A Long Time Between Jumps

It has indeed been a long time between jumps. Day three of the series seems like forever ago!!!!
I have hardly jumped Spyke at all since the last competition as the ground is just too wet now and we have trouble finding a jumping arena.

We have had some saddle dramas. Candice had a saddle fitter/equine physio out and she declared that not a saddle on the property was a good fit for him. On the up side, apart from a bit of soreness in his back from the saddle he was in tip top shape. Fab!!!!

I found a beeeeeooooootiful saddle on Trademe. The lovely lady brought it out and it seemed to be a pretty blinkin' good fit for him so I bought it. Then a week or so ago we had another sadlle fitter out, a master saddler, and sure enough the new saddle didn't fit either. :-( We tried several saddles on him and the only one that fitted was (of course) a $4000 brand new one. It was a STUNNING saddle and $4000 is actually a pretty good price for a good quality, brand new saddle. However, I don't HAVE $4000 so there wasn't much I could do about it (I did, however make the catastophic mistake of riding in it and completely fell in love with it. :-( It is not dead in the water yet..... but chances are I won't be able to get one) so I am now on the lookout for ANOTHER saddle. Frustratingly, a second hand one of the EXACT model I am looking for sold at a local shop just before I started looking. This time though I will not purchase ANY saddle without approval from a master saddler. Spyke deserves the RIGHT saddle.

Riding has been quite difficult as I mentioned and I very nearly turned him out for the rest of winter but I had so many people tell me I wasn't allowed to (LOL) that we have ploughed on. Candice has been AWESOME at letting me use the float so Spyke and I have been doing solo rides in the forest (he has started scrambling in the float :-( so I can't take anyone with me) However he is AWESOME by himself in the forest!!!! Really, REALLY awesome!!!! We have a BLAST!!! He is totally unspooky, cpompletely unfazed by deer, happy to walk, happy to canter, happ[y to trot, happy to go away from other horses....AWESOME!!!! So we have managed to keep a bit of fitness.

We had a lasson on Sunday with my FAVOURITE trainer Tracy Page and Spyke was amazing (new superlative :-). I was expecting a few fireworks as he hadn't jumped for weeks but he just pricked his ears forward and gave me the best jumping rounds of my life!!!!!!! A friend VERY kindly came along and video-ed us and I just can't get over what a totally natural Show Hunter he is. He was SO good that I  have registered myself with NZEF and will be registering Spyke next payday and we are SO going to have a crack at Horse of the Year. I HAVE to, that horse is stunning!!!!!

We have day four of the series this weekend and I am REALLY nervous. Having seen how good he is I am now very worried about letting him down by riding like a muppet!!!!

See for yourself how amazing he is:
Spyke The Wonder Show Hunter