Rain!!!!

Yes!!!! We have rain!! Real wet, earth soaking, grass growing rain!!!! Grow grass, grow!! It is the first proper rain we have had since last year some time and we are in quite a decent drought. Today's rain is no drought breaker but it will hopefully get some grass growing. Our poor horses are living on our winter hay stocks and hard feed at the moment. :-( It is going to be a loooooong winter.

We have had a busy couple of weeks. Spyke and I had our first show hunter outing with Showhunter Waitemata. Spyke was fabulously well behaved and did some really nice rounds. His real strength is in his consistency. He just rumbles around the course in a rhythm. We were in the top ten for our first round which I was THRILLED about. He lost a lot of marks through not using his shoulders fully, he was not lifting his knees and was dangling his lower leg. On the good side he was on the correct lead for every jump and didn't toucg any of them.

The second and third rounds were not as good as the first but that was completely my fault as I have not yet got the correct rhythm sorted and so we jumped a couple of jumps from the wrong spot which detracted from the smoothness of our round. We did 2 rounds at 70cm and then one at 80. It seemed a big jump from 70 to 80 but Spyke did his best with a flustered rider on top.

Our last round was a REAL challenge for me!!!! Because the day was running really late and the ponies had already finished they moved the second 80cm round over to the pony ring. The reason for this being such a huge challenge is that Spyke is prone to throwing in fairly sudden stops at some jumps he hasn't seen before and 80cm (while in reality being extremely small) is VERY challenging to me. I was very, very nervous and very nearly pulled out. Fortunately, I was able to pretty much go straight into the ring after our first 80cm. I had to really RIDE him into every jump. He had quite a few 'thoughts' going into the jumps but, while not pretty, we did a clear round. It was a HUGE confidence boost and I am looking forward to the WRC's Show Hunter this weekend.

At home I have started working on trying to get his shoulders up by doing some bounce grid work. We finish the grid with a single stride to an upright which is currently set at a metre (mucho nerves the first time!!!) Unfortunately, he can 'dangle' at a metre too. LOL Oh well, I shall persevere!!!!

I have also bought some clippers. I got some second hand Heinigers for an excellent price and have also invested in a small set for doing heads and fiddly bits so I am hoping to do some clipping to earn a bit of small cash.

I also turned a year older. I had a lovely day with a ride in the forest involving bubbles, home baking and a Spyke in a good mood. Followed by dinner at Lone Star.

Here are a few pics:
The 70cm round (see the dangly knees)

More 70

80cm I think

The last line of the scary course, this is the scariest jump!!!

1st jump of scary round

Pics from the weekend

Dogs and Horses, Horses and Dogs

Last weekend (Easter) was the weekend of the Bernese Mountain Dog Garden Party in Midhirst. I drove down on Good Friday which was HIDEOUS!!!! The traffic was APPALLING!!!!I basically stopped the instant I hit the motorway and it was a bit of a crawl after that. Fortunately, I know a back road and it paid dividends. :-) I went down the other side of the Waikato River and was the only car on the road until Huntly. The other side of the river was a car park so it saved me a LOT of time. Once I got to Ngaruawahia I was in a line of 20 - 30 cars all the way to New Plymouth. Normally it would take me 4 1/2 hours to get to New Plymouth but on this occasion it took 6 hours!!!
The Traffic in Awakino Gorge:

The Garden Party was great. We had a walk on the Friday afternoon (which we only just made it to) in King Edward Park in Stratford. Then we had a BBQ dinner at the grounds in Midhirst. Saturday was the challenge day. The girls seemed to enjoy the day and came out of it with loads of ribbons. We also learnt about Rally-O which looks like a great sport for berneseseseses.

Some Pics

Brina doing Rally-O

More pics can be seen here

On the Sunday we did some carting. There were only the 'core' berner club people left for that but I just love getting the girls out in their wagon. We will be doing a display at the Pet Expo in Hamilton at the end of July so we will need to work on the girls' carting fitness.

