Taras Diamond

Michelle sent me these pics of Rachel and Tara. Rachels having a great time with her and loving her personality!

Dressage Days 4 & 5, CTRs, Sebs Big Day Out

Its been a Long time waiting for this update to be done.
Pumpkin had a relapse with his abscess and missed the final two days of the WHS Dressage Series. He only came completely sound last weekend so theres lots of catch up to do. We had planned to go to the Dressage at Clevedon on the 4th of next month but have decided that we will pass on that and do the Unreg WRC Day which is on the same day. It will be a chance for Pumpkin to get himself back into the swing of things and I thought it might be a good opportunity for Finn to have a crack at Novice. Finn did the 1.6 on the last day of the WHS series and nailed it with 69%. Its the old Novice 2.1 and it rode really well. So its time to get our feet wet with Novice. We will continue to do the season at Prelim of course but play at Novice at the WRC days.

Last week was the WAR CTR 2 and as Pumpkin was still out of action we decided it was a good chance to take Sebastian for his first Big Day out. The week before he went for a hack down the road but apart from that hes never been ridden outside of the gate so going to the big Forest was quite an adventure. Because I was going to be going fairly quick with Finn Vanessa paired up with 2 others who were going to be going at a more sedate pace which suited the fact that Seb was not that fit.

As it turned out the two they paired with were complete fruitloops. It was reported that Seb was the sense of reason amongst the two nutters who were spinning spooking and generally being stupid. He was completely composed and did not bat an eyelid at the best efforts of the silly fools.
They came in only just a little over time recovering at 42BPM which I was absolutely gobsmacked at. For a young horse on his first outing in strange surroudings and with strange riding partners it was absolutely brilliant. Had they come in earlier he would have placed. Gotta love the laid back boy.
Finn finished in 4th place with a heartrate one beat over Sebs!

Awful Weather, Getting Lost on the CTR & WHS ODE

The past couple of weeks the weather has been absolutely revolting but its not stopped us getting out and about. Last week we went to the Riding Clubs CTR in Woodhill Forest. Unfortunately we got horribly lost so ended up just having a bimble around the forest. On Saturday Vanessa our current HelpXer from the UK rode Finn at the Woodhill Sands Mini ODE. She'd not jumped him until a few days before so it was a bit of a baptism of fire but they both handled it very well. The course was all portable jumps set up on the sand as the grass areas resembled a paddy feild. First up was the dressage test and apart from a couple of minor oopsies it was a good test to end up in second place. Then the showjumping which was clear and straight into the Crosscountry. There were 8 jumps set up and you had to jump the compulsory 8 numbered fences and then 2 of choice. The bigger the jump the higher the score.
Vanessa started out on a the little Intro option for the first fence and then was away jumping the Training options. She was very pleased to finish 1st overall. Finny is such a star.
His coat has come right now and hes put on heaps of weight but this weeks Pumpkins turn to be 'off' Hes been a bit shortstriding for the past week and I thought there was an abscess brewing. Despite poulticing what I thought was the offending foot nothing appeared and there was no heat anyway. Baffling. Today James came to reshoe him and upon taking off the shoe found a teeny tiny little blackhead under the shoe. I was on the right side but it was the back foot not the front one I had been poulticing Doh!
There was just a teeny bit of liquid coming out so it was soaked while the other shoes were put on. He then put on some Keratex Nail hole disenfectant onto the hole and reshod him and presto no more shortstriding. Instant success. This weekend is Woodhill Sands Dressage Again. Pray for a nice day for us. We have been drenched on for all but one of the days thus far. Pics of the ODE will be posted once my Handy Dandy Picture poster person comes back from a business trip. Silly me relys on him so much that I still don't know how to put them on the 'puter!

Woodhill Sands Dressage Day Three. Pumpkin does his best test ever !

