My apologies for being so remiss in doing a blog but the whole Olympic thing...you know trying to get selected, not getting selected and yes lodging an appeal all the while trying to do some farm work rather took it out of me!
I am obviously disappointed with not being on the team but that is life. I have no doubt that missing 6 months+ of competition and training last year with my broken pelvis didn’t help my cause but that is life. I can either lie down and cry or put it behind me and focus on the next goal.
Being me I have decided to move on. Ben pony is having a holiday with instructions to get fat (I do wish I had his metabolism). I am not planning on taking him to Adelaide but I shall aim him at Werribee next year. Mum and I really miss him being in work. We ran at Wooroloo 3* the last weekend of August which he was super at. As per normal he finished on his dressage score; Polly Anne Huntington was judging and said it was 10% better than Sydney. Great shame the scores didn’t match her comment but I was happy with test. Then, as Wayne Copping said, he made the jumping look like pony club stuff. Yes he won.
Mojito was second doing his best XC run to date - finally he is learning to gallop at his fences. Good boy. A couple of days later he did a quick school visit with me which he enjoyed. Nothing better than being the centre of attention, as you can see from the pic below
The two young ones, Edward and Riverside (Max), are both super cute and I am having heaps of fun on them.
Mind you it’s Puzzle, a horse that Tegan Lush is riding for me, that is doing the best of my young ones. He is just four years old, not big but seriously cute. He is by our stallion Future Options, he is lots of fun and is for sale. He won the Intro 1 at Wooroloo on a score of 40; clever Tegan and Puzzle.
Meanwhile I am busy getting our stud Merinos ready for a field day in August. As this will be the first time we have exhibited it is all quite scary but exciting. If you think getting horses ready is a slow operation, try getting sheep ready. By the time you wash faces while not getting wool wet or dirty, check all the animal health issues are covered, get all the information on them collated and then persuade them not to head butt any hand that comes near them it is all very slow. Should be a new challenge though and I love challenges.
The farm is looking super. Really green with crops and lambs growing and the dams filling up but fuller would be better. So basically I may not be where I had planned to be at this stage of the year but I am at home and at least when it rains here I know it’s helping make us money.
Gardening, fencing and school visits have been on the 'coping list'
People wonder how I have coped. To that matter how does any athlete that has trained for a major comp and not made it cope? I suspect we all have our own method. Mine has been gardening and fencing. Fencing may not be on many people’s ‘coping list’ but it was on mine as it needed doing. It was also something you could work hard at and so go to bed tired which was a very good idea. It strongly increased the chances of sleep without grinding my teeth to the jaw line. Now to people that know me fencing would not surprise them but gardening, well, that had people wanting to check my temperature. Perhaps the fact my two main tools were a large tractor and a chainsaw may give you some idea of where my brain was. Surprisingly the garden does actually look better. Needs more attention but with 3 young sheep dog puppies trying to undo my efforts perhaps we shall leave that until a couple more of them find new homes (anyone want a puppy, they are unbelievably cute!)
To answer the question many people have asked - yes I did appeal then withdrew it as the timeline was such that, if I had won trying to make it to the plane on time, it would not have been the best thing for Ben pony nor was the process the best preparation. Rather not go than stuff it up.
Mum and dad were going to go and watch the Games but decided not to. There were two reasons for this; first, they didn’t get XC tickets, only dressage and show jumping (which as they put it is a bit like going to watch a film and only seeing the title and credits) and then, nice parents they are, they thought they would stay home and keep me company while the Games are on. I hope this was not a brave decision, I shall try not to be grumpy!
Instead they are going to watch Burghley. Only problem is they can’t get show jumping tickets so if anyone has some spare please let me know.
Anyway not much else to report so good luck to the team. In not too long we shall know what the fates have in store for our team.
Cheers
Sonja
