The past few months have flown. I have been flat out training and riding at Melbourne 3 day event. Coaching Mat Jantakad from Thailand, going to Berrima, Sydney and Harden ODE’s and then off to clinics with Christoph Hess, Andrew How and Heath Ryan. It’s been a whirl wind month or so, but I enjoy every minute of it and even though at times you are buggered, I wouldn’t swap it for the world.
I had a wonderful few lessons with the master Christoph Hess at SIEC just a few days after getting back Melbourne 3 day event. Algebra(Sam) had previously been on a holiday so I was expecting him to be a little fresh... and he was! Sammi is 15 years old this year, but he doesn’t feel a day older than when I first started training him as an 8yo. Mind you he acts like he is just off the track when the adrenaline is pumping! Christoph was great with Sam. He made me keep him more around the leg, and not worrying when he throws a tantrum, till abra cadabra, bing bamb boom, Sam went from what Christoph described as a Trantering Kangaroo, to liking him to the next Darien Powers! Christoph is a very inspirational man, very similar to Heath Ryan and he has the same concur the world attitude, whether you were riding a pony, a para rider or a future Olympic dressage horse.
Home bred BHM Rocky Road at Berrima. My lovely pony now owned by young rider Kristen Pringle
Photo: Main event photography
I was happy to finally be able to take some of my young horses out at Berrima ODE, with two of my home bred horses in the placings. One is by the Andalusian Stallion Galero out of Springdale Missy, who is the mother of Just a Blonde, Cosmic Cat and Apache Cat, just to name a few. He placed 7th in the Introductory which was great! The other who has been my favourite since been broken in, won the Newcomer section! She is by AEA Metallic out of Cosmic Cats full sister who is by Cool Cat! I just can’t wait to see how far these babies can go! She has since placed 3rd at Harden ODE in the intro section.
Horses Girl with a Curl placed 4th in the 2 star at Sydney, and Fang received 3rd placings in the prelim or now the EVA95 at Harden and Berrima.
Groom Hollie, myself and Fang freezing at Harden ODE before the start of cross country
Dart night at Dalton … Well it started off that way against the Binalong Boozers
We are half way through our darts competition and we have only suffered one loss for the season which is pretty good! We were toppled by last years A grade winners by only one game, so as team captain, I have to put my strategic cap on to make sure this doesn’t happen again especially in the finals. We might not be playing for sheep stations, but an A grade winners mug would sit well beside my B grade cup won last year!
I have also managed to fit in a quick holiday to the beautiful Magnetic Island just last week. It’s the first real holiday I have had in a while and I loved every minute of it. From snorkelling the reef, to sunbaking on the beach, I was in heaven! Now I know how the other side live! Hard to take that’s for sure.
Here I am on Magnetic island in our cool rental car!
