Keeping my prelim mare 'Pippa' fit.
In my last blog I had just suffered quite an annoying groin strain. This led to me having to make a tough choice. Stay relatively unemployed for a month or get another job. I did think long and hard about getting a job, but first thought I should drive down to Melbourne for a party.
Young horses in the Mansfield hills at Kammy Cordner's Irish sport horse far.
Stopping along the way, at a couple of friends who breed horses, it was good to see a small sample of what is ‘on the ground’ at the moment. ‘Coincidentally’ my road trip coincided with the Australia Day long weekend so I was able to catch up with some non-horsey friends for once in a while. Many shenanigans followed including a long game of bowls, which I was terrible at and it was so exhausting that I needed a nap on the clubhouse couch afterwards.
Epic Australia Day bowls.
Feeling rejuvenated after my nap, Andrew Heseltine and I decided we needed to invest some of our hard earned cash at Crown Casino. Realising we had no cash on us we had to walk through the labyrinth of Crown to their ATMs, thinking we had conquered a major obstacle we then discovered that the $5 blackjack table was out of operation. After much deliberation we joined the $10 table and slowly lost and then made enough money to pay for the taxi ride home.
Crown Casino, where fortunes are won and lost.
With an extra day to kill I headed down to Mary Hanna’s stable to catch up with some other friends. Luckily the next morning a clinic was being held by 5* Dutch dressage judge Francis Verbeek who had been judging at Boneo Park CDI that weekend. This allowed me to watch lessons given by Francis to Mary and also her stable riders Steph and Shannon. Francis asked the riders for straightforward riding ensuring a round and supple frame with plenty of impulsion.
Steph Spencer riding Redskin in the clinic with 5* judge and trainer Francis Verbeek
After a day sitting on a couch doing nothing I decided I should get a job. So a quick phone call later and I became employed at Warwick Farm. Unable to ride I went back to being a stable hand, just doing boxes and walking horses. Thinking it would be quite easy I was wrong; my job entailed walked approximately 13kms a morning from 4-9am which was enough pain to distract from the cheerful abuse hurled at me by the boss. Despite being frustrated with a ground job it was fairly easy and I was essentially being paid to do some walking exercise, which has worked out quite well for rehabbing my groin injury.
A horse at work who was attacked by bees as a foal hence the ears with missing bits
More recently I was the announcer at the NSW Interschool’s at SIEC. What this really means is I am the chief nagger. Ensuring people are on time to course walks, letting everyone know about timetable changes etc. It all went quite well with only a few small hiccups along the way, namely spending a day in the sleeting rain while the hacking was on. That was definitely not something I would like to repeat. Ever!
Several days in the rain with a microphone was not my idea of fun
At the conclusion of Interschool’s I went home and rode two of my eventers, one of which had been kept in work by my mother and the other by my step father so luckily they were not too fresh. I felt quite good in the saddle and the groin was not giving me any problems. All the core strength work I did during my break helped a lot I’m sure even though the next day I was fairly stiff.
At the moment I am working at the yearling sales down in Adelaide so will be missing the next two weeks of Uni … but I will return and be able to get back to normal riding finally and I look forward to competing again at the end of March.
