Picking up where we left off from my last blog; the decision has been made. The horse had to go
Dropping Wyuna Distant Music (Winston) off at his new owner's this morning and Wyuna Clear Image (Ace) heading off to Rob Palm’s to ride has meant a HUGE reshuffle of horses, time and future plans. The decision ultimately game down to the final question – where do I want to be in the next 5 years and who do I want to be there with?
My last ride on Winston before we packed him up to go to his new home!
Firstly looking at Ace. His big, he’s beautiful and he has an unbelievable amount of talent; so why on earth would I sell him when I have 3* aspirations? Well beauty is as beauty does quite frankly and even though I appreciate what he has done for my riding in such a short period of time, my journey to the top is never going to happen if I chose to keep all the horses and complete my very long university degree at the same time; oh and start saving should probably be on my ‘to do list’ too… maybe.
Then there’s my favourite out of the two, Winston. For a green horse he is so brave, cute as a button dressage and just loves to sink his head in your chest for a cuddle, he also has a super technique over a jump and could be a very serious horse one day. With all these beautiful qualities, mum and I were VERY picky with the home we sold him to. This is why I am so content and so very pleased he’s gone to Georgia Harris, a 14yo PC and Interschool rider who just adores the beautiful soul (and why wouldn’t she?). Luckily for me, she is semi-local so I’m able to buzz backwards and forwards and go see him if I like.
(Left) Our 4yo Filly Chance. (right) and 3yo gelding Jasper
Now back to explaining the “Spring clean’. My mum purchased a very stunning Black and White paint stallion (Hammers High Fashion, or Cash as we call him at home) a few years ago and, because we recognised his natural strength and balance, we decided to put him over a few of our mares. Now to our surprise, out came the PERFECT mixture of both parents from both the foals.
Chance and myself having a cuddle
Firstly we have our 4yo filly (mare now I guess!), who’s named Wyuna Take a Chance. Now Chance got her name as she was an experiment to see if Cash’s frozen semen would work. And work they did indeed! Not long after Zoe, our Percheron x TB mare now deceased, popped out a very big chocolate brown and white filly with two blue eyes. Not only that, she has a great temperament and is unbelievably strong, yet elegant.
One year later our ex-Grand Prix TB jumping mare, Honey Pot, gave birth to Jasper. A burnt buskin colt (who we’ve now gelded) – he also was born with one blue eye. We named Jasper Wyuna First Sun as out of Cash’s 25 foals and grand foals, he is the FIRST colt. Believe it or not, Cash has only ever had fillies, until Jasper.
Okay, so now that we have that sorted I guess you can tell where we are going from there. Jasper and Chance are ready to go basically, and due to other commitments (i.e. Uni and work) I just do not have the time to ride 5 horses. So basically, I’ve sorted and shuffled things around and came to the final decision that Ace and Winston have to go to make room for both the babies.
The best thing about starting from scratch with your own horses, is that you can make them bombproof! You will often finding me basically hanging from Chance's head (see above) because she's so quiet.
On another completely different note, I have completed my Pilates qualifications (yay!), about to sit my last exam for the year to then have 4 months off on holidays (the perks of being a university student) and also keeping a very watchful and excited eye on Darcy (CP Qualified) and Shane as they tackle more and more events.
Apologies for the rant this month, I hope everyone in NSW is staying safe and everyone else is enjoying the longer and warmer days.
Until next time,
Lil xx
