December 2013

On the 23rd and 24th of November I competed at Friends of Woady Yaloak Horse Trials in the Intro with ESB Irish Whisper. The weather was even worse than it had been at colac but we had been expecting it (being so close to Ballarat) and had all the winter woolies with us.Our dressage test was fairly good but there are definatly clear points that need work especially our canter! but other than a few messy bits the dressage was reasonably good. In the showjumping we did a very nice round but knocked a pole on the last fence which was a bit unlucky. The next day we had x-country which I was quite excited about after walking the course. We managed to go clear and under time with our only problems being a little wobbly into the first jump and the scary pathways through the trees.

 

November 2013

On the 9^th and 10^th of November I competed at Colac 2 day event in the Intro with ESB Irish Whisper. The weather was awful most of the weekend with rain and wind. On Saturday we had Dressage and Show jumping. Our dressage was pretty average but for our first one together it was good and in the show jumping we went clear. On Sunday we had x-country with the weather a little bit better than it had been on Saturday. We had one stop at the water and a few time penalties but other than that had an amazing weekend.

 

August 2013

This has been a pretty relaxing month for all the horses as the weather still doesn't want to cooperate with us and I have had to start the exam revision for school. At the start of the month ESB Golden Ambition and I had the second pony club Speed to Safety Trial which we didn't do very well in. we were 3 second off the 120 seconds we were supposed to do the 1000 meters in which wasn't to bad but a few of the other riders were getting much closer to the time. We ended up coming 5th missing out on going to the final but we had heaps of fun!

ESB Golden Ambition and I also had a dressage competition which was extremely wet and slippery! As there was only one 20x60 meter dressage arena for everyone to warm up in we were having a bit of a fight because of of all the little ponies getting much to close. So our first test was a little bit tense but apart from that I was quite happy. Our second test was a bit of a disaster because the area, even though it was sand, was very boggy and most of it was under water. We were fine with the water but in some places she was just sinking and slipping all over the place. we ended up 9th in our first test and the second... well we were somewhere around 18th (whoops).

ESB Irish Rumble is going well and is always making me laugh. Hopefully (if its not too wet and windy) over this weekend we are going to be heading down to the local pony club for a quiet ride away from home. 

July 2013

Again this month it has been a fight against the weather most of the time were getting wet and when its not raining we nearly get blown away. ESB Golden Ambition and I spent a week at Equine Sports Breeding. We spent the week working with ESB Irish Judge and teaching Greta how to pony her so that she will hopefully be able to come home soon. 

 

On the Sunday we had pony club and ESB Irish Rumble got to come along and have a look. He was very chilled out about it, having a look at everything. The only time he got nervous was when we took Greta away because he couldn’t understand why he couldn’t go with her.

The next week we had a big interschools competition at Werribee. In our showjumping we had poles in two of our rounds and managed to go clear in the third but didn’t go fast enough to be able to do very well. Our dressage was a bit of a disaster with Greta finding the sand hiting the side of the arena very scary and not wanting to go near it. But even so we still managed to get a 59% and a 64%.

On the Sunday after interschools Greta pretended to be a racehorse in the speed to safety trial at Geelong Racecourse. The idea of Speed to safety is to ride at a given pace over a given distance. We had to ride 1000m in 120 seconds. The two people from the zone who have been able to get closest to the given time in the two trials go through to the final at Moonee Valley racecourse on the 25^th of August. At the first trial our two qualifying times were 122 seconds and 118 seconds, only two seconds off the time. the final trial is on the 3^rd of August where we will have two more goes at getting as close to the 120 seconds as possible. 

June 2013

This month has been pretty busy as I have had exams but some how I managed to get to a few competitions. There has also been a fair amount of rain which has made the ground quite soft and slippery. On the 9th I competed at a dressage competition with ESB Golden Ambition. The warm up area was difficult because of the grass being slippery. our first test was a bit messy in places but we still managed to come 8th, our second test was much better and we ended up 3rd. The next week on the 16th we had Kardinia Interschools. The warm up for dressage was horrible and muddy so we didn't stay clean for very long. Our first test wasn't our best but we came 5th and our second test was slightly better although made more challenging by the slippery grass. Again we came 5th in the second test and and came 5th overall. In the show jumping we had two clear rounds making it to the jump off. In the jump off we got one rail and ended up coming 7th.

May 2013

ESB Golden Ambition (Greta) and I have recently been competing in the Barwon Equestrian Showjumping Tournament (B.E.S.T). It consists of four showjumping competitions held at different pony clubs in the Barwon Zone. At each competition there are two rounds of show jumping for the day. Throughout the series we had been doing really well, placing in at least one round at each competition. The last round was held on Sunday the 19th of May at Portalington Pony Club. Due to some heavy rain through the week the grounds were quite slippery and even going carefully we seemed to be sliding all over the place. We managed to make it clear in our first round placing sixth. in the second round we had a similar trouble with the ground and had a bit of a whoops with at the brick wall but still managed to complete the course fine other than that. Over all for the day we finished 8th and managed to come 5th over the whole series winning a lovely rosette and some white bandages.

April 2013

This month started with an Easter trail ride at Equine Sports Breeding. Rumble and Itravelled up on the Friday to stay overnight for the big ride on Saturday. Weset out in the morning on our ride which was 15km to the spot where we had anamazing relaxing lunch by the river. Rumble was quite relaxed which I wassurprised about because along the way there were many scary cows and sheep. Hewas also very good crossing the river, going straight through the water withouteven hesitating which is a good sign for water jumps! We followed the riveraround until we got to a nice spot where there was a sand bank down to thewater. We all took the horses down to the water for a drink and Rumble had afun time splashing around. after we had eaten we went for an easter egg huntand then started our 15km back so by the time we got back he was very tired. 

On the easter Monday I had a showjumping competition on ESBGolden Ambition (Greta) at Drysdale Leopold Pony Club.  We didn’t place at all but we got twoclear rounds which made me happy and as soon as we finished we were on our wayback up to Equine Sports Breeding. It was Greta's first time back in a few years and was a bit unsure to start with but settled down well. Westayed with Vanessa for the week and I got to spend heaps of time with ESBIrish Judge. We worked with her for the week which started with her being ponied out in thebush and gradually built up to me being able to ride her in the round yard.

I had another showjumping competition with ESB GoldenAmbition at Leighdale Pony Club. We went clear in our first round but didn’tplace and in our second round we went clear making it into the Jump off andwent clear again to come 5^th. 

March 2013

This month has been quite a relaxing one as I haven't been doing many competitions. I competed at the Geelong Grammar Interschools competition with ESB Golden Ambition, it was an interesting weekend as we could hear the air show and had planes flying over every now and then. Despite all the distractions we did quite well coming coming 4th with 66.8% and 13th in the other with 59.5%.

 So far I haven't taken ESB Irish Rumble anywhere but he will be attending his first pony club rally April. I am aiming to have him ready and graded to do a Grade 4 dressage test for the Leighdale Pony Club Dressage and Showjumping day in May. He has been going really well lately and seems to always want to please me. So far his favorite activity seems to be jumping, he gets quite excited and only really makes a few mistakes at the beginning, once he gets going over a few jumps he has a great time and finds it quite easy.