Secrets joined by Ben and Boris for a hill session, working off their Christmas kilos
February has been hectic but amazing. I was so glad to be back out competing starting with our first event at the always beautiful Wallaby Hill Farm.
Here I had 3 horses in the EvA80. The stallion, Desert Storm won his section, Nugget was 5th and I had a “getting to know each other” ride on Rabbit. Thank you to Alex Townsend for your generosity, allowing all us eventing enthusiast to ride at your magnificent property!
The next weekend I had my coaching hat on, teaching cross country at Kergunyah Pony Club on Saturday and then at Howlong Pony Club on Sunday. I’ll have to admit that teaching cross country is my favourite. I love seeing all the riders and their horses having fun and with big smiles at the end of the session, even if we all did get wet, head to toe at Kergunyah! On the Sunday afternoon after I had finished teaching, I made the road trip in the car up to the Sydney International Equestrian Centre to meet Jade, Daniel and the 4 ponies – Boris, Secrets, Rabbit and Nugget. They left early Sunday morning and were all settled in by the time I arrived.
Boris saying "Hello" from his stable in Sydney
We were about to have tea and go to bed on Sunday night when I got a call from one of my Victorian friends saying they had 5 horses on board and had broken down. We packed up the truck and we set off to pick the 5 horses, 3 girls and many kilograms of gear up! We got back to SIEC, off loaded the gear and crawled into bed in the early hours on Monday morning.
From Monday through to Wednesday, I rode Boris at the National High Performance Squad. I had some great rides on him in the lessons and enjoyed all of the sessions we did off the horse. The beep test was probably the least enjoyable part of the few days! Thank you to Equestrian Australia for putting on such a wonderful squad.
On Thursday I rode the 4 horses at Sydney Eventing Midweek, 10 rides in the one day was very busy! Boris competed in the 3* Combined Training for 8th place, Secrets in the 2* Combined Training for 9th place, Rabbit in the EvA80 for 8th and Nugget also in the EvA80 for 7th place. Good results from all ponies. By Friday we were more than ready for the rest day. We rode all the horses out on the trails around SIEC for a stretch and a relax.
On Saturday and Sunday was the Sydney Eventing Weekend Classic. Secrets was in the 1* and did her best dressage test to date, clear cross country and then unfortunately she had a few rails down in the showjumping. This was not like her at all, we have put it down to being tired so guess who has been put on an intense fitness program? SECRETS!!
Rabbit and Nugget both stepped up to EvA95 with no struggles at all. Rabbit won her section and Nugget placed 6th. They both finished on their dressage scores and I couldn’t have been happier. Made for a quick trip home!
For our last weekend in February both Jade and I rode at Kergunyah Pony Club Horse Trials. I found myself grooming for Jade which was a bit of a change. She rode Secrets in the grade 3, I rode Springer in the grade 3 and Audi in the grade 4. We were only able to attend the first day, dressage day and sadly missed out on the cross country and showjumping (the fun stuff). It was worth it though because I will hopefully have some very exciting news to report in my next blog.
Springer - For Sale
Secrets can be difficult to ride on the flat at the best of times and Jade handled her very well considering Jade hasn’t competed in 3 years. Springer (above) did a lovely test, this horse is up for sale and I will be sad to see him go. Audi, the horse I rode in the grade 4 is one we bred and is by Chico’s Boy out of our lovely TB broodmare. This mare has never left our property, never been to an event before, never been into a dressage arena before and she certainly has never been into a busy warm up area before. I was a very proud parent and she even scored a 9!! High hopes for this one ...
One of the most exciting things of this month was welcoming on Horseland Albury to our team of sponsors. I really appreciate their support and look forward to working with them into the future.
Audi at her first event, wearing her new Horseland Albury saddle cloth
I almost forgot, another exciting thing that happened was the announcement of the long lists of the Senior and Young Rider teams to travel to Taupo, NZ to contest the Oceania Challenge. Secrets is on the YR 2* long list - I wonder what my Kiwi horse will think about representing Australia? I certainly like the idea
Finally, a huge thank you to An Eventful Life for firstly sponsoring Storm’s division at Wallaby Hills and also for making his and Rabbit’s winners videos available to watch (Our pleasure Teegan! You canwatch Storm here and Rabbit here)
Our plans for March..
7-8th – Tonimbuk CIC with Rabbit and Storm
15th – Moyhu Pony Club Horse Trials with Jade riding Boris and me riding Springer (if he hasn’t sold by then)
21-22nd – Wandin CIC with Secrets and Nugget
28-29th – Mansfield with Jade riding Secrets and me riding Springer
Looking at all those events, March is bound to be busy also. Hope everyone is getting more sleep than me!
Xx Teegan
