in the team environment as yet - so hopefully a more suitable placement can be found for her.

Jumped Orin today - he is so cute over the fences! I think Gem, Neo & Coco were very jealous as they all only got boring old flatwork. And rained on. Lots. Poor horses.

Welcome Orin & Tui

While out in the truck today I got quite a bit done! Along with delivering Kody, I also picked up "Orin". He is coming to be sold on behalf of his owner, while she focuses on her new horse. Orin is around 15hh (but quite solid), part arab, and (need to confirm, but I think..) 6yo.

Orin loaded & travelled well. Once we got home I had a quick ride on him and he was good - but I wa just in the driveway paddock which is slippery so I didn't ask much of him. Orin will be coming along to the XC practise on Sunday to do some jumping!

I also headed up to Talking Horses (Andrew Froggatt) to look at a small grey mare, Tui, they had advertised. Andrew doesn't have the time to continue working with her so I picked her up and will be selling her on behalf of the owner once I have done a bit more training on her. The pics below are from her advert:

Tui was reluctant to load - but has not been taught to load or left the property since being with Andrew. She did travel well though. Once we got home I did another 45 minutes of loading work which was going quite well. Next step will be tying up alone which also seems to be something new for her. She was fine to ride and walked through the stream without complaint.

These 2 should keep me busy for a little while.

Kody Sold

Kody has been sold and went to his new home this morning. It's fairly local, so I should get to see him out and about which is fantastic! Of course it's a bit sad to see him go - but it is a wonderful home which makes it easier to wave goodbye.

Proof: Coco can Jump!

Headed to Battle Hill this morning to take Kody for a hack out (and then proceeded to get my truck stuck, and had to get a neighbour with tow rope and a group of people on their way to a what appeared to be a funeral to help! Insane). After that bit of drama we headed down to the arena. It was a very busy day out there. Alison had the horse dentist out and there were quite a few people and dogs around. Despite all of that Coco warmed up really nicely, and Nick had come along to get some proof that she can pop over little jumps.

This time we did not start with trotting poles, but with some small crossbars. She seemed to remember what it was about and happily trotted in and over them (sometimes jumping, and sometimes just keeping a trot stride).

Then we moved onto some uprights. I tried a canter approach, but Coco is still a little unsure of her balance over the fences and twisted a little with a canter takeoff, so we came back to a trot. She had a couple of little nappy episodes near the gate - but less than on Thursday. She doesn't tend to want to nap at all if she has her brain engaged - but if she gets distracted then that's the time she's likely to want to slow down or head back to the truck. After 2 of those episodes today we didn't have any more - so that is awesome.

We even did a related line, through trot. She doesn't seem bothered by fillers. Now it's just a case of getting her confidence and straightness improved. After our ride we had a walk around the other horses and people.. and donkey! Coco freaked out, but came back to me nicely and after a few moments was able to walk towards the donkey (though I did not make her go right up and touch noses). I am so pleased with how much she is improving!

Gem was up for another session of death by crossrail. She must be so sick of them, we do some crossrails about 4 times a week at the arena or at home now. But it is helping her form. She still doesn't bring her front legs together as much as I'd like - but it's improving, and the feel of her is really coming along. She doesn't feel like she throws herself at the jumps, but now she feels like she loads her hindquarters up and actually jumps them seriously.

After doing enough crossrails to bore us both, I decided to have a go at jumping on an angle. She picked it up straight away. Excuse that the 2nd pic below isn't the best timing - but I think it shows just how much of an acute angle she was happy to jump from.

Then Nick headed home to get ready for car racing tomorrow, and I had a quiet ride on Neo. Just bareback, a bit of schooling working on his bend and getting him moving away from the leg, but mostly just having a nice plod around in the sunshine (and not in the mud!).

Go Coco! & the Honest Scrap

What a super day! Highlight of it being that I jumped Coco! Yes, honestly really I did. I was down at the arena doing some schooling and stuff, and as I was riding Coco I just couldn't get my eyes off the jumps. There was a small crossbar, which I kept trotting near (seriously, my 20m circle turned into some weird oblong as I had an almost magnetic attraction to the damn thing). I decided to be somewhat sensible and get off and put some poles down first. She was good while I did that.

