Busy Times

Hmmmmmmmm, where to begin......

It's nearly holidays!!!!!!!!!!! Yay!!!! 2 1/2 days work and then I am off to HB for nearly two weeks. I haven't had a break this year so I am REALLY looking forward to it. I head down on Wednesday afternoon.

Spyke had a busy weekend two weeks ago. We went to the forest with Nic and Sarah on the Saturday. We had a couple of 'canters' and Spyke bucked!!!!!! The little bugger, he really knows how to get in the bad books!! Fortunately we were going fairly fast at the time so it was just a forward buck that is not unseating at all. However it did mean that I was EXTREMELY nervous about going to the WRC Showmanship Challenge the next day, especially after he had reared at the SJ Clinic. It didn't help that straight after the in hand bit he pulled back and broke his halter. I was very cross and did, in fact, punch him in the mush . He was just being a plonker!!! And he did pull his head in after that and in fact didn't put a foot wrong the rest of the day. The day consisted of in-hand showing, a ridden workout, a round of jumps and, if you were in the top four of your class, a dressage test.

Spyke in the centre of shot

Looking Handsome
Spyke got second in the in-hand, second in the ridden workout and LAST in the jumping (actually it was me that got last in the jumping as it was an 'equitation' class which means it is the rider being judged, not the horse....why oh why do I ALWAYS fall to pieces when we are 'out' as we are a great team at home???). Fortunately, we just scraped through to the dressage and I was dead chuffed with his test!!! We managed to be the second horse in (which was a REALLY good plan as the dressage dragged on for ages and it meant we could retire to the truck with some cold drinks to watch the rest of the tests). His test was FABULOUS!!!! He cantered beautifully and only threw his head around when we did extended canter so he is clearly feeling MUCH better. Just knowing he felt better made the whole day completely worthwhile. And to top it off he actually won his class overall (he got second the dressage too). :-)

This weekend was lovely too. I caught up with Richard and Heather with Dibley and Beryl with Mindy for a dog walk at the botanic gardens in Manurewa. The dogs had a fabulous time and spent a LOT of time in the pond.





After the dog walk Kristina and I went to the Muriwai end of the forest (as we had Em who is a bit old for the hills at the top) and had a LOVELY ride including a canter up 'the hill'. On Sunday Sarah and I went to the top end of the forest and had a lovely hoony ride. We cantered and galloped at every opportunity and, not only did Spyke NOT buck, I actually had to give him a tap with the whip to get him out of a very slow canter. LOL

On Thursday I had a day's leave to do some Christmas shopping and it was a very fruitful day. I even managed to look at some saddles and bugger it, the one I like the most (and it will rpobably be a good fit on Spyke) is , of course, $3000 dollars worth!!! Ouch. The REAL bugger is, there are currently two second hand ones on Trade Me for almost half that and they almost never come up for sale second hand and I just can't afford to buy one. Aaaaaargh!!! I have listed my Stubben (sob) and my Fenmore in the hope I can sell them and THEN I might be able to get one of the saddles I would like. However, with it being so close to Christmas I am not very hopeful of selling.

Wishing all my readers are WONDERFUL Christmas and New Year and I hope that 2010 brings you all much joy.

Even Nearer to Christmas.

Only three weeks (just under) to Christmas and it is not yet registering on my radar yet, too much else on the go.

So, where are we?

Spyke

Spyke has had Rachel out again and he was a far happier horse. Interestingly, the day before Rachel came out he asked me to give him a bit of a massage on two parts that were particularly sore when Rachel treated him the first time (when I say 'asked' he shoved his butt at me and made it EXTREMELY clear what he wanted LOL). It was like he realised that the massage had helped and was keen for more. On the mega down side it turns out that my Stubben saddle (that I LOVE) doesn't fit him so I need to sell it and start looking for a newer saddle. :-( I will also have to sell my Fenmore dressage saddle to fund the new one. :-( Am pretty gutted about it as it leaves me just the Wintec to ride in and it is HORRIBLE to jump in.

Tai

Tai gave us a bit of a fright last week when he was suddenly hoppingly lame, he could hardly walk. Fortunately a lump had appeared on his tendon so we were able to figure out what was causing the lameness. We gave him bute and bandaged him for a few days and he very quickly came right. - Whew. The boys had their feet done in the weekend and poor Tai found the stones a bit hard so kind Uncle Paul gave him a towel to stand on so he could do the opposite foot. LOL The big girls blouse.

Tai Being Soft

Brina

Brina has completed her course of injections and, while she definitely is better than she was, she is still limpy. I'm not sure what is the best thing to do now . :-( Apart from that she is as happy as a sandboy.

Sammie

Sammie is, as usual, great. She was a carting dog last weekend as we went to the lighting of the Telecom Christmas Tree and took a picnic. Sammie pulled the wagon with all the chairs and the picnic. She was BRILLIANT and I think was quite proud of herself. Loads of little kids rushed over though and wanted to know what we were 'going to do' as they thought we were part of the show. They wanted to know if we were bringing Santa in. LOL. I don't have any pics though as I didn't have a camera that works.

Other

However.....I do now!!! I finally got my new XT Network phone. It is a Sony C510 and is a mid range phone BUT it has a 3 mp camera!!!Yay!!! Will never be stuck for photos again. :-) And in fact all the pics added today are from the phone camera.

This weekend was yet another busy one. On Saturday I did some housework, baked a raspberry and white chocolate slice (VERY yummy) and went to the forest with Kristina, Sarah and Martina. It was great to see Martina out and about again although I think it's going to be a while before she will be back to normal again. On Sunday I was the driver/photographer for Krisitna and Sarah at the Te Atatu ODE. It was a long, long day and quite hot!!! Sarah had a great day and was really buzzing after her cross country (even though Bert reared RIGHT up so she slid down over his butt. She landed on her feet though). Poor Kristina didn't have quite such a good day. She did a FAB dressage test but then had some issues while warming up for the show jumping and ended up falling off after Oscar did a particularly awkward jump. At that point she decided discretion was the better part of valour and called it a day to go and regroup.

Today (Monday) I am home as I woke this morning with a really sore throat and a headache. I slept till about 12 (poor Dad phoned and woke me up and I was..... ummmmmmm .....not very cheerful as I had been in quite a deep sleep - sorry Dad).

Happy Dogs with Fresh Bones

The View from My Desk on a Torrentially Wet Day