Welcome Kaimanawa Tora!!

He's here!! Our wild capture Kaimanawa has arrived!

Tora left Kaipara Kaimanawa's late morning yesterday and arrived safe and sound at Talisman Farm just after 7pm this evening. What a brave wee boy! I will get proper photos tomorrow but for now it's just cellphone pics and a very brief video. The driver is lucky he didn't get an eye-full as I was in the middle of changing out of my work clothes when Nick yelled to me that the truck had arrived! Eeek! So I threw on some clothes, grabbed my phone and ran out the door.

 

All the horses have welcomed him vocally and he is settling quietly in the yards, filling his face. He seems to have travelled very well and is taking it all in his stride. I'll get better photos in the coming days but for now the cell phone photos will have to do.

 

 

 

 

Brennan's Level 2 Debut

What a good pony! What more can I say really. A year out of the competition scene and only a handful of outings at Training and Level 1 prior to this and he went out yesterday and just ROCKED Level 2! First test was a bit flat - it was hot and he was a little unenthusiastic BUT he still pulled off a very polite and obedient test which scored him 64.853%. VERY happy with that! I gave him a feed of Fiberedge between tests and I think that may have helped give him a little more sparkle for the second test. Something certainly did because he was seeing ghosts behind the thistles in the neighbouring paddock, lol! He was VERY looky in the all weather arena (the first test was done on grass) but fortunately the horses are allowed a minute to work in inside the arena and Karen took this time riding him into the spooky corners and down the spooky long side so by the time his minute warm up was over, he was ready to rock 'n roll and rock 'n roll he did, right into a score of 66.25% and FIRST place! Woo hoo!! He really surpassed our expectations - not that we don't know he is capable but, to be fair to him, he's been off the scene for a long time and has not exactly had a lot of preparation but the quality of the preparation has been 5 star (thank you Karen!) and yesterday that really showed!

Here are some of the many photos I took on the day:

Warming up for the first test

 Cute pony is cute!

 A, enter at working trot

 Give the reins

 Show some lengthened canter strides

 Good boy!!

 Warm up for 2.3

 Pony has a bit more sparkle!

 Rangi plait job - Turnout was never my forte!

 A, enter at working trot

 X, halt, salute

 Proceed at working trot

 Change the rein in free walk

 Canter

 A picture of focus and concentration

So our next outing is in two weeks and this is our first affiliated/registered start at level 2 and since late last year. Brennan and Karen will be doing 2.2 and 2.4 next time around. Bring it on!!!!

Oops, nearly forgot the video!