Then we came around and walked towards the 3 poles laying together. Awesome, no worries. I did some more various polework then trotted into the crossbar - no problem at all. I put her into that crossbar and a few others until she was jumping them kindly. We even did some small uprights (60cm) and little barrels - but really we don't quite have the impulsion yet to do anything more than that. But I am just stoked with how well she handled it all. It feels like she has a cute jump too, so will endeavour to get some pictures next time.

the Honest Scrap blog award

Beckz over at 'I will jump sweet Jumps' blog tagged me for the Honest Scrap. Basically it's an email quiz that has somehow worked it's way into the bloggersphere (blogosphere? which is correct, I'm not sure?). The idea is I have to list 10 honest things about myself, and then tag 10 further bloggers to complete it, but unlike the nasty email ones there is no threat of bad things happening if you don't complete it. But it'd be interesting if you guys did.

1. I am 30! Most people think I'm younger, but once someone who knew me only through the internet thought I was an old lady and was mortified when I posted a picture and wasn't grey and wrinkled.
2. I ride horses for a living currently. Sometimes I miss the warmth of the office and the relative ease of my old IT jobs (and I most certainly miss wearing the lovely wardrobe of clothes from Cue).
3. I am a vegetarian and have been since I was about 8. Over the past 4 years I have attempted to eat meat a few times - kickstarted by a rotational fall that ripped a reasonable amount of skin off my face. I found I healed much quicker while eating meat, but I really do hate it. I now tend to just eat about 2 servings of meat per year, and only if I am having health problems.
4. I have no siblings, and I am incredibly happy about this! I am very self-centric (as I am told is quite common in only-children). But I believe that if I'd had siblings I never would have had the opportunities to ride that I did when growing up.
5. I attended my first show a couple months after I turned 2 years old. I was on the lead rein, and got a yellow rosette (which I still have, and it's framed too).
6. Though I do not believe ribbons and placings can be our only goals in riding, I am excited every time I get one. I consider it a reward for all of the work put in to the horses (not just by me, either - but everyone who helps me), and never throw ribbons away.
7. The best riding lesson I ever had was about 20 years ago with Colin MacIntosh. I have had many good lessons since then, but I think that clinic had the largest number of 'lightbulb' moments of any in my life. It was also the single lesson that taught me how to get my heels down (though it still took a number of years for me to turn that theory into any semblance of reality!).
8. I didn't learn to drive until a few years ago. I was always scared of driving after an unpleasant experience when I was first put behind the wheel of a car. I was motivated by a desire to be able to drive horsetrucks and get myself out & about. I now have my class2 and am hoping to get my class4 when I have some spare cash.
9. I skipped a few years of school and started university when I was 16. I always assumed I would return to uni and do a Masters Degree, but never have (and now don't believe I ever will).
10. Many of you will already know this, but I love potato. I mean - there are days where I will have all 3 meals of the day as potato meals. I could potentially have potato in every single meal and never get sick of it. And I once cried when I spilt my freshly-cooked potato dish on the kitchen floor (smashing the bowl and making the meal completely unable to be consumed). This is how much I love potato.

Now it's your turn: Kylee at http://stellarsporthorses.blogspot.com/; Rackil at http://rackilshorses.blogspot.com/; Ang at http://kosporthorses.blogspot.com/; Kristal at http://flynnthegingerninja.blogspot.com/; Karina at http://valstersporthorses.blogspot.com/; Fiona at http://feetnz.blogspot.com/; Lou at http://talismanfarmsporthorses.blogspot.com/; Mel at http://cobber-highmaintenance.blogspot.com/; Alicia at http://aliciashorses.blogspot.com/; Jenny at http://enterata.wordpress.com/.

Kody gets Advertised

Went down to the arena today so that Nick would have a fiddle with the new camera (got ourselves a Canon EOS 450D, as the poor pink sony camera really is on it's last legs). This is our first DSLR though - and it is taking a bit of learning! So Nick was snapping away trying to learn about all the different settings and whatnot today.

I have listed Kody for sale today. It's a bit gutting, as I had hoped to have him for a bit longer and do a bit more (especially take advantage of his super jump) - but I guess sometimes this is just the way the cookie crumbles. Hopefully we can find an awesome home for him which will make it all a bit easier.

His jumping is coming along really great.. he is feeling so confident in himself and is happy to meet the fences from any kind of stride (forward or bouncy). The work we're doing on the flat to get him bending around my legs is helping our "between fences" in the jumping too - much easier to adjust our strides and ride the corners nicely. I'm really happy with how he is going.

Coco is still a bit nappy about going away from the other horses. I really need to get stuck into that behaviour as it is not something I want her to make a habit of (and it is one of my pet peeves!). But she was coping really well today and handled people walking towards her on the gravel surface which has previously scared her quite a bit.

Got some much better canter work out of her - she is keeping her canter going nicely now. Next step (apart from fixing that napping) is to drive her forward more. Now that she is fit she has no excuse to avoid working - so there will be no more overbent nose! She tends to tuck in to get out of doing any real work. But when I get her going forward she really does look and feel so much better.

Gem was a dude today! Only a few pics as the small memory card that came with the camera got all filled up pretty quickly. But wow - Gem is really loving being a jumping horse. Today I did heaps (and I mean heaps) of crossbards. Mostly from a trot, just letting her sort out those legs.. and occasionally popping over an upright. It feels like she is bringing her forelegs together a bit better. And she is so soft at the moment. No flash strap on her noseband needed!

Neo did a similar workout to Gem... lots and lots of trotting over crossbars to get him settled. It took a while for him to stop leaping over them and just to pop over them kindly (hardly breaking out of a trot stride). But once he got there I was really impressed. After doing that for long enough for the both of us to get a bit bored I popped him over a few bigger fences again just from a trot and he really used himself. I do need to put in more flatwork though.. he tends to lean against my leg rather than move away from it, which makes developing a good corner into fences a bit hit and miss. I hope if I can put the effort into some groundwork to improve his response to my legs that perhaps we can clean up some of those rails in our showjumping rounds. He certainly doesn't lack the talent - but it's all about the bits between the jumps at the end of the day.

June Tielcey Park CT

An extremely long day on Sunday. Caught the horses at 3.15am and got them ready to head up to Tielcey Park for another of their combined training (dressage & showjumping) days. The drive wasn't too bad as the predicted awful weather hadn't hit just yet.

Kody was the first to go. I'd put him in the introductory class for the CT. I spent his warmup encouraging him to stretch a little and not appear to 'jammed up' as he can sometimes do if worried. But really he went quite nicely. The equilibrium blue seems to have just taken that edge off him and he's much more fun to ride out and about when he is not scared of his own shadow! I still need to work on getting him straight - his circles and bend have improved in leaps and bounds, but I still feel that when we are heading up the centre line or across the arena then we don't quite go forward enough to get a nice straight line.


Kody's jumping was super! He warmed up inside and didn't worry about the noise or the mirrors. In the arena he had a spook at the first fence but then was on his way. I was so proud, even in the really wet surface conditions. We also did a small straight showjumping round where we got into the jumpoff but clipped a pole. He had a fab time though - faster than most of the ponies!


Neo needed a dressage test, and while he was very outclassed in the PreNovice, it was probably one of his better tests for staying calm and mostly holding correct bend especially in the corners. No jumping pics of him as it was 4.30pm and dark by the time he got to do his first round. He took poles at 1m and 1.05m - I think just being a bit lazy and a bit fizzy. All up I can't complain for his first jumping outing in absolutely ages.


I also rode 'Kraka' for a friend. It was a bit of a nightmare morning for her, resulting in them arriving at about the same time she was due to do her dressage test. So she quickly saddled him and I hopped on to do the test and get to know him a bit (my first time riding him). He was rather unsettled though. Annoyingly as soon as I took him inside to warm up for the jumping he did some beautiful flatwork! I think he just needed a bigger warmup.


Kraka started out jumping rather unconfident - inverted and coming down with his back legs very quickly.. but it didn't take too long for him to start to trust me - and by the time we finished our 60cm round he was quite happy (but so puffed!). We came back and did the 70cm which went great! He was jumping properly and even picked up a placing - go Kraka (& Tabitha for saddling him and running around after me)!


Gem is really starting to be a lot more settled in her flatwork. There were still some points where she got distracted, but she didn't pull or bounce and she was going forward. I'm really happy with that! She is so much happier not just getting regular work, but jumping! Going in circles as a showhack just made her a bit too bored I think! Now that I have her calm and happy I do need to get her working again, but it's one step at a time.


Sunday was also Gem's first ever showjumping competition! It was 90cm and Swifty took video of it. She coped really well. Coming disunited/trotting into the 5th fence sort of got us both a bit rattled and we chipped most of the fences after that. But I am just over the moon with that as her jumping debut - she also came 5th overall for the PreNovice combined training class.


