A very decent sized brush fence at Wallaby Hill - where I won my pre novice class
It’s been a VERY long summer and heaps has happen so I should probably shouldn’t waste any more time and get into what I have been doing! In my last blog I told you I was heading into the summer holidays with lots of camps ahead. First was my ‘super-coach’ Simon’s camp, a really good way to kick-start my riding for the holidays. Camp was the usual lesson twice a day with a mixture of intense dressage and show jumping lessons, along with the celebration of Foxground stables latest edition - Chester! Chester is a super cute pinto colt who couldn’t get enough of the attention from camp stayers, despite the reluctance of his mum in sharing him.
Foxground Kaleidoscope a.k.a Chester!
After a short but restful Christmas break with a bit of camping on the side, I was off to SIEC for the PCA state camp. This was the first year I hadn’t been a reserve so I was pretty eager to finally go. For veterans of the camp it must have seemed like an old routine, but getting up at 6am every morning to walk Positano around arenas for a good half hour is not something I’m used to doing. But I learned a lot more about horse management at the camp from the many professionals who visited during the week. The camp itself was a lot of fun and a lot less, how should I put it, regimental? than I was expecting. Apart from the early mornings (they were early for me) and of course pony club gear check and dress code, the time spent was really relaxing which gave me a really good chance to get to know a lot of the riders I compete against regularly. It’s really nice to now be able to bump into people at events that I became good friends with during the camp and I think it’s really important as a part of competing to have good relationships with your opponents.
Accidental model shots of Maddie at the stables
Of course the fundamental part of the camp was the riding and I can genuinely say I learned so much from the instruction of Sam Lyle, who was able to pinpoint lots of importance aspects of my riding to improve and it has definitely helped in all my disciplines.
The last camp of the holidays was the Mirrabooka eventing summer school in Moruya. This has been one of my favourite camps to attend for many years. Mostly because of the wide range of instructors that are offered and also for the big shady grounds, perfect for the hot weather! This year my instructors included Andrew Haddad, Carlene Barton and Caroline James. I especially enjoyed my cross country lesson with Andrew because we got a chance to jump some bigger heights and he was able to see the progress we’d made since the Denman one day event, which was the last time he’d seen us compete.
Camp stayers getting jobs done
Now that school’s back I’m focusing on preparing for my half yearlies coming up, but I have managed to sneak in an event before hand. A couple of weeks ago I competed at Wallaby Hill horse trials, picking up my second pre novice win! All my clinics, camps and lessons during the holidays seem to have paid off and I must say our dressage has improved out of sight! Though I didn’t consider it as a weak phase, practise made me realise that there is definitely always something to improve on.
Out on the cross country with the eventing group at State Camp
The competition started with me being a bit late to the dressage and getting less than five minutes to warm up, but with Positano being the gem he is, we managed to pull off a nice test and finished second. On the Sunday my show jumping was first which I was actually really nervous for but we had a clear round, which was unbelievably relieving and left us in first place. Cross-country was of course what I was most looking forward to and our main focus was making the time. The first half of the course went really smoothly and I managed to stick relatively close to my minutes markers. However every jump and combination I thought would be tricky turned out perfectly while some of the easier fences caught us by surprise, and of course Positano being a typical warmblood had lots of fun spooking at every fence that wasn’t his.
Maddie Prell and I at Wallaby Hill with our ribbons. Funnily enough we shared a room at State Camp
Nevertheless we continued up to about jump 13 before we were stopped because of a fall and of course the jump we were pulled up at happened to be the biggest jump on the course. We managed to clear it though and after practically trotting the water combination, ended up finishing the course 3 seconds under the optimum time! I guess I could say it was a long but very enjoyable weekend and interesting to think that I won the same event last year at my first preliminary. A big thanks to Alex and everybody at Wallaby Hill Farm for putting together another impeccably run event with really nice prizes…
Next up on my calendar after half yearlies is Silver Hills, another one of my favourite events which I have haven’t competed at since I was in introductory. Should be good!
Till next time
Maia
Wallaby Hill photo thanks to Main Event Photography
