beauty therapy

Monday I got the farrier out (Jeremy Gardner) and had front shoes put on the two ladies, while Junior/Dan/SugarDaddy just had a trim all around, and little Zak is just going to have to put up with me trimming him for a while longer.
Then Wednesday I was sick off work, but was luckily feeling slightly more perky by the time the clipping lady came to take most of the fur off Spice. I must say - Spicey is looking very spunky with her new hairdo. Silvi has her hair appointment booked for Saturday morning - so she might just accompany Spice to the show on Sunday.

the new boy arrives

Up at 5.30 to drive to Palmerston North, then jump in the truck with Mum and head up to near Waipukarau to see Brenna and get the new horse! Made for a very long day, but luckily the weather was co-operative.

Sadly Spice took a little bit of skin off her leg yesterday, so we couldn't go to Tielcey to compete. Gutted about that - but luckily the injury is a nothing, just didn't want to risk getting it dirty or knocked out jumping. Now I have to wait ages till the next jumping show.

Anyway - the new boy (Junior/Turner/Dan) is about 16.2 perhaps.. he's a 5yo by Danasinga. Pretty bay with a little white on his face, and his show name will be "SugarDaddy". He travelled really well and has settled into his paddock nicely. Tomorrow I intend to put Zak in with him and I can start them both on a fattening regime :)

So - blogs are never complete without photos - so here are some that Mum took for me.

First- the new boy:

Silvi and Zak looking cute, and Spice feeling sorry for herself:

And lastly all the boys and girls meeting each other:

Farrier supposed to be out tomorrow - fingers crossed for nice weather.

makin' jumps

So Nick & I have been trying to make a set of jump stands lately. We think we're doing quite well - and now that we have purchased a drill bit they should be ready to try out within a few weeks (I've still got to get around to painting them yet).
I've also ordered some jump poles - very exciting! It's been getting lighter at night time too - by August it'll be easy to ride after work I think.

jumps!

Finally got to jump Spice... okay, maybe that's taking it a bit too far. But a few little logs (a massive 30cm high I'd say) did get hopped over. Silly things only had about a 1m frontage on them so poor Spice wasn't sure what to make of it all, but ended up being quite pleased to have something to jump I think. Roll on Tielcey Park next weekend.

Have also got the name & number of a farrier to come out and slap shoes on the ponies so I can start working them on the neighbouring tracks around here.

tielcey park dressage

Up before 5am in the wet and the rain to head up to Tielcey Park for dressage (Dressage, in the rain - I must be going crazy). Mum had come down the night before to drive - and Nick was tasked with looking after Zakky while we were away.

The drive up was wet and cold and took about 2 hours, and by the time we arrived in Palmerston North the weather was no better. But the horses had travelled well and seemed happy enough to much on some hay in their yards while we got ready.

Silvi was first up doing test P, and did a nice test - but just seemed a little sensitive, so we will give her a few weeks off and put some shoes on her little tootsies before she heads out again. I scratched her from her later test, and did a late entry on Spice into another test so as to not lose my entry fees!

Spice was very well behaved, but a little resistant in her head carriage. But she coped with the yucky weather, and the indoor arena with mirrors and all sorts of things like that. Her first test was 2.1 indoors, then back outside into the rain for test P and then 1.5. I think she got better through the day, and it was certainly a really good outing for both horses being the first of the season for us.

If you want to see results and photos you can head to:
http://www.odenhills.co.nz
There are links for results on the front page, and a tab at the top for the 'gallery' where you can see photos from this season.