Mixed Times

As you saw from my previous post Spyke is umping beautifully at the moment and he is giving me the confidence to try some bigger jumps. I am so loving getting jumping in a way that I never have before, he is a FANTASTIC horse.

Being a toad

We had a show hunter lesson with Tracey Page last week and it was fabulous!!! Spyke jumped like he has never jumped for me before. It gave me a lot of confidence.

Yesterday I took him to a Mini ODE. It was NOT a particularly good day. He did a very average -slightly below average dressage test, the judge even commented that he looked uneven :-( which is a bit of a worry!!!!! He had a stop in the show jumping which I should have ridden better as I knew it was coming and then in the cross country he was a TOAD!!!!!!!

Dressage

Show jumping

Finally jumping

It took me about ten minutes to get him NEAR the first jump!!!!! The nappy little rat didn't want to leave his buddies. I tried everything to get him going forward but he would NOT move. Unfortunately for him I have a stubborn streak a mile wide so even though it took us about 10 minutes (the course itself was only about 1 minute long) to get to the first jump, get to it we blinkin' well did!!!!! It was all of less than a foot high, I was soooooooooo mad. He had another nap (a MUCH shorter one) at the second jump and then the third was pointing in the right direction for Spyke (ie back towards his mates) so he had no more 'problems'. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

After the Comp

We were allowed to go and 'play' on the course after the competition and he behaved much better. Grrrrrrrrrr!

On another note, Robert and Moira arrived on Wednesday and it is FANTASTIC to see them. It's like they have never been away. I am really looking forward to our South Island holiday next week followed by..... The Wedding. :-)

The blinkin' photos are a bit big :-) but you can see them here: http://s152.photobucket.com/albums/s169/Paddockornament/More%20Spyke/Mini%20ODE%20010210/

:-) Best horse in the world.

Look What I Jumped

Now, I know that to many people that ride this is not that big but I think this is possibly the biggest I have jumped. It didn't go perfectly, Spyke went through it the first time, he even broke the pole (I think he was a bit surprised to be asked to jump bigger than half barrel...... and I had the striding ALL wrong). The second time he rolled the top pole but the third time he cleared it!!!! :-) I, however was all over the place!!! I definitely need to get myself a decent jumping saddle.

A New Year

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. I did. :-) I had a lovely drive down to HB, the traffic wasn’t too bad at all and the girls had a swim in Taupo on the way.

Lake Taupo

On Christmas Eve I spent the day helping Maree to prepare the Christmas Feast. It started with a queue at the berry place to get some nice fresh raspberries, boysenberries, blackberries and cherries (yum yum, they are sooooo nice straight from the vine). She had planned a FIVE course meal. We started with a chilled soup, followed by a salad, then sorbet, followed by a HUGE main course and then a flan for dessert. She had chosen nice ‘simple’ recipes….. and they were……simple……. What she didn’t look closely at was how fiddly the flan was to make. I ended up in charge of it and it was INCREDIBLY fiddly, there were soooo many different processes to it (they were ALL simple, there were just lots of them). But we got there in the end. Maree played Christmas music while we were busy which was really nice….. for about the first three times through the CD. LOL I have certainly had my fill of Christmas music for the year.

Queueing For Berries

Taradale

Sammie Delivery Dog

Christmas Day was lovely. The weather was stunning and it was very relaxed and enjoyable. It started with a BBQ breakfast (I really, really like BBQ breakfasts!!!!!!) We ate WAAAAAAAAY too much and had loads of leftovers. The flan was great (thank goodness) and we forgot the sorbet (no-one missed it).

Making Omelettes

Christmas Breakfast

Before

After

Christmas Dinner

The Flan

After Christmas Day it was holiday time. I had a very relaxing couple of weeks with Maree and Andrew. We swam the dogs, walked the dogs, lazed around home, went out for lunch, moved some mulch (20 cubic metres of it!!!!) and just had a lovely time.

New Years Eve was lovely. We had an early bowl of soup and then headed into Napier at about 9. We went to Lone Star and had a bite to eat and a cocktail then headed across the road to ‘do’ the countdown and fireworks. It was lovely.

On New Years Day Andrew and I popped to the races for a couple of hours which I really enjoyed, especially the last race as I managed to pick the first and second place getters.

