Mt Hope

So we have left Coolamon, the agistment we were at since before Allie had her tumor diagnosed.

I was sad to go, but it's a racehorse property and we were struggling without an arena, plus they were putting the price up.

Jess (who owns Prince, the horse I put a few rides on earlier in the year) found a new place for us to move to! It's called Mount Hope.

The positives about it are that it's $27 a week cheaper (than the new Coolamon price), Allie gets to live in a mini herd with other horses, there's plenty of grass, the paddocks are quite big (for yard type paddocks anyway) and they are hilly, there's a full jump paddock and a 40x60 sand arena and float parking. Plus it's like a 5 minute float ride to the indoor arena.

Arena! These aren't common here on agistment properties in Sydney, unless you pay big $$ for it.

Cons are that there's no trail riding (but can float to some not too far away). Also, the fencing is wire with electric up top.

So many jumps. Also, beautiful views of the Blue Mountains and surrounds.

The fencing is a con because last night Allie escaped into the next door property by just pushing straight through all the damn fencing.

She doesn't respect fencing unless it is HOT HOT HOT or big wooden fencing like at Coolamon. I had hoped that leaving her in the paddock all day sans rug (because remember she scratches herself red raw and I've only just gotten her mane and tail sorta back with constant rugging which I don't like to do) but NOOOOO of course she knew the second she had a rug on she could push through.

Gah.

So poor Prince, who was paddocked with her, followed along for the adventure into the next door property and copped a cut for his troubles from the fencing. I feel awful. Then, when Jess went out to feed in the morning and she found them next door, she caught them then put them in another yard, fed them, then took Prince out to doctor his cut. Allie galloped straight through the fence again to get to Prince. FML.

So, in they went into a THIRD paddock and apparently this afternoon when Prince was taken out she didn't go through the fence but did call out a bit, eventually settling and hanging with the other horses over the fence. Thankfully.

She was so so super tense yesterday. It was very windy and we (being Andrea and I) both rode her, and it wasn't very pretty but we got the job done.

Just some crappy screenshots from a video Andrea took yesterday, at the end of my ride when she finally started to listen.

Anyway so now of course I'm terrified she's going to escape on to the road and I SHOULD be studying right now for my stats exam but I can't concentrate.

The agistment owner was apparently really nice about the fencing. She has run the place for 20 years so I'm sure it's not the first time a horse has run through the fencing.

Hopefully she stays put from now on.

Allie (closer to camera) and Prince (on the other side in a green rug) sharing a feed. Of course.

Sydney Eventing - Dressage

Ok so let's break this down into a few posts because I've got a few thoughts and revelations about this latest show.

Just to set this up, I entered this show about a month ago and ive been stressing about it ever since. First was the mouth ulcers, then her eye ulcer. THEN she cut her leg and it blew up a bit (I didn't write about it) the week before the show, but it went down to normal overnight with no bute so PHEW. Then, the week of, on the Monday right before a dressage lesson with Ann, she blew up around her jowls with bloody grass mumphs again. Ffs horse. I rode her in the lesson anyway, and it was a good lesson, and I learned a lot, but it was the last time I rode before the show on Saturday because I got gastro Tues/Wed, then I had to work Thursday, then Friday it absolutely pissed down with rain all day long, hard. Andrea rode on Thursday and said she was difficult and we both agree that she's a bit hormonal right now, seeing as spring has sprung. So yeah. Not the best prep.

Saturday dawned drizzly but with predictions of clearing skies and I wasn't about to scratch just for a bit of rain so off we went. I thought about plaiting up the night before as I had an 8.35am draw for dressage but Allie scratches plaits out if I leave them in so we normally plait up the morning of.

Big mistake.

They looked like a series of man-messy-buns sewn in haphazardly because OMG A TRUCK and JEEZ A FLOAT IS PULLING IN and I WANT TO TURN AROUND AND LOOK AT THAT DOG and you get the picture. She was on edge and would not stand to be plaited. Also, this ate into my warm up time so we ended up with about 20 minutes warm up. Linda came and gave me a mini lesson in the warm up but we had to get down there to do the test.

I've got video of our dressage but I'm not ready to watch it yet. It was absolutely awful. You know when you see a test and the horse is so tense that it won't canter, then it won't trot, and it won't turn, then it won't go forward, and the rider is pony club kicking just to keep it inside the arena and the judge has to talk to the rider after the test to make herself feel better about the abysmal scores she has had to give? Yeah, that was us on Saturday. My normally 60% without trying horse got a 47%. She was that tense and cranky.

I took it well though, I was disappointed but not devastated and Linda was like "you're going straight back up to the warm up and you're RIDING this horse for a while, ok?" So that's what we did. I rode her for about another 30-40 minutes and made her work, Linda coaching every step of the way. Allie was like "fuck you I'm not cantering with a contact thanks" and tried every trick in the book to get out of working. Now, previously, my fitness hasn't been enough to deal with this stuff, and I've never shown her when shes been in season, but on Saturday I was glad that I was fit enough to keep my leg on and stay with her 99% of the time to ride her through it.

So, what have I learned? Plait up earlier at home. Warm up longer. Try to make it a priority to ride her properly the week leading up to the event. Don't be afraid to make her do things with a proper contact. Bend and flex her constantly until she lets go of her rib cage and doesn't blow out through the shoulder or the hip. Keep her straight when going to the right because she tends to overbend and overbend her a little when going to the left because she tends to go too straight.

We had a little time to relax before showjumping at 10.40, and she was much improved patience-wise while standing at the float after our mini lesson. She wanted to eat but wasn't interested in drinking.

Who, me? Nooooooo...

Next up, showjumping!

Sneak peak

Allie and I went eventing today!!

More to come soon!