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.