Shots

Some better pictures from the hunter trial. I need to get in the PC to do a proper write up but basically I had the best day of my life and my horse is amazing and I loved every minute of it today. :)

On a High

We had the hunter trial today! Better photos and video to come but here is a sneak peak of shitty video stills.

Spoiler alert: my mare is a superstar.

Jump Lesson 28.01.16

I left my baby with my sister (fist time leaving her with anyone but her dad - eeek!) this morning and I hooked the float up and took Allie to Sheany Park for a jump lesson with Emily.

After a quick warm up Emily had me trot up to a small cross rail. Then she had me canter the approach over and over until it became a giant 90cm oxer!

I couldn't believe it. I've been so nervous and my mare can jump 90cm no problems.

Basically I needed to develop more speed and forward coming up to the jump and to keep my leg on and SIT UP and keep my hands close and low and not get in front of the jump and then Allie will jump like a dream. Easy, right?

Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha

We still had some wild and hairy moments, but only when I stuffed up and didn't ride her to the jump. She gave it her all today.

She did crash through one jump, the second fence in a double, because I had jumped the first fence then stopped riding. Allie tried to leap anyway but she just didn't have enough momentum. And you know what? I've been scared of crashing into the jumps, scared of what would happen. And all that happened was the poles went flying and my horse got her feet sorted and I had to slip the reins and then we were away from the piles of poles and it didn't happen again! Seriously, that's not too much to worry about.

We did a few combos and we even jumped a skinny (she was a bit wobbly but she did it!) and then we put it all together and we jumped a full course. A full 70-90cm course!! Ah man, she was so good. I was getting tired by this stage but she didn't have anything down except the last vertical because I thought "oh, just a vertical, easy right?" and didn't give her the approach she needed. We did the course again and the same thing happened so we finished on the last two jumps and she was amazing, I rode her like she needed, and we were SO DONE. So tired and drenched in sweat but it was good.

No video or photos sadly BUT I took a sneaky shot of some of the course as I was leaving. It doesn't look as big that far away but I swear it looked so HUGE while I was doing it!

Emily said about Allie that she could certainly jump, plenty of scope. She is neat and tidy with her legs and when she's in a sticky spot she can get herself out of it. So that's good to know!

So we had some great and maybe even perfect moments. And a few super messy moments. But overall, it was the best ride I've ever had on a horse, ever. It was so much FUN!!

Ballymount Alleycat

Gosh she's looking good at the moment.

Schooling Screenshots

Just some screen shots of our jump school today.

Buy what I really want to talk about is agistment drama.

I really hate agistment drama. I agist on an old racehorse facility, and because I've been there for quite a while we have yards down the front close to the barn. There's a racehorse trainer, B, who has about 9 racehorses in work and a few more just doing bits and pieces On the books, she pays the same amount as me each week, doesn't pay extra for any facilities and the rules are everyone has full use of the whole property, no special treatment.

I'm constantly butting heads with her because she thinks she runs the joint.

First it was because I drive on the grass to keep my car close to the stable while I make feeds each morning (because I have my daughter napping in the car, so I've got to keep it close). Apparently the grass doesn't look pristine and she wants to keep it nice for when her owners come to view the horses. However, she doesn't actually do any lawn maintence. Bob, the property manager (who loves me and I would do anything he says because he looks after me) does. So, I continue to drive on the grass, because Bob doesn't have a problem with it.

Then, I had my dog out there once and he had rolled in poo. So I was hoping him off, which he hates, and he was yelping and whining. Apparently this upset a horse she had out across the yard and he injured himself and she blames me. By the way, dogs are allowed there, mine is never off leash, and her dogs are always running around causing trouble.

She doesn't move off the road when I'm driving on it, makes me wait until she's past or makes me drive through the mud or on the grass to get past, when all she needs to do is move her horse across, like any normal person would.

Now, she doesn't want me using the racetrack when they use it, for no other reason than my horse isn't a racehorse, even though I do exactly the same type of work on there. No, B, fku.

Now, the other day, I was trying to get Allie worked by trotting her while leading her out the window of the car. I do this quite often and the racehorse people hate it even though I'm courteous and slow down/stop if they need me to and I try to keep out of their way. I've NEVER upset any of their horses doing this, ever. Anyway, I was leading her up a lane near the racetrack and I stopped because B was riding a horse that was looking a bit scared so I thought I would give her space til she passed. She started yelling at me that there are stallions and colts in that lane. I yelled back "ok!" and she repeated again "there's STALLIONS!! Don't go down that lane!" as she galloped past.

Ugh.

My mare doesn't even flick an ear to any other horse while I'm working her, there's very little chance that she would get upset at a colt trotting or cantering up to the fence as she went past. So I thought maybe B was just warning me incase Allie would get upset as some mares do.

So I asked Bob if he had any issues with me doing what I was doing and he said no. The so called stallions did what any other horse in any other lane does when I ride/lead her past - they trotted up to the fence, whinnied, trotted or cantered away. That's it.

Well, apparently I upset one of B's horses so much that it had to see the vet as it got injured. B had to send her husband M (who is lovely with much better people skills) to talk to me about it. He basically asked me not to take my mare down that lane. She couldn't even talk to me herself, she had to send M to do it for her.

I was trimming another agisters horse today and she told me that B was ranting and raving that I should pay the vet bill because I upset that horse and that the bill was up to $3000. Mind you, none of the horses I led Allie past the other day looked like they did anything to injure themselves to the tune of $3000, so I highly doubt it had anything to do with me.

