Ahh, the twists and turns of the horsey world!
As everyone is putting their finishing touches on their ponies ahead of the Melbourne International Horse Trials next weekend, Archie is well and truly on a holiday. In the end, despite Melbourne 2* having been my aim for the last year, I made the decision not to run him. He had a fantastic start at Ballarat Horse Trials a few weeks ago, producing without a doubt his best ever 2* event, but unfortunately he is just not consistently producing a good enough test for me to justify the $1000 required to get a horse to Werribee.
I was so proud of him at Ballarat, he scored a 60% in the dressage - his BEST score since Pre Novice, ate up the cross country (as usual!) and had only 1 rail in the show jumping!!!
Archie on XC at Ballarat CIC2* Photo courtesy of David Kelly
Archie show jumping at Ballarat CIC2* Photo courtesy Samantha Tierney Photography
In the end though, I felt like I was just going to get around, and for the cost, he needs to do better than just get the job done! Well, WE need to do better! My dressage coach, doubling as my best friend, David Boyle, and I have been really stepping it up on the flat, and it’s revealed some interesting habits that I need to focus on and work on if I’m to become an excellent dressage rider. So we’ve set our sights on Adelaide 2* later this year, with a few more months under his belt at 2* level, and some more hard work from me, I think we’ll be better prepared to be competitive at that event.
You can watch Archie and I go around the 2* XC at Ballarat here - video thanks to An Eventful Life!
He finished the season at Woady Yallock, and it definitely wasn’t his best outing at 2**, so I know that I’ve made the right choice in not running him at Melbourne without a doubt. He’s now enjoying a short holiday, and will then be coming back into work to focus mainly on the dressage and show jumping until the eventing season really kicks into gear.
Archie over the second to last fence at Woady Yallock CNC2* Photo courtesy Chris Esh Photography
Nemo, my other mount for the season wrapped up his season on a much better note at Woady Yallock than Archie did! Towards the end of his season, he’d been getting more and more ready for a holiday, and on the Friday night at Woady when I rode him, he got very hot and spooky - I rode him in (almost) dark and he bucked me off…cheeky little toad!!! This was very much not like Nemo who is normally the consummate gentleman, so I knew he was VERY ready for a break! Despite that, he pulled his finger out on the weekend (and after a very long lunge on Saturday morning to take the edge off!) produced an ‘okay’ dressage test…I know he could have done much better, but considering he’d tried his best to murder me on Friday night I was happy with the outcome overall. On the Sunday in the jumping was where he really shone though! In the past Nemo has lacked a little bit of confidence show jumping, but he jumped a clear and confident round on Sunday morning, and then backed it up with a very brave and bang on optimum time cross country round to come up the leader board and finish in 10th place. Very, very happy with him!
That marked my last event with Nemo, as his Mum, Cat is almost now fully recovered from her hip surgery and will be ready to get back on and ride herself in July!!! Very exciting for her!
In other news, we finally got ourselves organised at the new place, and all the good horses are now stabled! They weren’t entirely convinced it was a good idea to start with, but are all coming around to it, and are enjoying being inside and out of the cold.
And I’m now only two weeks away from moving into the house on the property here, and out of my little cubbyhole in the stables. Can’t begin to describe how exciting that is! I’m ready to have a separate bedroom, office and kitchen, as right now they are all sharing one space!!!
Won’t be long now and my three and a half year old filly, Frida, will be coming back to the property here and coming into work for the first time, I’m very much looking forward to that! All is going well with Poppy’s pregnancy as well, she is fat and happy as a pig in mud on the property in Bunyip!
Finally, on the business front, things are rolling along very nicely! I’ve recently launched a high end mentoring program called Elite Academy, designed to take riders who are very serious about their futures to the next level and beyond. It’s been received incredibly well and the handful of riders I have on board so far are LOVING it! Such a great feeling to be creating something that is going to help people change their lives! :-)
Time to go and work some ponies and muck out some stables, so till next time,
Best Riding,
Nicole
