Curtain Call

The show is finished - Whew!!!

The girls were brilliant!!! And I have some pikkies. :-) We did three final shows, Friday night, Saturday Matinee and Saturday evening. The girls had it completely down pat and were great. At the final show the girls had to do a 'walk on' at the end. I was a bit worried about how they would manage going to the front of the stage with all the applause but they LOVED it and lapped up all the luuuuurve.

How we spend the evening:

What the.......??????

Costumes on, ready to go.


Sammie in a hat.

Brina's 'My Fair Lady' impression.

The Sleigh

After the show we were out with Mum and Dad and the girls were swamped by admirers, they coped really well but Brina got a bit stressed towards the end and unfortunately her little friend, who hugged her all week, came running out of the dark and grabbed her and she didn't react very well. It was a real shame as she had made FANTASTIC progress with dealing with children.

Spyke has had the week off since I had issues with the weather and with trying to keep the dogs clean. In fact he had Sunday off too as I went looking at horses with a friend. We looked at two. The first one was in shocking condition, it was seriously thin and sad. :-( The second one was a big TB off the track and he was very kind and sweet. We also took the dogs to the forest for a good run and a swim. I think my two were COMPLETELY delighted to be finally allowed to get dirty. Poor Brina was gimpy though as I have run out of glucosamine (am picking some up tomorrow) and she was also very worried about lecky fences.

I lunged Spyke today (once I got back from Wellington). He was soooooo funny. He did a big buck in the canter which started to pull the lunge line through my hands which burnt so I let go. He did a big circle and brought the rein back to me so I picked it up and carried on. Then I lunged him over a jump. He jumped it beeeeeeooooootifully!!!! He really basculed and picked his back feet right up.........then bucked, pulled the lead out of my hand and buggered off up the paddock. Then he buggered off back down the paddock and screeched to a halt next to Tai......so I got my gloves. :-) He jumped really nicely after that.

Proud "Mummy" Moments

I am such a lucky person. I have the best animals!!!!!

Saturday was my second ever Novice dressage outing with Spyke. The weather was very kind to us and the torrential rain stayed away until AFTER I had ridden (thank goodness). For some reason I was very nervous about the day but Spyke was just the best. He was completely relaxed and gave me everything I asked for. Unfortunately, I don't always ask for the right things. :-) I get all my signals mixed up and get all stiff and nervous.

Our first test was 2.5 (thank GOODNESS Kristina was there as I was going to do the other test first AND my mind went completely blank at a couple of points so having Kristina to call was fantastic!!!!). It went as well as I could have hoped really for our first ever attempt. We got lots of helpful comments from the judge for things we can work on and.........we got third!!!!!!! *Insert huge grin here* So proud of my boy. The final comment from the judge was 'He's a cutie!' :-)

What was MOST exciting though was that while I was warming up Spyke was listening so incredibly to me. To get him to rein back I just had to shift my weight a tiny little bit and to change up a pace I just had to touch him very, very lightly with my legs. What a fantastic horse he is.

The second test was 2.2 which has the dreaded leg yields in it. We don't really 'do' leg yields yet and we proved it. LOL. Our comment from the judge for our second leg yield (which turned into a 'bend like a banana and shoot to the left') was 'quite unusual'. Haha. We also got an incorrect lead on one canter so I definitely fall to pieces a bit when I get in the ring. We got 5th = for that test (out of 9 people).

Overall I was pretty happy with the day as Spyke went a LOT better than his first novice day and managed to improve his placings and scores.

That evening it was the girls' turn to have a moment in the spotlight, it was the opening night of the production. They were BRILLIANT!!!! They were a little startled by the clapping that their appearance brought on and The Rabble were much louder and more enthusiastic with a 'real' audience but the girls carried on pulling and doing their job. They were fantastic. They had another performance today and were just as professional. They are so relaxed abut the whole thing. While they are out back they have children patting them, hugging them, putting hats on them running around them and jumping over them and they don't flinch. I'm very proud. I WISH I had photos to share but I will work on it.