Fk u B. I'm sick of your drama. You keep blaming me for your horses getting injured when I have nothing to do with it. So I'm not allowed to ride or lead my horse down a lane incase another horse in a yard decides to bolt around like a lunatic and hurt itself? No. These are racehorses. They see far more shit at the racetrack than just little old me trotting my horse out the window of my truck while my baby sleeps.

Far out. I'm just trying to get my horse worked. I swear, she thinks she owns the joint.

I'm just going to keep doing my thing and make sure Bob is OK with it all. I refuse to be bullied by another agisters, I don't care if she's trying to run a business, that's her problem, not mine.

Hunter Trial

So Allie and I have entered Equestriad Hunter trial on the 31st January!

I entered one cross country run and two showjumping rounds, all only 60cm. The show jumping was only $10 a round so I figured if she's too tired I'll just scratch the last one but she should be fine - she's getting fitter every day.

Very excited!

Finally

I finally registered my horse for open competition.

To say I'm excited is an understatement.

Canter

Canter sets on the racetrack today with Natalie and Gracie. Not much to report other than my horse is getting a bit looky, not quite spooky, the fitter she gets. Today, it was the breeze through the long grass that was of concern.

Fun times.

Well we got to the indoor yesterday. I didn;t realise just how small it is for jumping. Poor Allie got a workout, tight turns and jumping out of deep sand.

Ah well. She was fairly good natured about it.

This video was our first jump since I had had a baby (and since the whole broken leg this 2 years ago). That was 3 months ago, I'm posting here for a bit of comparison. The canter has improved out of sight.

So at the indoor yesterday, We started out with some poles on the ground (then cavaletti height) 5 strides apart. It was a little messy if the approach wasn't perfect and I needed to use a bit of leg to get her there, because the turn was so small. We ended up jumping both jumps to about 45cm I think, so just small, but it was the exercise of counting strides I wanted to do. It was harder than it looked!

She did good. She made me proud.

Today I have the conundrum of "what to do?". The ground is soaked, I can't take her back to the indoor today as a friend is borrowing the float for some float training with her youngster. I can;t take her for a hack or ride on the racetrack as I have Evie with me today. I was thinking I might try long reining her over poles? Or I could use the round yard and pop her in the lunging training system. I don't know, I guess I'll figure it out when I get there. If Evie is asleep in her car seat I'll probably just drive around the property leading her out the window, doing long slow work.

She's not having another day off, that's for sure.

Puddles and Splashing

Today is the 4th day in a row of near torrential rain. We got 103mm of rain in my area yesterday!

On the first day, we TRIED to take the horses to Mulgoa for a trail ride because it's all sandstone and sand there and the footing is excellent in the wet.

We got there and it was raining but we tacked up anyway. I figured that I'll be competing in the wet at some point and I don't want to have to scratch just because it's raining. We were all soaked by the time we got on but it was warm so we headed off. We hadn't bothered to ask the ranger to unlock the gate for us (we never do) as we intended to just jump the low barrier. It's about horse knee height.

Well, Allie jumped it. Gracie, however, after an hour of trying and trying, absolutely refused to even walk over it.

What a waste of time. We were soaked, all our tack was soaked (and would require oiling) and our boots had collected a fair amount of rainwater. We had to untack and just take them home. Natalie was NOT impressed. Gracie normally loves jumping low stuff. We think she wasn't happy at first because of the wet and because she had a breast collar on for the second time ever. But once we started pressing the issue she just got more and more stubborn.

Anyway. The second and third days of rain Allie has had off. I'm trying to get a spot at the indoor to do SOMETHING with her today and tomorrow but I'll probably have to go and have Evie with me in the travel cot and I'll probably have to try to keep her entertained too. I don't like my chances of getting much productive done.

I'll be sure to bring a lunge lead. At least I can lunge her with a baby strapped to me, right?

January goals

I'm resurrecting goals. You can skip this, it's just going to be for me.

January goals:

- continue to develop the canter. Start working on canter-walk-canter transitions.
- go out on a ride off site at least once.
- dressage lesson with Linda
- jumping lesson (with Emily maybe?)
- try to work her 4 days a week

5 goals will do I think!

What I've learned

I want so much out of my life. I want to get a degree. I want to event my horse. I want to raise my family. I want to go on holidays. I want to live on acreage. I want to be a scientist. I want to be the leading hoof care professional in my area. I want to save horses lives.

That's a lot of wants.

What I've learned is how to chip away at all these things. Doing everything at once, that's too much to ask out of 24 hours a day. I've always been a busy person, I can't just sit at home and do nothing all day. But I know I can't be THAT busy!

I can get a degree but I can't do it full time in 3 years. I can do it part-time over 6 or more. I can event my horse but I can't go out and compete every month. I can't even go out and ride every day. But I can ride 2 or 3 days a week and I can lease her to someone who can ride 2 or 3 days a week. I can have children but I can't have a baby and toddler at the same time. But I can have 1 baby and then 5 years later have another baby. I want to live on acreage with my horses at home but we can't afford a mortgage that big right now. But we can agist the horse and we can save and we can pay off the mortgage we do have and eventually the perfect property will pop up. You get the idea.

What I've learnt over the last year or 2 is that I can have it all, I can do it all.

Just not all at once.