The bad weather hit on the way home and the wind was insane! By the time I unloaded and put rugs and the horses I got them into their paddock at 8.45pm. I bet they slept really well! A big day for them all. No competitions for us for a month now. Just some practise days and the likes.

Small steps

It's been a good week so far! The weather has held out till today (though I think now we're supposed to get about 5 solid days of rain?), and the horses are all making progress in their own ways.

Coco has come up to me in the paddock the past 3 days in a row to be caught! This is a huge thing for her (& me). Previously I'd had to either put her into a corner or walk very very slowly up to her to catch her... and to have her now walking from the other side of the paddock and stand in front of me to be caught is fantastic. Yesterday she also had her first outing away from home where she was tied up to the truck rather than put in a yard. She never pulled back, and was quite good as I walked up and down the ramp and even unloaded and loaded horses with her standing there (she was in the spot right by the ramp so she would be exposed to more).

Alan came out on Wednesday and we did another session with Pippa. She dropped some weight last week and so got a bit of wither rub which was bugging her a bit. But I've since added another rug and she is putting the pounds back on, and the wither rub isn't a bad one so should be all healed by next week easily. Popped a stock saddle on Pippa and did some stretching exercises. Her muscles are very tight - and we are looking to spend time on massage before I get back on her. She's standing really well to have her hooves rasped now - even in the 'farrier grip' between the knees - and standing patiently while I get to work as I am certainly not very quick with the rasp.

Neo, Gem and Kody did a mock showjumping course yesterday in preparation for Tielcey Park this weekend. They were all really good and tried hard for me. I think that the 1m class might be a bit of an ask for Gem at this stage, but it will depend a lot on how the course is set on the day (technicality-wise). Neo was a dude - though I notice he's got a bit fat.. I might need to up his workload to help him keep a bit more fitness too. Kody was spooky to start with, but once he got going he certainly wasn't worried by any fillers, it's just a case of getting him focused on the task to begin with. I think I will try and get in a practise round on him this weekend just to give him that opportunity to see the arena and settle properly.

Xev is not loving being turned out. She is at the gate every day trying to sneak through while I catch others. I still bring her in each day to be fed - so perhaps she's just trying to get an extra dinner out of the deal? She's looking quite well though. I am aiming to bring her back into work in August for the 09-10 eventing season.

Zak and Alfie are up in Masterton both doing nothing but growing. It will be really interesting to get Alfie re-measured and see how much he has grown. He's certainly started to fill out, but we're pretty sure he's added at least a good inch since his last height certificate.

Prince William

Nope, not the royal - the pony! On the weekend I was looking at William to help the owners price him and put together an advert. What a cute pony! He is only 13.2 and his rider is well and truely too tall for him, but he is a real sweetie and I'm sure will have no trouble finding a new home to adore him. This is him with his owner:

And I snuck on for a ride too - excuse the fact that I am squishing him! But how cute is he!

Looks like I might have another horse coming up to compete, no details yet - but hope to have some info this week if all goes to plan :) Always exciting to add another to the Odenhills team!

Back on task

Only a little over a week till the combined training at Tielcey Park - and I finally have my own horses back in work to take. Awesome! I'll also be picking up the ride on a friend's horse in some of the low showjumping classes which I am looking forward to.

Gem was really chilled out today - no pull and no argue. It was lots of fun. I popped her over a few crossbars first to remind her what is going on (since I jumped her when we first bought her, she hasn't been jumped again apart from an intro ODE with Mum). She seemed to remember what it's all about.

Her knees aren't quite as even as I would like - but she was so honest with everything asked of her. We even came in on a few tricky spots and she was happy to jump. I will put up a grid with crossrails at home to help even up those knees - but aside from that, she isn't nearly as green as you'd expect a showhack to be at jumping!

Kody is still really spooky (I need to start feeding him something for that, but keep forgetting! grr). But after the initial fright where he thought perhaps the pole was going to come to life and chase him around the arena... once he warmed up he was a real dude.

He's got a neat wee canter too. I think it might be worthwhile to do some showhunter on him - he doesn't rush or get excited at all so holds a nice consistant canter. I will spend some time putting him over low square oxers to try and encourage his head to come down (at the moment he is jumping in quite a tight frame, which is fine while the fences are low, but not something I really want to encourage).

Neo had almost forgotten how to jump - practically fell over a few crossrails! And being that he is only just picking up his fitness again he was not as athletic as I am accustomed to him being. The plus side of that was that he's super calm and unfussed by anything.

After taking him over a few fences around the arena I got Swifty to put up one of the oxers just to pop him over something a bit bigger. He was actually jumping it pretty well and we were meeting our strides nicely. He is such a cutie.

Coco came along for the drive but didn't do anything in the arena today. I just wanted her to get some more exposure to things. I am back out at the arena tomorrow to take some pics of a pony that is for sale - so may take Coco to go watch that too.

Solway Dressage

Saturday I headed up to Masterton - picking up a wee pony to drop off to a friend, then backtracked a little bit and picked up wee Zakky who has been off grazing with another friend but is now ready to go back with Mum and be spoilt some more. Lots of driving around, and by the time I unloaded at Solway most of the horses had been in the truck for 4 hours! They were very pleased to get out and stretch their legs and have some grass. I gave them all a short ride around just before dark too - only about 10 minutes each as I wanted to get each of them ridden before it was too dark to continue. It was a lovely night too - I stayed in the truck and it was really quite nice and warm, pretty unusual for the weather we've been having lately, but I'm not complaining! Up at 5am today to start getting all 4 horses ready for their dressage tests (no sleep-in even when staying on the grounds, how unfair!).

I really wasn't sure what to expect with Coco. She was good on Saturday night for her ride around - a little nappy, but no issues. Sunday with all of the trucks and horses and everything 'busy' happening was just a bit too much for her. She looked really worried, and actually ran off 3 times while I was leading her (she would run back to her yard and 'hide' in it). I knew that sort of behaviour was a possibility, so we just took it really slowly and I had Mum help me while I got on and we used Xev as 'nanna horse' to babysit Coco for a while. She was still very tense, but I managed to stay topside and after some circles in a quiet area I headed over to the arena. She was spooky and reluctant to go forward at times, but when she did she got some lovely comments from the judge. I was so pleased to get into the arena, complete the test, and stay on! Mission accomplished. After the test I got off immediately and led her back to the truck, then she took off again when someone walked past on foot. So there is still a lot of work to do - but I feel that mostly it's exposure. So for the next wee while Coco will be tagging along to every outing, even if it's just to stand tied to the truck. it'll be good for her! Overall I was very pleased with how she coped, seeing as she was very worried/nervous. Looking forward to her next outing already - just not sure what it'll be.

Kody was spooking at everything! I wonder if the grass is growing again? They were all a bit 'looky' today. After an initial phase of looking at everything he actually warmed up pretty well. He is really starting to listen to my leg a lot more, making it so much easier to push him out on his circles and correct his bend when needed. His flatwork is improving every day at the moment - I think he is mentally & physically ready to have a bit more asked of him than he was last year, so hopefully we'll start to see his scores improving heaps. Excuse the blur on the second pic - Mum was trying to take pics while sitting on Gem, and I suspect Gem was not standing still!

Gem is still acting very fresh, and putting more energy into jig jogging around than actually moving forward. I hope that starting her jumping will give her an outlet for all that extra energy and also stop her from getting too bored (seems an idle mind causes nothing but trouble). As always, she did some lovely work - but there needs to be a lot more of it. Mum rode her in the afternoon and started to get a bit more submission - but she was still full of beans when it came time to head home. In a couple of weeks Gem will have her first showjumping start at Tielcey Park - I hope she enjoys it! At least I know she won't run out of steam!

Xev has got her transitions back, yay! It wasn't our best scoring test today (we did 2.2), but I was happy with how it went. Mostly I wanted to just have her listening to me, which she was doing really nicely. After her dressage test we popped down to a friend's arena and did some jumping which went quite well and has given me some ideas for new exercises to incorporate into my routine (always good to have new tools in the toolbox!).

The horses really enjoyed the covered yards overnight.. I need to get onto completing mine so they can have the same comforts at home! I think they will appreciate it (and the paddocks will probably appreciate it over winter too). Mum ran around taking photos of the horses looking silly - I think the one below of Xev is just hilarious.

After a very busy weekend I loaded up Gem, Xev, Kody & Coco and headed home. There was a crazy amount of traffic on the roads (not sure why), and we had a very near miss just a few km from home when someone coming the other way had picked a blind corner to overtake 7 cars - he missed us by what I am sure was only inches... It gave me a huge fright and I actually had to pull over and 'recover' before I could drive the rest of the way home! But when I got home Neo & Pippa were extremely happy to see me (or the hay I was carrying). No driving for me tomorrow! Going to be a stay-at-home day for sure.