January 30, 2008

Halter

Pippa is such a trusting girl. I got a halter on her today without any trouble. Only took about 90 minutes and there was not so much as a flinch or a step backwards when I finally went to put the halter on. She will now also let me pat her and walk around her without getting too nervous. I even got Nick down to the yards and she was fine with him patting her shoulder as well. Heaps of progress already!


Still no progress with hardfeed or treats, but she's continuing to eat her hay and drink her water - so that's good.

January 29, 2008

Wild Flavours

'Pippa' arrived this afternoon. She began her journey from Oamaru yesterday morning. She's settled quite well, though a number of battle scars from the journey. She's very inquisitive, and not too spooky - even let me feed her a little bit of hay.
She's had a drink and a bit to eat, and has friends in the yard beside her - so hopefully her first night here won't be too strange and stressful for her.

January 28, 2008

Names

It looks like names for the young ones are (almost) decided. Scuba will be competing as "Arrow-gant" (for the naming convention of his sire Lone Arrow).

Pippa, who is currently in transit from Oamaru, will one day go in the ring as "Riverdance Wild Flavours" - so long as the name suits her when she arrives.

Poor Zak still doesn't have a real name. Still, he's got many years to grow into one yet.

January 27, 2008

Upper Valley Equestrian Day

Yesterday we took a full truckload out to Trentham for the Upper Valley show. Had a really great day, and all of them came home with a ribbon.
Scuba was first up doing a few flat classes. He took the first class to warm up, and then went very kindly in the maiden showhack class. He wasn't stepping out 100% through, so the farrier is coming tomorrow to put some shoes on him:
The last class we did was the open park hack, and he came third! Very pleased with that effort from the baby horse. That was the day over for him and he spent the rest of the day watching from the shade of the truck.

Next up was Ruby in the showhunter. Wasn't sure how it was going to go, having only ridden her twice and not jumped her yet. But she was a dude. Travelled well with the boys and didn't seem to be bothered at all by anything going on.

The first showhunter class was equitation - we came 5th. The round wasn't overly forward as we were still working each other out, but she was a kind and easy ride (and has such a pretty form over the fences).

The ring was running nice and quickly, so it wasn't long before we were in for the circuit points class and the championship class.

We've still got some work to do on mixed signals (our flying changes were a bit messy), but I was stoked as she picked up 5th in both of those classes too! Extra points for consistency for Ruby.

Poor Neo had been babysitting the truck all day and didn't get his turn until quite late in the afternoon. After his last show where he was very brave in the big 1m class I thought I'd drop him back down to the 90cm classes to build up his confidence.
Our first event was an AM5 - he did a tidy clear first round, then into the instant jumpoff he did some nice sharp turns and jumping from very short distances. We didn't angle anything (as hadn't schooled it at all) but it was still enough to gain him 1st place:

Not too much of a big wait for our next class - a TA2 single round against the clock. I headed to the practise fence and did 2 on an angle and was happy with him, so we put that into practise in the ring and he was an absolute angel!

So he won that class quite easily. 2 for 2! Not bad. Will be great to take him back into Ring1 classes after that big confidence boost for both of us.

Stoked with all three of the horses! And Mum's new unhandled 3yo turns up early this week, so will post pictures as soon as she gets here.

January 24, 2008

Yards

The yards are under construction for the unbroken filly who arrives next week. Fencers came and built up most of it (Zak is testing out the crush):
Ruby, Scuba & Neo waiting for their rides:
After Nick & I put top rails on the yards:
All that is left to do now is the electric outrigger at the top to give it a bit more height! Should be finished on Sunday. Yay.

First ride on Ruby

Ruby arrived last night after a long day of float journeys, so today was my first chance to have a ride on her. She was pretty laid back while we walked out into one of the paddocks and got started:
And she stayed rather laid back! Between Ruby being a bit tubby and unfit, and me trying to get to grips with a different saddle I'm sure we made quite the pair. I did get off her back for the canters, and she was super chilled about it:
Tomorrow we work on impulsion!

January 21, 2008

Scuba Video

Just a quick little video of Scuba warming up at the show yesterday:


January 20, 2008

Scuba's first show! Yay!

Scuba had his first outing as a grown-up horse today. Just doing 2 showhack classes so he'd get a bit of a taste of it, without getting too tired and grouchy (or is that without me getting too grouchy from doing flat classes?). Either way... he was well behaved while we fussed over getting him ready and heading out towards the ring:

Warmed up really nicely, not too fussed by all the commotion. Had a bit of eyes-on-sticks a few times, but good with scary things like horses cantering up behind him and ponies hooning past. Warmups:

After a bit of mucking around we found out where I ring was being held and headed over there for the first class:
We did Maiden Showhack, and Open Parkhack. He got a bit tired in the second class, but was good about standing around and doing things that you have to do in flat classes. Being judged:
I was really pleased with him, and it seems the judge was too. He got 2nd in the Maiden, and 4th in the Open. Stoked for his first time out under saddle. Ribbons:
Got one more outing of flat classes lined up, then I think it's time for Scuba to try a small showhunter course.

Ring1 debut for Neo

Neo and Scuba went out to Waikanae show today. Neo was entered for a few small showhunter classes, and the 1m class in showjumping Ring1. My plan was to walk to course and see how I felt about the 1m class, before really deciding to jump it or not.

Our showhunter 70cm round was first up, and was awful! Admittadly I hadn't warmed up, and fence 1 was pointing directly at the carnival over the fence... but really no excuse. It was quite a messy round. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do after that! Though when jumping he seemed like a happy chap:
So we wandered over to the showjumping and had a look at the course. It was a fairly meaty 1m, which didn't make me any more keen to do it, but I popped him over a few practise fences and he felt quite happy. The first part of the course wasn't the prettiest, but he was trying very hard to please. At first I wasn't sure if I should just do the first few fences and then retire, but he seemed to be getting more confident as the course went on so we stuck at it:
By the last half of the course he was just flying around like an old pro, even got me out of a tight spot where I completely misjudged the takeoff. What a good boy. Pics:
More pictures! Just because he's such a cutie:
I was so stoked with his performance in the 1m that we scratched from the next showhunter and just took him home for carrots and cuddles.

Tussock XC Video

And here is the video of the mini course, as promised:

XC Tussock

Took Tussock down to Battle Hill tonight to take her around some of the XC jumps and for Cheryl to watch. She was a little gem. Warmed up really nicely on the flat, and is getting quite a bit more supple in her flatwork:
Then Cheryl arrived and a bit of a crowd was starting to gather to watch:
So we headed to a small log to use as a warmup fence. She popped straight over it first go, and seemed quite balanced and confident:
Next we headed to do a few more straightforward fences (ramp, brush, little drop etc):
And then it was time for the slightly more 'scary' fences - the water and the bank. She was a real superstar going straight up and down the bank without batting an eyelid. Took some coaxing to get into the murky waterjump, but once in she was happy to pop in and out from a variety of approaches. Into and out of the water:
More water and the bank:
To finish off we did a mini course which I'll pop up on youtube soon. All-up it was a very successful outing and Tussock will soon be going back home to continue getting more mileage with her regular riders.