Ashgrove Bernese: 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)