Wairarapa A&P - Sunday

Finally it was Kody's turn, and the others got a whole day to just chill out and enjoy themselves in the sun (yes, the sun came out for us). I'd entered Kody in the Pleasure Horse classes - but due to competing in ring classes I wasn't eligible to ride him, so Alicia was taking the reins for me. They started out with the combination class, which blew Kody's mind a little (his first time in a situation with other horses crowding and passing like that), but by the end of that first class he had the idea.

He did fab in the best walking class, though didn't get called in - I was still really pleased with him and he never jig-jogged once or put a foot wrong at all really:

He was really relaxed for the trotting class too, and was going forward of his own accord (it's lovely that he doesn't need to be kicked along). A spectator ringside even commented on how lovely Alicia's riding was (which would have been much cooler if they hadn't assumed I was her mother! Jeez - talk about ways to make me feel old!):

More pics of super stunner Kody looking like he's been doing this forever! He really does take things in his stride:

Kody is really balanced for a baby horse too - I think only a couple of missed canter leads, and they tended to be when the judge had the whole ride cantering for a long time - he would get a bit tired and drop back to trot to rest his muscles, then pick up the wrong lead when asked to resume his canter. But Alicia was patient with him, and let him have a few trots when he needed to and asked for his next strikeoffs in the corners and just generally made things easier for him which is exactly what I wanted:

He came 3rd in the newcomers class (first season of competition) and the judge was surprised at how young he is. He stood like a rock while in the lineup and while the judge put the ribbon on him:

Alicia's boyfriend, Nick (yes, we both have boyfriends called Nick and mothers called Jane..) had come up from Wellington to watch her classes - so he was hanging out ringside too... even introduced their dog to Sam (Sam looks very unsure of this!):

Alicia, Nick & Mum all stuck around to help with packing up and loading - which was nice. The weather stayed beautiful so I had an easy drive home over the Rimutakas and the Haywoods. The horses were all very happy to go out into paddocks. Pippa and Neo were stoked to have us home as well. So all-up it was a great weekend!

Wairarapa A&P - Saturday PM

Straight after the in-hand class it was time to put jumping saddles on Violet and Sam and warm up for the Working Hunters. As I was riding both, Mum kept Sam warmed up for me. Pics of me and Vi getting ready (including me tightening the girth and showing off my uber cool brown outfit and mickey mouse charm on my stock):

As the judge was already waiting I just popped Vi over a single practise fence and headed to the ring for the lightweight working hunter. She did a nice workout, unfortunately one of the jumps got blown over in front of us - but the judge kindly let us do that line again once bystanders had propped up the jump. Violet came 2nd and got herself a pretty blue ribbon:

Then I hopped off Vi and got a legup on Sam (he's tall!) for the heavyweight class. He was a real gentleman for me and even did his hand-gallop really easy and came right back to me (great! as I hadn't had a chance to practise till I did the workout). Sam won the heavyweight division and added another red to his collection:

For the judging of Champion I had to present Sam and Violet, so Mum rode Violet in the flat section for me and I did the jumping workout on both of them. Violet did a very kind workout, but I didn't quite let her open up enough for the gallop which I will have to make a bit more of an effort to nail next time. Sam did a super workout, hitting perfect strides for every fence and got himself another Reserve Champion sash for Working Hunter:

We had some downtime to go and put the jumpers away and help Mum put the finishing touches on Gem for the in-hand sporthorse classes. Gem was just in 2 classes - and behaved much better than the earlier class (obviously more settled). She's looking super and it'll be great to get her back under saddle soon. Seems that bright bay with 3 socks & a diamond/blaze was the order of the day if you look at the pic with the three 'matching' horses:

The Rimutaka hill got closed to all high-sided vehicles, so Nick and Helen headed back to Wellington in the car before the hill got closed completely. Then we got some odds and ends done (farrier etc) and had more mini donuts. Mum eventually took her armful of winnings and headed back home with Gem, leaving Sam with me (as I will be eventing him this coming weekend). Later in the evening Alicia and I headed to the local saddlery for a browse and took pics of the cute mini foal, and popped the horses into their yards for the night (with tiny Kody picking on big Sam, would you believe!):

Just as we got ready for bed the weather turned really sour again and it was all go to get the ramp of the truck up before the entire insides got ripped out by howling wind! Absolutely beat after the end of that big day and I think everyone fell asleep as soon as heads hit pillows.

Wairarapa A&P - Saturday AM

After a good sleep Alicia and I got up and scoped out the showers and started getting ready for a very busy Saturday. By the time we had given Violet and Kody a morning pick of grass Mum turned up in her truck with Sam and Gem.

