Dannevirke PC One Day Event

Had a great day out at the Dannevirke and Districts Pony Club ODE today. A well organised and efficiently run event (so efficient that the judge was driving away and the arenas were getting packed up before we even got Toffee into the arena, haha!) with friendly people. The only downside was the incessant wind which blew and blew and blew ALL day! 

I am very proud of our baby horse who did a lovely dressage test (with all of 5 minutes to warm up and a horrific squall blowing through JUST as she got there) to be the clear winner on 77.4%, a little over 7% ahead of the nearest competitor! 

Show jumping was still a little green but she's just getting SO much better, every time. She put four on the floor when she overjumped the first of the double somewhat and ended up a little deep to the second element but was still in first place after the SJ, even with the 4 faults. 

Her cross country was very green but she tried her heart out! It wasn't an easy first course and the water was her undoing BUT I'm uber proud of her and her fab jockey Louisa who is doing a fantastic job with her (because Toffee IS lovely but she is not always easy!). 

Bring on the next competition I say but even more, bring on the Jock Paget Clinic that they're doing in 2 weeks!!!! Woot!!

Photos and videos below:

Show Jumping

Cross Country Warm Up and a handful of fences

SWPC Spring Carnival - Toffee goes Show Jumpin'

This weekend we took Toffee to her second SJ competition where she did the 80cm & the 90cm classes. She performed a good clear in the 80cm and just the one (rather spectacular!) rail in the 90cm. We are very proud of her. She was rather overwhelmed at her last outing (her first horse trial, CNC80cm) and is quite a sensitive wee mare who can find some things quite spooky (like people on banks/judges vans/photographers 'hiding' around corners etc.) so this is fantastic mileage for her. The jumps are never an issue for Toffee, she just has to learn to get her head around the myriad of other distractions but she was hugely improved this outing so with more time and exposure, she definitely finds things easier to process. 

In other news, Ata (Winiata - Wynyard Nightowl x TF Life O'Reilly) had a great day at the Horowhenua PC ODE today, placing 3rd in the NZPCA80 class. First after dressage and SJ but a few time faults over the XC saw them slip back to 3rd. A pretty awesome effort for not quite 5 year old after, especially as it comes hot on the heels of his placing and great percentages at Central Districts Dressage Champs last weekend in the Registered Level 2 classes. What a star!

Below is video and some photos of Toffee's Show Jumping rounds yesterday:

Screen shot off video

 Another video still

and my photos:

I think now Toffee will have a few weeks of quiet hacking before the Sports Days start up and we'll take her along to a few of those where she might even get to play in the dolly classes, hehehe!

Toffee goes eventing and we have a new Trans Tasman arrival

Recently Toffee had her first Eventing start in the CNC80 at Eventing Wairarapa's Spring Horse Trial. It was a big day for our baby horse and she found it all a little overwhelming but we are still very happy with her.

The dressage was quite a tense affair as Toffee tried to come to grips with all the other horses around her, the hockey match being played on the super turf right next to the warm up area and the wind flapping the enormous flags on the cross country jumps that were around the perimeter of the dressage arenas. She had also come into season and I suspect was experiencing a few hormonal 'challenges' as well. Unfortunately with the sensory overload, the tank all but ran dry and the test was her worst to date but it still had her mid field (67.89%) - it could've been a LOT worse and it is just as well it wasn't me who was riding her! Here are a few pics from her warm up. She's really starting to look good and mature/fill out now.

We took her back to the yard, sponged her off and tacked her up for the SJ which followed immediately afterwards. It was a very green round, cornering became optional and you could almost see her wee brain exploding out of her ears but jockey and horse made it home safe and sound and in one piece with only a couple of poles on the ground.

As a result of the dressage and SJ, we elected to listen to her and scratch her from the XC the following day - she showed us that she really needs a little more mileage before we should expect her to complete a full xc course and the Clareville course was pretty challenging. We instead took her along to one of the practice days, over that same course the following weekend and will save her first competitive XC run for another time. In hindsight this was absolutely the right decision as the weather on XC DAY was so bad that the Eventing Wairarapa Committee elected to close the course to the higher level competitors for welfare/safety reasons.

And in other news, Brennan's first Trans Tasman foal has arrived safely at Marglyn Connemara and Sport Horse Stud in Western Australia.  Marglyn Valentè Solares is a purebred Connemara pony out of Kohatu Solar Flare (NZ) - Here she is: