Pro photo

Just a quick one today to show you guys this photo.

Damn those pro photographers! I wanted to buy all three shits he took but at $35 a pop I reined it in to just this one.

Equestriad Hunter Trials

Sunday morning dawned foggy and soggy after a tyorrential storm the afternoon before. The dressage competition held at Camden was cancelled due to the footing - but not the hunter trials!

As I was pulling in with Allie in the float, I saw how busy it was. The grounds were PACKED and I saw all the beautiful horses heading over to the cross country phase. Instantly I started to feel the sadness and jealousy that I've always felt since Allie broke her leg - but after a moment it turned to happiness and nervousness and excitement because today, I was going to be one of those riders.

Natalie came with her camera and she got some great shots.

First up was cross country.

Just before warming up

First warm up log. We ended up jumping the big log on the left of this one too, no photographic evidence of this though!

She looked awesome

Apparently this fence bites?

I was a little intimidated by this fence but it was near the end so she was really happy to jump anything by this stage.

Through the water, no problems there!

Aaaaaand the last log.

Cross country was an absolute blast!! I got so lost because I didn't have time to walk the course, and poor Allie ended up galloping up the hill and then had to come straight back down again. Whoops!

She didnt refuse or stop at anything, and we even did the intro stairs (whoops again) which was super fun. It was too sloppy to do more than a slow trot down hill and I rode around a slightly scary brush jump that had a downhill after it. Other than that, it was a great ride.

After a cool down and a bit of a rest, was 2 showjumping rounds. Here's video of the first round.

It was a 60cm course and she took it all in her stride, no problems. The second round we had one rail down, she put in an extra stride and got too close to the jump, plus I think she was tired by this point (I know I was!!!).

Warm up jump

This fence was probably the most intimidating, but she wasn't worried at all.

So, the whole day was a dream come true.

Lessons learned:

• Be more organised!
• Leave myself more time especially to walk the xc so I know where the hell I'm going
• Work on my own fitness
• Bring carrots for the superstar horse next time!

So, we have entered an eva60 at Sydney International Equestrian Centre on the 20th February. I can't wait!

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.