Bring on the season!!

Well the season is upon us and bring it on I say. I had my first outing on Mousie to a dressage and showjumping training day. We still have plenty to work on, like the arena is NOT going to gobble him up, it was expected as he hasn't been in a pipe arena before. He got some 7's for trot work but also got 3's for the gobbling up bits. I got 8's for my riding of a green horse which was nice.
I also did a round of show jumping, was mousie first ever course as he has never jumped more than 3 jumps while at Jill, and he flew round, actually felt like a jumper. Even jumped through two doubles, one was a 1 stride and the other was a 2 stride. I was extremely impressed with him, was still green and gawking at the fills which is to be expected for a while but we got some lovely comments from a SJing lady down here that said he had a lovely jump and was a kind horse, and looks forward to see him in the future. I think he is going to need plenty of miles and lots of jumping over different things for a while to get him more confident. Hopefully this Sunday I can get someone to go out on the cross country with me, would be good if he could go with another horse to get the hang of things.

Georgia gets her new pony on the 27th Sept, a month early. The above pic is her riding BJ at the dressage day, I hardly saw her all day, the lady who owns the pony was fantastic and lead Georgia round and even took her over some cross country jumps!! BJ is just the right size for her at the momment, he is only 9hh so looks a tad small beside Mousie, could proberly walk underneath him if he want.....not that I think Mousie would let him!!


I clipped Mousie out on Saturday, was a bit of a mission as the clippers died and I had to finish him off with Gregs hair clippers, I would have liked to have done his legs aswell but his coat was too thick for Gregs hair clippers!! lol.

We had our first race meeting of the year yesterday and only Penny Parker started, Donny was the only rating 90 horse to nominate for the 1200 so he just came along for the ride.

We were hoping the Dag didn't disapoint like she did at the end of last season, We put Terry Mosley on and he did a good job, she got 5th and he reminded her that she is a race horse by smacking her to the line, she was 6 1/2 lengths behind 1st but was a big improvement from last season!! She only has a few more starts then is off to stud.

Peter Porter will start, if there is enough open horses at Southland, Catherine his jockey is busy on her bike and ready to get back on him. She gels very well with him and he settled well in his last start with her and won by 1 1/2 lengths, High Seas was 2nd and went on to win the THANO @ GRANGEWILLIAM STUD PREMIER at Riccarton Park.

10th Sept 2008

Well not much has been happening around here, as Georgia and I have had the chicken pox, which I do not recommend having to anyone!! Georgia the star breezed through hers with not many complaints, when I felt like I was getting eaten alive! Anyway 9 days later I am on the home straight, just waiting for the blisters to heal over and hopefully not scar.

The weather has been terrible for the last 3 days and we are right back to where we were a couple of weeks back with surface water everywhere. Things had dried out enough to run the level round the paddocks that were cut up with mud, not they are back to how they were before. Oh well we are on the home straight now...hopefully.

The horses are all well on target for the races on the 17th at Gore, alougth there people who think that they wont be held as already on meeting this season has been abandend due to lack on nominations. The meeting at Gore is begin run by Winton Jockey Club as the new track hasn't been trialled on yet, needs to have 2 sucessful trials before the course is signed off by NZTR.

We have 2 new additions to the family here, yet to be named, both are well bred and settling in well, after arriving this morning. They had their new covers on this morning with no hassles. Georgia is away at the momment but I can't wait for her to meet and name them, with no doubt very 'interesting names' lol. They are getting feed 5 times a day/night and living in the weaning shed, when the weather is nice they can be let out in to the mares yard which has lots of nice grass for them. I have a nice wee house all made up for them and they seem very happy. One of them is just a teany tiny wee girl, but are both healthy.