April 29, 2007

photos!

Zak in his rug (with Silvi trying to push him down the hill), and an earlier picture I tried to take of Zak and Pie but it was getting a bit too dark for the camera (didn't stop Zak from enjoying his carrot which he can now eat a whole one of!).

anzac day

Was a busy day rather than a holiday. Mum came down with a friend and we unloaded a bunch of hay, got the big fallen tree cut up, and took the weedwacker to the garden again.

I still have the task of moving all of the wood - but it's great to have it all chopped up. And behind the garage is starting to look more like lawn and less like jungle (very slowly).

April 28, 2007

rugged up

No photos just yet - but for the past week Zak has been wearing a cover overnight! Very cute. He's now good enough to stand still when tied up (or with someone holding him) while I pop his rug on... and so far he hasn't ruined it, which I am very surprised by! They're also having hay morning and night too - Mum brought down a small supply which the horses are quite happy to snack on, but we're going to have to get more - especially if the rumors of snow over winter are true!

April 17, 2007

working

Mum was down last weekend, and we were able to get a lot of work done on the place. I've also got some photos of my huge recent trademe shopping spree.

Mum did heaps of work on the paddocks, most notably making some steps so we can easily get to the paddock that the horses are in right now - and then also clearing a ton of gorse to make a nice wide track to get the horses in and out. There used to be a track there some time ago, but by the time we bought the place you couldn't even walk a single person through as it was so overgrown.
While Mum was busy doing that, Nick and I did some work in the garden - and even got out the hose and brush and cleaned the windows at the back of the garage so you can see out to the horses while working on cars or something. Oh yeah, and spent a bit of time admiring my lovely new decals I had made up to go on the side of the truck with our farm logo (okay, so we don't have a farm name yet, but it'll come).
Inside the house we had a heap of new stuff arrive. Swifty was really helpful and grabbed the horsetruck to collect it all during the day while we were at work. Our new couch means more than 2 people can sit and watch TV! Also closes in the TV/lounge area and makes it a bit more cosy I think.
Then we also got our new dining table which makes the dining space a lot more full, and now we can even have people over for meals! Shandy likes the table as it matches him. Oh yeah, and I got a new microwave with the Farmers vouchers I got when I left my old job - handy!

update

Well Zak and Silvi are doing alright. They're certainly enjoying the feeding regime that Zak is on. Zak is starting to get a little bolshy, and I think it might be time to do some more work towards teaching him to tie up. He leads alright now, but I want to be able to tie him up at dinnertime or just to clean his cut that he got on his chest a few days ago.

On Friday we took the horses out of the paddock and moved them into yards. Zak wasn't too sure what to make of the yards - and hung out right beside Silvi a lot - but he was good, and even had a drink from the water bucket while I was watching him.


By Friday night they were ready to leave the yards and be moved into a different paddock up by the house - and that's where they have been staying. Lots of grass in there too, no wonder they're both full of beans.

April 13, 2007

Odette ('94-'07)

Odette passed away at midnight this morning, after a paddock accident. She was a very special horse, and loved by many. She will be very sadly missed, and very happily remembered.


Odette (12 December 1994 - 13 April 2007)

April 12, 2007

cards

Silvi's business cards turned up (I just did a trail run, only have 10 of them) - the front has a photo of Silvi (3 different ones I picked to start with) and the back has my contact details and farm logo.

what are you doing?

Rode Silvi bareback last night, and jumped the stream a few times - landed on her back a bit heavy, hope she doesn't hate me now!

Also Zak in the wrong paddock this morning. Silly pony. Should jump though.

g.a.m.e.d.o.n.t.s.t.o.p

Or I don't stop... I just bought more furniture! I haven't really gone on a spending spree, just a few things have cropped up in close timing, and they are things that the house needs. So last night on trademe a couch that looked like it'd fit nicely and suit the lounge was listed, and had a buynow, so I slammed that button quick smart (was a bargain I think). Here are photos:


It's a suede type material, same as the blue couch I have now. Should nicely split the living area from the dining area.

Good news though - I only have one more item on the 'big things I need to buy for the house' remaining. It happens to be a 2-stroke lawnmower, and they don't seem to go for cheap - but I'm sure one will crop up! And until then I'll just keep giving the lawn the evil eye.

April 11, 2007

and I've been playing

Been playing in google maps. First one is a rough layout of the existing paddocks, and the second is just some ideas about where a flat riding area or arena could go one day, along with a proper raceway. Just ideas at the moment - and google maps is a pretty easy-to-use tool to dump ideas into.

I bought a dining table!

Yeah. Should pick it up this week. Awesome.

April 08, 2007

riding club show mum

So my Mum hasn't jumped/competed in about 12 years I think. I'm sure the last time was when she borrowed a little chestnut pony of mine for Masters Games in about '95 or something. She's sat on my horses, maybe once a season, since then. So today we decided to throw her in a jumping class on Silvi. It went really well, double clear, and they ended up getting 3rd! How tinny!

Warming up and practise fence:
First round:
More from the first round:
The jumpoff:
And with their ribbon:
Both horse and rider should be happy with that result! I know that Silvi was very tired thisafternoon and went to sleep under a tree, she deserved her nice big dinner later on too (until Odette and Zak stole the last bit of it).

riding club show

Today was the riding club show down at Meredith's. Sort of a final rally before winter (first rally I think we've had in the time I've been there anyway). Good fun.

Turnout 4th
Combination 1st
Egg and spoon 4th
Flour race ? don't remember - too busy choking on flour glue
Egg in bucket 2nd
Jumping 3rd (with Mum)

Dragged Silvi out of the paddock and she was, as always, very well behaved. Not too keen on the standing still parts (especially in turnout), but we walked a few circles and that seemed to keep her occupied. She is feeling a lot better through her hind quarters too. Mum came down to do the driving, and Swifty came along to be social - which was nice.

Games were a bit funny - never tried on her before, and she was rather slow off the mark, but at least didn't get too fussed about anything. Wasn't too keen on the drum to start with, but just took a little time (didn't help that my short little arms couldn't reach all the way down from her very easily)

Jumping was great - she was a dude for me (though had a rail) and Mum took her in a class, but I'll do a post for that after. And because I'm tired, there will be no more narration, just pictures.

Flat:

Games:

Jumping:

desks

We got a new desk for Nick like a week ago, so over Easter we not only got around to building the extra bits that we'd ignored at first, but we tidied up the computer room a bit!

My corner desk, and Nick's uber stretched desk:


And check out the tidy wardrobe (even more tidy when closed):


And also for Easter we had Mum down and she got us some spray for the gorse and spent quite a few hours out attacking it, while we tidied up some of the carport area where Libby will eventually park her float and used the weedeater on the sheepyards. In the end we gave up on the sheepyards - just going to put Odette in there instead.