Amaethon Vanquish @ 6 weeks

Today we went to visit Shelby (Amaethon Vanquish) He is such a stunning colt and I would have loved to have stolen him away. Unfortunately he would have been sorely missed by Carolyn. He is just too cute. As like Juno he is very people friendly and just loves to be scritched and get as much attention as possible.

Auckland Dressage Champs

Champs for me was a very mixed bag. We had an absolutely terrible journey to the grounds through very high volume Auckland traffic with bumper to bumper traffic in places from roadworks and trucks roaring up behind us the whole way. Finn was in a lather when we arrived at the grounds. When we arrived we found the new grounds for the Auckland/Manukau Dressage Group still very raw and scary. Rock hard packed clay from all the recent earthworks, lots of machinery still around, open drains with water in them having to be crossed to get to the arenas,and rattling generators just made things just a little more trying. Its going to be great when its finally all done but in the meantime its makes for a distracting environment. Finn was very tense and due to the ground being so hard I had a 8 minute warmup for my first test. He actually warmed up nicely but when it got to our first canter in his test he spent the whole time handstanding. 61%. Finn did not want to load for another journey in the traffic so we had a little altercation before he finally decided to load. Fortunately the traffic although busy was not as bad as the morning. Saturday we had a 10am start and the traffic was nice and easy. On the hard clay this morning and with a judge who hates Finn. Finn was still tense and after our counter canter had a little disagreement where he actually thought he might like to leave the arena. A very harsh and undeserved 59.5% but I have come to expect this from this judge. The afternoon test was on the grass again and this time judged by UK judge Mary Robbins who does not miss a trick. I was a bit freaked to say the least. He was a pretty flat and was really feeling the ground by this time but Mary saw the good and rewarded is with 4th place and 64% with the deserved comments of a little earthbound! :) Sunday just the one test and for this one finally on the Cushionride. Finn was finally calmer today but a bit tired. I was pretty happy with the test. His second canter was hollow but overall it wasn't a bad test. The scores were pretty close and we were not far off a placing on 62%. So overall not the results we would have liked but Finn being a suspicious beast and not being good on hardground (Being a clumper) it was as good as it was going to get. Next weekend its back to Woodhill Sands and a soft surface so hopefully we will have a better result.

Welcome to Amaethon Vanquish

Henrys first colt foal was born this morning at 4am. Mother Poppy is a TB.
He has lovely diagonal white stockings and looks like hes going to have a flaxen tail so will be a real stunner.

Our few minutes of Spring yesterday.

Henrys 2009 Full Sister 2 days old

And the big news is that Tara has been sold. The great thing is that she is staying local and will have a home for life. She could not be in better hands and will have a life of Riley so I am thrilled.

WRC Dressage.

Well its been 4 months but today was the day we dipped our toe back into the competition arena. Finn is still a bit ouchy from his very deep abscess so it was Pumpkin only going to the WRC day at Woodhill Sands.
I must say it was with some trepidation as I have no strength in my lower legs and two ankles that are pretty immobile so sitting to the trot is not easy.
Murphy being himself on our debut it was absolutely peeing down with rain and we arrived at the warmup area with just 10 minutes to go before our test because of my reluctance to leave dry land. But Pumpkin was very chilled and despite my bouncing around like a lump of lard in the trot we did a very conservative test to finish in 2nd place 3/4 of a percentage point behind Henton Attorney General. I did try to at least get a bit more medium for our second test but with me bouncing around it just caused Pumpkin to tighten up. Still another 2nd behind H.A.G again. So no excuse now. I must admit I was knackered riding 2 tests so was pleased that I did not have to ride Finn as well. But now excuses now that the toe is dipped theres no looking back.

WHS Training Showjumping

On Sunday we took Pumpkin out to do a couple of classes at the WHS SJ training Day. Pity about the crap photographer. Sorry Zoe.