On Sunday afternoon I caught up with Maree and Andrew who were also in NP for Easter. It was great to catch up and by leaving on Sunday afternoon I had a great drive back to Auckland.

On Easter Monday four of us had a LOVELY ride in the forest, we hacked, jumped, galloped and went through the creek. Spyke was fab and it was a lovely way to spend a day.

This weekend we had Dressage Day 3 of the summer dressage series with the WRC. Spyke was lovely and it was really hot again. We did a novice test this time. I was really, really happy with his trot and walk work but I accidentally jabbed him when I asked him to canter and he gave me some pretty horrible canter. :-( However, he still managed to get a 4th which I was stoked with. We did a prelim test too although he was arguing with me again so I didn't ask him to go into any sort of frame but he still managed a 2=. We also did a prix caprilli test again. Spyke was almost asleep when we started the test and was somewhat surprised by the first jump (the big noddy LOL) so he managed to take a rail....at all of 60cms!!!!! However, that woke him up and he did the rest really nicely. I was pretty confident that we had completely blown our chances with the rail but the little bugger managed to win the prix caprilli again. Luff that horse!!!! I will post a couple of pics of the dressage once I have downloaded them.

Today I caught up with Beryl, Richard and Heather at the Botanic Gardens for a dog walk which was really lovely. Although I did manage to have a sudden altitude adjustment when I was walking down by the creek. Them rocks are really, really slippery and I ended up with a very wet and muddy leg and butt. Gonna pay for that tomorrow methinks!! In the afternoon I checked up on Tina's two youngsters and have a lovely ride on Spyke.

Next weekend though is our Show Hunter debut. I am very, very excited about it!!!! I soooooo hope it goes well!!!!!

Some other pics:
The Mountain

Maree

Sunset at Westgate

Update

Goodness, it is the end of March already. Daylight Savings ends this weekend. :-( I am going to miss my evenings but, I have to admit, in a lot of ways I am looking forward to my winter 'break'.

I am updating this at work *GASP - shame on me* but in fact the LAN has been down all morning and, since all my work is on the shared drives, I am a bit stuck.

So, what has been happening in my world? Well, I bought a new camera at last. It was a bit of an impulse purchase as it came up at 40% off for one day only. I really like it although I am not completely convinced about the colours. A really good function is the continuous shoot which is really useful for looking at jumping technique.

 Some Pics from the new camera:

Speaking of which, I have been doing lots of jumping with Spyke and he is going really, really well (although he did throw in a dirty stop at the forest the other day -grrrrr). I am now looking for some show hunter training days or competitions so I can get us out and about.

Jumping:

Galloping

We did a dressage day in the weekend. I have dropped back to prelim (HC) for a while to re-establish some of the basics before trying novice again. We did 2 prelim tests and a Prix Caprilli, which is a dressage with a couple of jumps in it. In the prelim tests we would have got a third and a second so I was happy with his marks, although I was a bit disappointed with a couple of comments that indicated that he is back on the forehand again. :-(

The Prix Caprilli test was great but he was VERY slow (I wasn't wearing my spurs and it SHOWED) but he was obedient and popped the tiny jumps just fine. He got first equal in that test. :-) He is a good boy really.

Prix Caprilli

The dogs are great. This weekend (Easter) is the Bernese Mountain Dog Garden Party in Midhirst. this is always a good weekend and I am looking forward to it. I have costumes organised for the first time too. My buddy Kristina, who owns a sewing machine and actually knows how to use it(!!!!), came and helped me sew a costume for Brina. The wagon decoration comp will be sponsored (for me) by Hell Pizza. I approached them about getting some boxes to decorate my wagon as a Hell pizza delivery wagon and they were BRILLIANT!!! They sent me boxes, vouchers, merchandise and a hat!!!! Big ups to HP!!!!!!