Finn has been suffering from a case of the 'Winter Blues'. He pulled back a couple of weeks ago and was still suffering from some tightness in his neck and back.
Then he inexplicably lost alot of weight and developed a skin condition. He was miserable and manky looking and hardly fit to be seen in public. So out came the lotions and potions and he had the right royal treatment of daily massages, extra feed and even a worming to try and restore him to his former Star self !
He was responding well and starting to look like his former self again but still had
some residual back tightness and was tending to twist in the neck.

Pumpkin has been feeling the effects of the new grass growth and has been a monumental prat. Hes been like a madman on speed with no brakes. Efforts to restore some regularity and rythmn tended to end up with him getting extremely tense and pulling like a train. We had a lesson the day before the competition and he did his absolute worst. For 45 minutes he pulled,leaned, threw himself on the forehand in transistions and kicked out at the leg. I was in absolute dispair. I was aching and exhausted. Had it not been a lesson I would have just given up and thrown him back in the paddock! Bastard!!!!

So competition day dawns with me feeling not so confident. First up was Finn. He had been fabulous in his lesson the day before but he had left his best work at home.
It was a very mediocre test with me just teasing him along. We finished in 5th place. The second test was pretty much the same as the first with a 4th placing. Pretty ordinary but expected.

I joked that because Finn has obviously done his best at his lesson the day before and done pretty ordinary tests that Pumpkin who had been a prat needed to pull it out of the bag and do well. I did not really believe my own spin but Hey You gotta Keep the spirits up some how. Well Blow me down if he did not pull one out of the bag! It was the best test he has ever done. Soft and completely on the aids.
Where did that complete Prat from yesterday go?? I was smiling from ear to ear. The judges comments said it all ' Horse seems to be enjoying showing off what he can do" 2nd Place!
Unfortunately I blew the second test. I did not know the test and as a result was tense which made Pumpkin tense too. I was so mad at myself that he had done such a great first test and now I had let him down badly. We managed 5th place.

Woodhill Sands Dressage Day 2

After the bad week of nursing the sick ewe,feeding orpaned lambs and a very sore back I did not hold out much hope for today. :( Finn was first up and right from the minute I got on him things were not good. A lack of work all week had not put him in the frame of mind for competition. He was so behind the leg,leaning on the bit,crooked and just downright not in the mood. His first test was very ordinary and he managed a 5th place. The second test he had just given up entirely. It was all over the place. 13th place. How embarassing!
Pumpkin was up next and was surprisingly not too bad considering his lack of work all week. But he seemed to have completely forgotton how to do travers so we had to do some last minute schooling. So in our first test we had lots of travers (at every gait) offered even though it was not called for. :( Pretty ordinary test all up though for 2nd place. The second test was a heap better and we managed to do both travers very nicely for 7s. Another second place so he at least made up for Finns bad mood. The back held up reasonably well with me well primed with painkillers but in the rider comments on one test the comments were riders back lacking suppleness. Hardly suprising really. Lifting 80 kg sheep is not recommended for back health!

I am officially over Winter !!!

Its been a bad week the last one. The sheep have been lambing and although all have been doing well with twinning births one of the ewes went down on Monday and could not get up. Liam and I hoisted her onto and trolley and ferried her down to the stables where she was nursed through the week. On Thursday she produced twin lambs but showed no signs of getting up. All efforts to entice her to eat were fruitless. I tried everything I could think of and apart from Ketol and molassed water she ate nothing. On Friday I hauled her back on the trolley and put her outside on the grass hoping that might entice her to eat what was around her but sadly she did not. Today Sunday we had to make the decision to put her to rest. I have been feeding her twin lambs since birth as she had no milk even if she could stand to feed them.
With all the nursing and lamb feeding riding time has been difficult added to the fact that I wrenched my back picking her up and putting her on the trolley. I could only hack on Friday as my back was too sore and as I had a show to prep for this weekend things were not looking promising.

Winter YUK.

There has not been much to report in the last week. It was planned that we would go to the Showjumping at Woodhill Sands yesterday but as it hailed 5 times on Saturday we decided not to go. A pic of Babe just because theres nothing else to post.