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.