Basil (A’Seduction) is looking wonderful and competing with his young rider Chloe Moon in WA at FEI level a couple of weeks ago. Chloe says on her facebook page: “I am so grateful for the ride. When things work out I learn, when they don’t I still learn, he is such a special horse.”
Basil and Chloe Moon competing in WA in October 2018 at FEI level.
I have enjoyed my four days judging as A-level judge at the 2018 Australian Dressage Championships at Boneo Park two weeks ago, 18-21 October. The best part of judging at the Nationals was being part of a team of great people. My fellow judges, too many to name, made me feel so honoured to be involved with them. In all our breaks and even at dinner, we mostly talked Dressage and discussed the days judging. I even was encouraged to further my sights and travel to UK next year to see and learn more at a clinic. The love for this sport really shines through in all these amazing people.
On the third day of the event at the presentations, one of our incredible ambassadors, Australia’s Olympic Judge Mary Seefried, announced her retirement from international level. I had the pleasure of judging alongside Mary at this event. I also competed for many years under her detailed eye and, always reading her comments, I learnt a lot about what areas to improve. I can’t wait to be judging with Mary again.
Mary Seefried receiving an award for her services to Dressage, presented by Denise Rogan at the 2018 Dressage Championships at Boneo Park. Mary is retiring from international level judging as an FEI 5-star Judge. She will continue to judge at national dressage competitions.
Not sure how long it will be online for, but here am I being interviewed by Glenda from Horse Chats. This was previously published in 2017, and re-published by Popular Demand.
Sally discusses being open minded with horses, training and riding ‘A Spider Bite’ and other horses
Sally’s Favourite Inspirational Quote:
“Horses should be happy in their lifestyle. They should be sound and happy in their brain and body so that they are happy and willing to work with you.”
Who Has Inspired Sally:
Time Stamps:
00:50 – Horses should be happy in their lifestyle. They should be sound and happy in their brain and body so that they are happy and willing to work with you.
01:48 – How Sally’s sister started Sally with horses
04:55 – Horse racing and track work using eventing principles
07:40 – Being open minded, and willing to learn and adapt to different disciplines
09:11 – About dressage and lightness
11:50 – Sally’s dressage horses
13:10 – About ‘A Spider Bite’
14:33 – Winning Sydney CDI, PSG & Inter I
16:45 – How Ballina Shire Council interrupted Sally plans for her property
23:10 – The happiness and soundness of the horse, think like a horse
31:20 – Competing and coaching
32:10 – Don’t take things too seriously, enjoy and learn from life
Sally Evans and A Spider Bite, Sydney CDI 3*, April 2017. Photo: Amy-Sue Alston
We were just thrilled with CC at Sydney CDI – just amazing considering our lead up training to this show!!! I have been mostly working in a paddock on a slope at our new home. Not the best preparation, but CC just put it together.
I had some wonderful help from Sue Hearn at the show. She really helped CC put on her dancing shoes!!!!!!
The old team is back together to prepare on competition day – Peter and Sally. Except Charlie had to come with us… But after a day or so he just fit right in with the top dogs… He had a gangster jacket on and a diamond studded collar.
Here our results:
FEI Intermediate Freestyle (CDI 3*) 68.17% (second)
Prix St Georges (CDI 3*) 66.66% (sixth)
Sally Evans and A Spider Bite, Sydney CDI 3*, April 2017. Photo: Amy-Sue Alston
Sally Evans and A Spider Bite, Sydney CDI 3*, April 2017. Photo: Amy-Sue Alston
Sally Evans and A Spider Bite, Sydney CDI 3*, April 2017. Photo: Amy-Sue Alston
Charlie trying to help hand-pick CC.
Sally and Peter are temporarily staying in Toowoomba, Queensland, till January. The whole SDS team is. Charlie, the two cats and the two chooks are all coming to terms with this so-called “SDS Summer Holiday”. Soon we will re-establish in the Northern Rivers of NSW, riding again on the BEACHES.
In the meantime, we’ve had some luck with our boy Hefner winning a race at the Sunshine Coast. Hefner does a mix of dressage schooling and hill work and then the racetrack workouts too!!! He’s a pretty happy boy.
With CC at Rodrigo Matos Clinic at home at SDS, 11.9.2016
Riding my beautiful mare CC is what keeps me going through these difficult times. These are our last few weeks here on our Equestrian Centre that we have built up over many years before it is being taken over by the Roads and Maritime Services. All will then be bulldozed soon to make way for a new highway. Our focus now is on this mediation and court process, to have our life’s work Sally’s Dressage Stables valued for what it is: a working Equestrian Centre where we have trained FEI level dressage horses, where we have bred Warmblood horses, where we have trained students and their horses for dressage, and where we have prepared some Thoroughbreds for racing as well as retrained them for their careers after racing. We will be moving this month to temporary premises before we can start anew and rebuild in 2017.
CC at Brisbane CDI 2015, Emma Morley Photography
Wish I had some pics of CC as at the Tweed dressage Championships last Sunday. She won the Inter 1 with a 67%, that is her PB. I was very happy with her. And Penny did a 68% in the medium for a very close second place.
I am coaching this weekend at Nana Glen Eventing Clinic. I am taking Peter with me as they have me booked in to a Winery to stay Friday and Saturday night, so I am forcing him to have a break!!! Poppy is coming here to look after SDS. She is bringing her young horse Spida. She came last weekend for a mini boot camp with him. He is a lovely boy, she will have a great future with him.