Since the wedding

The most interesting thing to happen in the family since the wedding was that Ma and Pa blew up their car. And, no, I do not mean cooked the engine, they BLEW UP their car:

Different eh?

More pics of the car can be seen here

Apart from that Spyke has been lame :-( He has a big crack in his hoof which has made him quite sore so he is now sporting a metal plate screwed onto the out side of the hoof to hold his foot together. He has been sound since the metal plate.

Oh and then there was the tsunami (cripes!!! No wonder I'm knackered) Last weekend there was a HUGE earthquake in Chile which meant that we had a tsunami warning. Of course it was on the day that Robert and Moira were planning to head to Kelly Tarltons........on the waterfront....below sea level....... needless to say they didn't get there as no-one seemed to answer the phone when they tried to ring.......ya think????!!!

The Wedding

The second part of The Big Holiday was spent in Hawkes Bay in preparation for the wedding. I was really, really tired when I arrived in HB but it was lovely to see Andrew and Maree.

I was expecting to have a very busy time in the lead up to the wedding, but in fact, Maree had everything pretty much in hand. On the first day we went to the hire company to double check that everything was all inhand. While there I began to feel a bit unwell. I had a bit of a sore tummy button at the end of the SI part of the holiday. I think it was from all the driving. I know that sounds weird but I was sitting in a driving position a LOT!!!! Anyway there was a tiny split in the skin and then when I arrived in HB (and was exhausted) it became infected and by the time we got to the hire company I had the beginnings of a fever so off to the doctor we went and I came out with topical ind internal antibiotics - quite a hefty dose.

Practising the charleston :-)

I wasn't a LOT of help to Maree for the next two days while my temperature came down but by the Wednesday I was feeling a LOT better.

On the Wednesday night Maree's family, the happy couple, their dance instructor and I all went out to dinner at Soda in Taradale. Once a month they have a themed dinner and I can't even remember what the theme was but the food was delish!!!

On the Thursday night we had a takeaway picninc down at the waterfront in Napier for anyone that was around and felt like joining us. It was LOVELY.

The big stuff started to happen on the Friday as the hire company finally completed the marquee. The wedding party had all arrived by then so there were plenty of hands on deck to set the tables etc. In the evening everyone was invited to go to Shed 2 down at the port in Napier to meet up and have dinner. It was a great evening although we didn't stay late. And guess what we had.....fish and chips......again!!!! (And they were LOVELY) :-)

The wedding day itself dawned fine and warm. I spent the first part of the morning setting out the chairs over at Maree's parent's place. Then  I showered and concentrated on not getting hot so that I wouldn't undo the hair and make up that were the next thing to happen. We (the 'girls') took over the top floor of the house and had a fab time. We had drinks and snacks while we were waiting for our turn for hair and face.

Once we were all made up we got Maree into her dress, finished ourselves off and then did the official photos. It was quite a fun and he got some STUNNING shots. They can be seen at tim.co.nz. It was a very sunny day so the photographer needed some shade for the photos which he found under a tree in the paddock across the road. :-)

The wedding went swimmingly (although it was very, very hot!!!) and everyone looked amazing in their deco gear. The canapes were visually beautiful and tasted delicious. The reception was fab too and once again the food was DELICIOUS!!!! Maree and Andrew did a SUPER first dance (The Charleston) and it was just a really, really lovely day all round.

The day after the wedding was great too. Everyone was invited up to the house for 'brunch' and LOTS of people showed up. Steve and Andrea 'did' the BBQ which meant Andrew was able to spend the time catching up with people. After brunch, a group of people went down to Napier to see the Gatsby Picnic and came back EXTREMELY enthusiastic about going again next year. I stayed back at the house to help pack up. I have to say that it took a LOT longer than I expected and I was pretty pooped afterwards. But it was good to get it done.

On Monday morning Tina and I headed back to Auckland after and AMAZING couple of weeks.

There are more pics here: More pics