Wow 2012 has been a HUGE year and I know that 2013 is going to be EVEN bigger!
So I’ll start by wrapping up 2012 before I get too far ahead of myself (I can get kinda overexcited at times!) A few weeks ago my boys and I trekked over to Camperdown for Lakes and Craters 3DE where both horses were in the pre novice class. This was our first 3DE together so I was very excited! I had arranged some lessons with my dressage coach, Megan Jones for Wednesday afternoon and we got both the boys working really well ahead of their tests the following day.
Thursday dawned and I got up early to ride Archie again before the trot up. He gets quite tense and against me in the dressage at times, so the more I can ride him before his test the better. Muz was having a ‘horse shy’ day where he was fairly confident that every man, woman and child within a 100m radius of the dressage arenas was there with the sole intention of ending his life, so he warmed up a little tense before his test. Despite all this both boys scored a 60%, which is what I’d been aiming for, leaving Muz in 16th place and Archie in 12th place after their tests. I was really pleased with this result for two such green horses.
Archie is a little tired after all his efforts in the dressage arena at Lakes & Craters...best have a nap!
Cross country day meant a lot of waiting around for the pre novice riders! It was going to be a hot one and with that in mind, the event organizing committee changed the order, running the * classes before the pre novice. This meant I wasn’t getting on untill after 2pm! It was a tough track for the pre novice, with some really good questions to test the horse and rider. Both horses jumped out of the start box full of running and ready to attack the course, they felt extremely confident underneath me and really ate up the tricky fences that I’d made sure I had solid plans for! I had trouble at the water on both Archie and Muz, but they were ‘green’ problems as opposed to ‘naughty’ problems and upon presenting a second time both horses jumped through the tricky combination without a problem. All in all, despite their stops at the water I was incredibly pleased with both of them and how hard they tried for me out on course.
Contiki Tour - Muz - over the 4th fence in the pre novice cross country at Lakes & Craters. Photo: David Kelly
Bells Park Archibald Prize - Archie - over the 4th fence in the pre novice cross country at Lakes & Craters. Photo: Shannon Fiesley
Archie and Muz both trotted up fine on Sunday morning after careful rounds of ice-ing on Saturday afternoon. Neither of them have any soundness issues to speak of but I’m pretty meticulous in my management because I think that you need to start with proper care early on if you want your horse to be around for the next ten years! The Show Jumping track was lovely, some big oxers but all nice open distances and big turns, particularly well suited to Archie who is still figuring out how to shorten his massive canter stride!
They both surprised me with lovely clear rounds in the show jumping, both of them working really hard to be careful and leave those rails up. For both horses, this was their first clear round at this level, which was an added bonus for the end of the season!!
Muz and Archie in the show jumping. Photos: Shannon Fiesley
It was amazing to have all the hard work we’ve done in the last months pay off and culminate in an excellent result, next time they will go clear cross country and land in the placings!
Both the boys are now shoe-less and in a big grassy paddock with hip-height grass till mid-January.
Holiday Ponies!
Now, onto 2013 …
At this time of year, plenty of people are looking at their achievements from the past twelve months and reflecting on what they’ve created in their lives. Often enough at the end of the year people don’t get to sit back and say ‘Wow, I did ALL the stuff I set out to do, and MORE!!’ So I’m particularly excited that I’m in the process of putting some amazing stuff in place in my business that will allow me to help even more people next year to make their 2013 incredible and see that they’re not sitting there in twelve months time having the same conversation with themselves all over again.
My plans for the first half of 2013 all already rock solid. All going according to plan, Archie and Muz will both run in the 1* at Melbourne 3DE in June. At this stage I feel they’re well and truly on track to achieve this. There’s a gap between where they are now and where they’ll need to be in June to perform at that standard, so I’ve got my events planned out to give them five pre novice runs to start the year off, followed by four 1* runs leading up to Melbourne. I’ve also got two weeks of training planned over in South Australia at Megan’s place to fine tune the cross country and dressage leading up to our first 1* start at Camperdown in April. I’ll be using the next four weeks while they’re on holidays to map out their training regime down to the day, making sure I leave no stone unturned in the lead up to Melbourne. Show Jumping training will happen with Jamie Coman at least once a month, increasing in the run up to the Melbourne event in June, and I’ll show jump them at least once each week at home. I make my plans with flexibility, based around what I know to be true in terms of each horse’s training today. By doing this, I’m able to nail down exactly what each horse needs in a progressive way and then I use the smaller one day events in between my bigger events as indicators. For example, after Lakes, if the horses were still in work, I’d be focused on their dressage and tight turns through water on cross country. Because they both jumped clear show jumping, I would still jump them, but it would not be my focus.
I’m already getting very excited about 2013! Part of my planning is to address what I’m going to need to do in terms of my mental fitness to support my achievement of these goals. For instance, I know the step up to 1* is going to push me out of my comfort zone in terms of the fence height. Even though Archie and Muz are schooling over 1* and 2** fences, doing one or two of them and stringing a whole course together are two totally different things, so I’ll be putting energy into ensuring I’m ready for that step up and can tackle the nerves that will come with it. Anyone who has read my bio will know that I have previously overcome some serious nerves, so this is always something I am managing and improving on.
The other very exciting change coming for me at the start of 2013 is that I’m moving house … Yay! I love having the horses based at the Coman’s, but the one hour drive to and from their place to ride every day is gradually becoming more frustrating as I struggle to find enough time to do everything I need to do! I added up the hours that I was spending on getting two horses worked and figured out that between the driving, tacking up and riding I was spending 35 hours every week getting Muz and Arch ridden every day. Phew. So a friend of mine has a 50 acre agistment property in the north-east of Melbourne with a two bedroom flat on site! I don’t have a specific date set yet, but some time during January I’ll be making the move over there with my special FurKids! A client of mine is based not far from this property and she has agreed to groom for me four mornings a week to gain some experience, in exchange for lessons and me riding her horse, which is going to allow me to save even more time during the week … Awesome!
I want to introduce you to one more member of my furry family before I wrap up. This week was Frida’s second birthday! She is a grey filly out of my old eventing mare, Ellesmere Poppy, by Megan Jones’ ISH stallion Kirby Park Irish Friday! Frida’s eventing name is ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ - can’t wait to see how this girl turns out, as both her parents were pretty special horses and she already has a very self assured attitude!
Frida as a 2yo. Standing about 15.2hh I think!
So, the view from here looking into the future is very bright and exciting. Can’t wait to share all my 2013 adventures with you guys and hopefully have the chance to help you work towards achieving some of your goals too.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Best Riding,
Nicole
