Sunday, April 26, 2009

APRIL UPDATE..

I have been busy with show and lessons.
Poet's Sydney Royal finished wth a win a third and a 5th.
We were 8th in the World Cup,and Poet finished up being the runner up horse in Section One to Drossel Dan.
Mr Poet was great throughout the show.
Peter the horse's owner is in Sydney to ride him at the next couple of shows.
Liz and Caesar were in 6th a couple of times during the Junior classes but didn't quite crack the places.
Natalie McNeil from Dorrigo was here riding at the Royal in Juniors.Her chestnut quarter horse Peppymint were 3rd and 5th twice and she had a win in the pony club area jumping.
A few days off and we went toCopabella Show at St Ives showground.
The past year or two the ground has been a bit dry and hard, this year too wet.
The ground held up but some horses didn't like the shifty ground which caused some slips and penalties.
Caesar was lame from the mud fever around his pastern, we had been treating it but just tender enough to be a nuisance. The skin was very inflamed.So Liz didn't get a start.
The symptoms of mud fever are cracked skin around the back of the pastern with scabs and the horses can be very lame. Sometimes the whole leg can be swollen and you think something is wrong with their tendons.
This time of the year horses with pink noses too are scabby,some zinc cream works well.
Natalie was sick with a flu bug and she didn't get to start either.
Peter and Poet went well the first day but didn't have such a good time in the Grand Prix.
Back to work this week to prepare for Hawkesbury our local show.
Three days of jumping.
Unfortunately the big two World Cups eventing and showjumping is on at SIEC too, pity to have two competitions within an hour of each other.
For us with a bunch of young ones it is Hawkesbury for us.
Harry was our head groom at the royal, and he came home a bit sick(normal show bug).
He is now looking forward to riding at Hawkesbury.
A friend of Harry's from North Qld Danial, came and stayed during the royal so we had plenty of helpers.
Danial is an accomplished horseman and we had him showing us some games to play with our horses. Danial is a keen jump rider as well.
The weather has turned cold now and it feels like winter. We have had a long time with warm moist conditions so it is a bit of a shock.
My face and hands will suffer for a few days.
Not much time left in April and May is when I start on my teaching rounds around the country.
Qld and WA for starters some weekends a home here and there.
Normally this is the time when the young horses get their start in showjumping. Off outside to start now, I hope to get something up on the web soon.
I am waiting on some pics from the Royal.
colleen

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sydney Royal,
Poet's Corner is starting in Section 1 and Liz in the Junior.
Liz was 6th on the first day,she went well and finished only a 100th off a place,good one liz.
Poet was great day 1 to be third and today Easter Sunday he won the A2.
He has been jumping very well ,Saturday he had one down in the first round.
The courses designed by John Valance are testing enough, they make you think but at the same time good forward riding is needed to get under the time.
If you add in three lines you are on a time fault.
The footing at the Royal is very good as are many other facets of competing there.
Liz has two more classes and so do I.
EI, equine influenza has done us a favour at the Royal.
The hacks are on next week starting when we are finished.
The ring isn't really big enough with hack classes harness classes led classes and us so with only three events on at the same time we have more room to play with.
It had been a good decision from the Royal Ag Society.
More news and a pic coming tomorrow.
Colleen
Of course there is more room inthe lockers and riding areas

Thursday, April 2, 2009

News Alert,
My website has been vaporised, someone in the USA has hacked into the website and the website is no more????
I will be reinventing my site in the next week or two so hang in there.
We are still working on the video uploading techniques.So far we have saved the file on the computer and we are in the next phase.
Sydney Royal is rapidly approaching and the big wet is continuing.
Our jumping paddock is perfect still so all the horses are being ridden.
The quote for the week is 'Life is a party,sometimes not what you expect but while we are here we will dance anyway'
cheers,
Colleen