Violet was in the Saddle Hunter classes and went really nicely for me. We came 4th in a conformation class, but unfortunately didn't even get pulled in for the paced and mannered (I thought she was going lovely and soft and was being super easy to ride - but looking at the lineup I think the judge was looking for a bit more pizzaz in the movement, with a slightly shorter stride - with clyde and arab types filling most of the placings).

More pictures of Violet being her sweetheart self in the saddle hunters. It was awful weather - disgustingly windy and she didn't seem impacted by that at all which was neat:

Mum was also riding Sam in the saddle hunters (heavyweight) and he just got better as the classes went on, really working well and listening. Mum and Sam got stacks of ribbons and Sam was certainly holding his own (not bad for a horse only barely back into work after a long break):

Sam won the Open Heavyweight saddle hunter (with a trophy too!) and went forward for the Championship - and they brought home a lovely light blue sash for Reserve Champion Open Saddle Hunter! Not bad for less than half-a-dozen shows under Mum's belt since her 18 year break from riding!:

There was also an in-hand class in the saddle hunter ring for mares (suitability for breeding a hunter). Nick & Helen turned up in time to watch that class and provide extra hands for toting rugs and brushes around while we continued to deal with the uninspiring weather. I whipped Vi's saddle off, threw on a makeshift in-hand outfit (pants over jods - we're all class here) and popped her in the class:

Meanwhile Mum grabbed Gem who had just been hanging out at the truck. Poor Violet with her sweaty saddle marks.. I did try to brush and dry them off before the class! Gem was very full of herself and quite excited to be out and about:

But it certainly caught the judges eye and Gem won that class, taking home the Sincerity Salver for the mare most suitable to breed hunters.

Wairarapa A&P - Friday

Another early start - so my friend Alicia (Kody's rider) came over Thursday evening, and we were on the road before 5am on Friday with Violet and Kody to head over to Wairarapa A&P in Clareville. The drive over was easy with good weather for the Rimutaka Hill, so we made it there in great time.

Settled ourselves in and eventually had my first class. Friday was only dressage for us, so a very laid-back day. We were doing Novice 2.3 first off, and Violet warmed up so nicely! Then there was a bit of a fu-fu with the official timing and we were put back 50 minutes (argh) then pulled forward about 35 minutes after that (double argh). So we went in a little overcooked, but a few transitions outside the arena seemed to get Vi nice and focused before we started up the centreline. A warmup pic, and trotting in the arena:

I was very happy with the test. Our walk needs a bit of work, I seem to switch off my riding when we transition to walk, which leads Violet to become inattentive. So our walk marks weren't fantastic, but the rest of the sheet was pretty good with mostly 7's and 8's:

Our final mark was just over 62% (64% from the judge at C, and 60% from the other judge). One judge wanted to see us going forward a little more, but overall the comments were really positive - even "some really lovely moments" which I thought was nice. Those results put us a few tenths of a mark off 4th place, but I was just really happy with the outcome overall - especially for my first ever registered dressage test:

During our lunchbreak between tests Miss Vi found herself a new favourite snack - mini donuts. She would do absolutely anything for them. So cute. I think she stole half a packet off Alicia, then another half packet off me! The next test was 2.5 which I had trouble memorizing - there is a long trot in it which I kept thinking didn't 'fit' - so oops... once in the arena I just missed it completely! What a twit!:

Violet and I were both a bit off-focus after the course error, but then got back on track for another really nice test. I was super stoked to pick up a '9' for one of the circle movements, and nothing less than an '8' for any of the other circlework. Our final score was 61.48 after my silly course error. One of the sheet comments down the bottom was "such a good partnership" which put a real big smile on my face for the rest of the day. We picked up 4th place in that test:

After all the dressage was finished we took Kody for a quick ride to let him have a look at the sights - he was really spooked to begin with but only took 10 minutes to calm down and be the dude that he is. A mob of sheep moved in beside the truck at bedtime, they seemed to be enjoying the cross country fences:

So it was a very successful (I think!) first attempt at registered dressage. I'm very grateful for Violet (and all of Rackil's great schooling) for showing me the ropes, so to speak.

Violet at the Arena

Violet came to the arena mainly to have a bit of a stretch of her legs, pop over a few bigger fences, and for me to practise getting my eye in for her stride. She was a real sweetheart, and just cantering along on the buckle and listening to me all the time.

We did some work over small fences, just half-barrel and the like. It was good to just practise counting down to myself and picking the spot we both wanted to jump from. Violet was really adjustable today as well, happy to come back to me and jump from my spots even though sometimes they weren't the most perfect. She's so calm about everything too.

I didn't want to jump her too many times, but couldn't resist popping the double up a little and having a play. This fence measured at just over 1.40m, and she made very light work of it:

As Nick was taking photos, Swifty was videoing, so we got some video of us pottering around and popping through the double at the end: