Hanging out with Arvey (Taurus)
At the beginning of the year I decided that it was time to move on from Bimbadeen Park. This wasn’t an easy decision to make as I had been with Shane and Niki for almost 10 years and they had been a wonderful 10 years. The breaking and pretraining business was booming with over 50 racehorses in work from the start of the year and it looked like we would break in more yearlings this year than in any of the previous years. So much so that Shane put in another 2 stable blocks with a total of 16 loose under cover yards. And they were full from the moment they were completed!
The eventers were also keeping us busy with nearly 25 in work including some of the lovely young horses that had been bred in the past couple of years. This was also going to be a big year for the experienced horses with selection for the Worlds in Normandy coming up. Shane had 2 horses he was aiming at Sydney 3 day, Taurus and CP Qualified, so there was a lot of focus on them right from the beginning.
With all that in mind there wasn’t a whole lot of time to spend on me or my dreams and goals and so I made the tough decision with the support of my boyfriend Will that it was time to find somewhere else to go.
Having made the decision I agreed to stay on with Shane for Sydney 3 Day to give him time to find new workers and also to hopefully perform well and make the worlds. This would also give me time to find somewhere for me and my little pony to go and the boyfriend!
And so the beginning of the year continued on as every other year, plenty of competitions to keep us busy on weekends and racehorses kept us flat out during the week. Shane shone early on with all his horses winning at various levels and Arvey (Taurus) and Darci (CP Qualified) looking on track for Sydney. One of my favourites Shanghai Joe or Nugget as he is known at home was also stepping up to the big classes and brought home the garland at Albury Horse Trials against some far more experienced combinations. He takes everything in his stride and you can still find him flat out on his side by the truck! Many people used to walk past and see him lying down and come and tell me that I had a collicing horse to which I would reply “No he’s just sleeping, he’s had a big day!”
Capone at Sydney 3DE
Capone stepped up to one star and was coming along nicely and so I decided to take him to Sydney in the one star. I hadn’t ridden at a three day since 2008 when I had my 2 star horse WP Flawless and so I was a little excited at the prospect.
Time seemed to fly by in the first couple of months and in no time at all I was packing for Sydney 3 day. Mind you I hadn’t even considered packing up all my belongings! We would have 3 horses competing in the 3 day event and Contenda would be contesting the All Tech series final in the CIC 2 star. Darci put on a lovely show in the dressage and was lying 2nd while Taurus found the main arena a little confronting and was a little tense. This showed in the scores and left him a little way off the leaders. Casper did a lovely test in the 2 star and was sitting in third and Capone was a little on the wired side but kept his head for most of the test. It’s hard to remember sometimes that he is still quite green at competing even though he is 9.
Cross Country day dawned beautiful and sunny and we were looking forward to a great day. The courses had been walked and while we decided there were some interesting fences on course it looked very jumpable. Capone was the first of our horses out on course and while he was quite brave through some of the early tough combinations we came unstuck at Stuart's Lego blocks. He just didn’t understand them as a jump but once he did he jumped them beautifully. We continued on until the 2nd water where he found a crowd of people walking down the fence near our in element a little too confronting and so we walked home.
Casper was next out and he jumped a lovely clear round in both the show jumping and cross country which was great given that there had been plenty of problems in both the one and two star courses. This left him in second place for the competition but at the top of the leader board for the All Tech Series. A great result for his owner Justine Donohoe who will now enjoy a trip to the World Equestrian Games in Normandy.
The gorgeous Arvey
Onto the 3 star and Taurus showed his class around the cross country jumping clear with only a few seconds over time. Darci also jumped clear with a few time penalties to add to his score but a great achievement for the big fat white pony. He keeps getting better and better with every preparation. They both pulled up well after cross country and looked a treat the following morning for trot up. Unfortunately the showjumping would bring Arvey unstuck, with four rails down he dropped to third. Sometimes it’s hard to really pinpoint what went wrong when everything had been going well in his preparation. Arvey had been with us for so long and come so close on numerous occasions, it becomes really hard when you know how much has been invested in him not just from Shane but also his owner Johnny Walker. I wanted so much for him to do well and finish with Shane and Johnny on a high.
Well done Darci!
Luckily Darci had his jumping shoes on and showed everyone how it was to be done. With just one rail down he finished well ahead of the rest of the field. Finally something was to go right for Shane and hopefully now he has booked himself a ticket to the Worlds and I would like to think that I have played some small part in getting him there.
The presentation would prove to be the hardest part of the weekend, starting with the groom’s award that I received from Sandy O’Callahan. The award was named after Sandy’s late husband Mike. Mike and Sandy were our long standing stable managers at all the major events in Australia. It was always comforting to see Mike and Sandy when you stepped out of the truck after a long journey. They were always so helpful and cheery and there was never a request they couldn’t sort out for anyone. It was great having Sandy back at Sydney 3 day and Mike will never be forgotten by the long suffering grooms who could always rely on him for his efforts or cheeky comments.
With everyone already feeling a little teary the microphone was handed to Shane who started out strong but he too was brought unstuck as he tried to bring to words all that we had been through as a team. Neither of us was ever any good at acknowledging what we did for one another but even without him actually saying it, I knew that he appreciated the work that had gone into him and his horses over the past 10 years. It had been a tough week saying goodbye to some of the owners and people involved with Shane and just knowing that I wasn’t going to be part of his team was hard. The worst part was saying goodbye to the horses who had been a part of my life for so long but I know that everything will carry on as it should. Just maybe not with my flair!
Riley - Fantastic Mr Fox's (aka Henry) little brother
And so it was time to pack up and move out. Alex Townsend had very generously offered me a position at her lovely property Wallaby Hill while she went overseas to compete. I loaded all my gear into the truck along with Capone and a couple of Shane's yearlings I managed to smuggle on board and we headed off on our next adventure.
It’s been an emotional couple of weeks but I’m settling into life at Wallaby Hill and enjoying the less frantic pace. There are a bunch of new ponies to get acquainted with and Capone seems to be enjoying a life of luxury. We competed at Camden Equestriad and came third in the one star which is our best ever result and will be heading to Melbourne 3 day in a couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to getting out there and showing everyone what we can do!
