Ailbhe is growing up!

This coming weekend I leave NZ for a month in Mexico with my Mum. I may be just a little bit excited. I think however that I am just about as excited at the prospect of riding Ailbhe and that is going to happen very, very soon! I can't believe he is three now and will be four in just a few (7 or so) months. I brought the rotund 'little' chap in today for a bit of a photo shoot and he had his very first bath and a comb run through his gorgeous flaxen mane. The tail needs a little more work tho, haha! He clearly has good Irish genes as he's as fat as butter even after being kept on the side of a dirt hillside for MONTHS in a drought. He would have you think he was starving tho, the way he whinnies at me every time he sees me at the hay barn. I don't give him hay often, I promise, well, not much anyway ...

Here are some of the photos I took:

So, when I get back from Mexico, I am going to just have to climb aboard and get the party started!!

NWPC ODE 2015 - RH Toffee Pop

This weekend Toffee and Louisa competed at the North Wairarapa PC One Day Event in the NZPC80 class. They produced a tidy dressage, which, although not their best work, still gave them a respectable 32.5 penalty points (67.5%) and had them in 5th place after dressage.

Here is their dressage test:

An unfortunate and rather naughty rail in the SJ (Toffee was heading towards the collecting ring and wanted to go there fasssssst) dropped them a placing to 6th.

Here is the show jumping round:

Finally it was time to get busy on the XC. The ground at Solway is like concrete due to the long, hot/dry summer we have just experienced so Louisa was careful not to push Toffee XC and they got around tidily and clear of jump faults with only 3.6 time time faults and a final placing of 7th in a class of 21. You can't say Toffee isn't consistent!! Very happy with her performance!

Here is a wee portion of her cross country round:

Toffee at the Central Districts Horse Trial

Toffee and Louisa made the trek north to compete in the CNC80 class at Pukemarama this weekend. I had commitments here on the farm with a mare arriving to be bred to Brennan so I was unable to go and I haven't found any purchase worthy photos so I am afraid this will be a words only blog about the day.

Toffee had a five minute warm up for the dressage, which is pretty much her ideal warm up as she's very good at just getting on with the job. Louisa was really happy with her test and even had fellow competitors on the sideline congratulate her on a lovely test. Unfortunately the judge didn't quite agree and she scored a pretty average 38.20 and into 11th place. Interestingly, at her first Horse Trial at the very beginning of the season, she did a very tense and tail swishy test and scored a 32.10 and at Dannevirke she did a lovely test for a 22.60. Dressage, so subjective!

Show jumping followed, clear and within the time and again, it sounds like compliments were made from the sidelines - I wish I had been there but apparently I have some video to look forward to.

Cross country - this is what it is all about after all! Toffee is still pretty green when it comes to cross country. Her first horse trial she was withdrawn after the Show Jumping because we decided to err on the side of caution when the weather was deteriorating rapidly and she had produced a less than ideal and exceptionally green show jumping round. So, this was only her second XC at a HT and her third ever (she had a green run around Dannevirke last year where the water was her undoing) and what an absolute star she was this time! Clean and clear and finishing JUST out of the placings in 7th (class of 32) and the youngest horse to finish in the top 10 - Go Toffee! 

South Wairarapa PC are running an Express Event this coming weekend and Toffee will have one more go at 80cm before moving up to 95cm. Her first 95cm run will most likely be at North Wairarapa PC's Autumn ODE in March. Exciting!!

And, because we have no event photos, here are some photos from a lesson with Sally Clark last month.