February 14, 2007

pictures of the back paddock

There is a gorse paddock and a forrestry paddock right up the back, but this one is just behind the house:


Looking over from the driveway and then looking down from the far corner of the paddock:

pictures of the land

Panoramic view of the land:


The house is the higher one in the first pic, and the second is looking straight up from the road at the right hand side of the property:

pictures of the main bedroom

Looking from the hall into the room, and from the wardrobe into the room:


Looking back to the hall, and into the walk in wardrobe:

pictures of the woolshed

Outside of the woolshed:


Inside the woolshed:

pictures of the stockyards

Cattleyards:


Sheepyards:

pictures of the hutt

Looking up towards the hutt, then down at the shed from the driveway:


Inside the hutt:

pictures of the garage

The outside of the garage:


The inside of the garage (has a workbench, regular power, 3-phase & should fit 2/3 cars):

February 13, 2007

February 11, 2007

te marua

Yesterday we headed out to Te Marua and despite getting up pretty early again (5am for me) it was a fantastic day. Even the weather was spot on. We took Newsboy for Meredith too and both horses really went well:

Miss Silvi Apples
  • 1st rider on the flat
  • 2nd paced and mannered hack
  • 2nd open hack
  • 5th 80cm AM5 showjumping

Newsboy
  • 4th rider on the flat, with Meredith
  • 4th best riding club mount, with Meredith
  • 1st 90cm TA2 showjumping, with Me
  • 1st showjumping circuit class, with Me

So quite a good haul I reckon. Silvi is really learning to be so settled at shows too, she now falls asleep while on the sidelines watching other horses (if you're sitting on her or holding her) and doesn't bother at all about trucks going past or noisey flappy things. Very pleased with that.

The rider class was the first of the flat classes - and she not only did a few awesome walk-to-canter transitions, but also back down canter-to-walk and some lovely square halts.


Next up was best riding club mount. Mostly walk, trot and canter on a longer rein - and then also an exercise to dismount on the off side and lead your horse for a bit then come back and remount. Silvs was good, but I accidentally jabbed her with my toe as I tried to climb aboard and I think that put us out of a ribbon as she walked a step forward.


Paced and Mannered she went lovely, and Open too - judge commented on how lovely and soft she was, but just that I needed to push her up a little more into the bridle. I was stoked though, 2nd in both of those classes.




After that she had her saddle and bridle off and a little rest and breakfast at the truck while I went and did some entries for the jumping classes. Then it was time to go and do some practise rounds, we did the showjumping practise (clear and she went super quietly). We didn't get any photos of this round really as they came out blurry for some reason.

And then showhunter practise and I was stoked with how well she reacted (or really, didn't react at all) to the very spooky looking showhunter jumps with tyres and trees and everything strange.


It was then time for Silvi to have another rest while I went and rode Newsboy in the speed class in Ring 1. It was an awesome round, quite a bit of hooning and some very tight turns, we ended up beating the rest of the field by over 10 seconds!


Then it was back over to the showhunter ring to do a class there on Silvi. She did a nice round, got all her lead changes and striding - I was really pleased with it. We got a bit speedy in some places as I was riding a bit lazy - but it was just awesome for her to get each one of those flying changes.


Meredith took Silvi and looked after her while I got back on Newsboy for the circuit event. He got a little strong by the end of his first round, but still clear.


The jumpoff was really close between a few of us for time, with the big question being the trebble (long 1 stride, then short 2 stride) - I took a bit of a longer run towards it, but that seemed to help us and we just slipped into 1st by a second.




Lastly a very tired Silvi did her showjumping round and picked up 5th. But I could feel that she was really tired from the long day. We were entered in a derby jumping class afterwards but I went and scratched.


Both horses loaded perfectly again and it was a good drive home. Everyone tired at the end of it! But I think quite worth it, and a big dinner for Silvi too (lucky horse).