New Years Eve In Napier

New Years Day

The rest of the holiday was spent hanging out with Maree and Andrew, discussing the wedding etc.

I came home on the Wednesday and instantly started a BIG spring clean. The house has been getting me down a bit as it is just so full of stuff. So I have given myself the deadline of January 15th to get it sorted (as Maree and Andrea are coming to stay for the hens night). So far I have tidied up the garage, the home theatre, my room (THAT was big one!!!!) and have nearly finished the living area so I am well on track for having that completed.

Spyke was quite funny when I got back, he saw the car and went and hid behind the hill, I think he was enjoying his holiday and was not ready for it to be over (know how he feels). He has been a good boy although he did have a teeny tiny bucking thought last night when we went for a canter up the hill but he was going too fast to do anything about it. Tonight he was really smoodgey. I was chatting to Monique for about half an hour and Spyke came and just stood next to my shoulder snoozing. Awwwww, he does luff me!!!! (OR was he just hungry? LOL)

The girls are really, really well. They really enjoyed the break in HB and I loved being able to have them with me all day.

BAD dogs!!!

Cooling Off

The Dress

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

Spyke's Halo Slips

Gosh a lot has happened since I last posted. Brina has become a regular vet visitor. She had a week on Rimadyl to see if it helped with her gimpiness but it didn't really make a difference. She is currently half way through a course of four injections of Pentosan. I have also changed her onto Lurisyn which is supposed to be amazing for arthritis. I am starting to see improvement so I am keeping EVERYTHING crossed that the treatment will do the trick as otherwise we are looking at surgery and my bank balance is not really up to that. :-(

Spyke had a visit from the equine physio (Rachel). He was very, very sore!!!!! He even tried to kick her at one point (gently, of course). The new tenant has moved onto the grazing and Sarah has brought Em and Bert on. The tenant has a rather lovely 2 year old colt. Unfortunately it appears that Spyke reacts to the colt. He has been MADLY in love with the colt's dam (he has never shown any interest in any mare before, even when he lived right next door to two) and hated having to leave her side for even a minute. Fortunately that seems to have settled (may it stay that way).

We have been going to the forest a lot which has been just lovely. Spyke, Oscar and Bert all get on soooooo well that we have some brilliant rides together. Spyke really seems to enjoy them too. We have also been doing some jumping in the paddock which has been brilliant. It's really nice having riding buddies again!!!

Today we had a Show Jumping Clinic with young show jumper Lisa Coupe. We had lessons with her before at Redhills. Today's jumping was at Limbury Park in a group of five for 90 minutes. I was really, really looking forward to it as Spyke has been jumping soooooo well. We got there nice and early, tacked up and walked the horses around the arena to have a look at all the jumps and 'scary things'. Spyke was great, didn't put a foot wrong. At the start of the lesson we had to find a space on our own somewhere around the arena and Lisa came to us individually to warm up. Spyke was a little, teeny tiny bit unsettled at this point but not enough to worry me. But then another horse trotted past and he just stood on his back legs.......TWICE!!!! It really rattled me as rearing is not something he has ever done. I had a chat to him about how if he ever did something like that and I got hurt he would be sold instantly......AND (and I think this is what got through to him) that if he misbehaves at jumping days then he would just have to only do dressage.

The next part of the warm up was to trot and canter over some poles. When I rounded Spyke up a bit in the canter he started throwing his head around and hollowing again. I very nearly gave up at that point and seriously thought about getting off. Instead I cantered him again but on a fairly long rein and he seemed OK so we carried on.

We did some trot poles and a small jump and then we did the trot poles, followed by a line of two jumps. The second jump had a scary (apparently) filler. Spyke trotted into it, I was COMPLETELY convinced that he was going to jump but at the very last second he slammed on the anchors, ducked backwards, dropped his shoulder, dumped me in the sand and buggered off. TOAD!!!!!!!

I got back on and jumped him over it about six times until he jumped it smoothly. After that, he really didn't put a foot wrong and we managed to finish the lesson. It is sooooo frustrating as Spyke is usually SUCH a fabulous horse but he always seemes to save his bad behaviour for these days. I am hoping to get a few more lessons with Lisa (she has a broken foot and can't ride which means it is easy to get lessons with her at the moment :-)

Anyhoo....pics (of him behaving, although the 5th one is of him about to launch over the 'bogey fence':