A Snap Decision (Snap) born 2011, by A’Seduction, March 2016
For sale …. My yummy 4yo Snap Decision nearly 16.1 now, very lovely laid back attitude. Beautifully trainable. By A’seduction out of Don Herr bloodlines mare. I must sell him as we have the Pacific Highway coming through our place. 0402078882
A Snap Decision (Snap) born 2011, by A’Seduction, March 2016
A Snap Decision (Snap) born 2011, by A’Seduction, March 2016
A Snap Decision (Snap) born 2011, by A’Seduction, March 2016
A Snap Decision (Snap) born 2011, by A’Seduction. March 2016
Patti on Penny and Nick on Legs, Patches Beach Feb 2016
Last Friday, it was the perfect afternoon for the most lovely ride on the beach.
Our beautiful friends from the USA, Patti and Nick, visit us every year, and they made history this time with a ride on the beach, riding Miss Penny and her Mommy, Legs!! Penny still knows and loves her Mum and it was very special to see her enjoy her company on such a gorgeous day……
In this next amazing pic there is Peter fishing and right in the distance are Patti and Nick riding along the edge of the waves.
You see, I said to Peter that whilst our friends were riding, we could have like a ‘Micro Holiday’……… yep, you might be thinking very funny Sal, but it is true and we actually did have a nice little break, just from every day grind.
Our Micro Holiday on Patches Beach
I also took these very hilarious snap shots of our super dog Charlie, and it was just when he was standing right next to me and we were both watching Peter in the ocean fishing, and as I looked down at him, his ears were fluttering out from his face because of the wind, and as the end photo shows, it looks like he is about to Take Off, Flight 810 due for Hawaii!!!!!
Charlie
Sally’s Dressage Stables at dusk, February 2016
Sally’s Dressage Stables at dusk, February 2016
Sally’s Dressage Stables at dusk, February 2016
Here are some pictures of our place taken from our front veranda, what a scene, just a bit of a reminder that we will not be here on this beautiful place for too much longer as the RMS is going to buy our place and we will have to move and set up again somewhere else.
The one of A Snap Decision is with Carissa riding him just the other day. Snap has got his Father’s laid back attitude, and yet is showing so much potential, he will be such a Star!!
I will be offering him and A Heaven Sent for sale soon. Both are super horses and have fantastic attributes to train and compete through to Grand Prix. Pretty soon I will do some video of both and they will be on the market. This is mainly due to the RMS taking our place for the new highway from Sydney to Brisbane.
I think that I might even have to give the Sydney CDI a miss this year due to the many different pressures we are going to endure. Maybe some good will come out of this!!
A Snap Decision with Carissa, January 2016
Secret by A’Seduction as a 3yo in 2015
This is our last young boy by our grand Prix stallion A’Seduction. He is out of a Trakehner from the F-line. He is rising 3yo and about 15.3 hands now, which will make him a peeerfect height for competition, I think he will make around 16.2.
Secret is his name, and he has been under saddle and showed us that he has a very sensible head on his shoulders and therefore training him should be a fun journey.
He is for sale at the present moment for $15,000.00. I would like to do some more training on him over the Xmas break, maybe just some in hand work and a bit of lunging, then next year back into riding him. He is very sweet and a very nice mover, in his trot he seems to like to give the medium trot, you know “show off” stuff. J
If you think you might be interested in this fellow, please feel free to give me a call on 040207 888 2.
We also are training our racehorse over the summer break. I have been doing a lot of beach riding on him, he really enjoys this. It’s quite funny as the bush track we ride out along has got plenty of entertainment, a kinda like de-sensitising of the racehorse. We have seen wallabies, a big grey kangaroo, a huge goanna, snakes of course – it would’nt be an Australian Bush without, and last few weeks we have had black cockatoos flying over us, about 15 of them, and then on the beach we have seen the eagles. Well I guess I get to see them not so much Hef, our racehorse, since he is looking at the sand and surf….. We have even had 2 hornets fly past us, going extremely fast.
We are racing this Saturday, fingers crossed!!!!!! He should be the most trained and quietist race horse heading out onto the track, nothing should scare him!!!!
Peter and our racehorse Hefner
Penny in training at SDS
Last weekend we went to the Far North Coast NSW Dressage Championships. I competed in the Advanced with Penny and did the Small Tour with CC. The girls went really well and Pen came a close second and third and C of course won both her classes. She did do a really good PSG, even scoring a 9!! and she got some supa comments from the judges.
This Sunday we have the TVEG Power of Pink Day, a day to remember Sue, as she always did this event to raise money for breast cancer. So we are taking the 2 girls again and doing the same classes. And the EA has given an excemption so we are allowed to dress up in our pink outfits and compete!!!!!! This will be good fun.
Sue, Sally and CC
It is with a very deep and heavy dark heart that I have to say a final goodbye to a very dear friend of mine, Sue Macdonald. Sue was the co-owner of our beautiful FEI mare CC, who competes under the name of A Spider Bite.
Sue absolutely loved CC and came to every competition with me for the last 5 years. In 2012 Sue bought into a half share owning CC with me. Well, that was just the beginning of a tremendous lovable journey for Sue, CC and me, and it also included all of my team of horses here at SDS. Sue helped me to transport and prepare the horses for all the shows and CC was a major part of this production.
I will miss Sue very very much. Sue gave us all the will to be positive and just Go On!!!! with LIFE.
Sue Macdonald
Sue, Sally and CC
Michaela on Sydney, Sue and Sally on CC
Sue, Sally and CC at “Power of Pink Dressage” of the Tweed Valley Equestrian Group in 2013
This is our little Arena we bred, and now she is doing very well just started with the show ring.
Leannda Scott now owns and trains and competes Ellie. Her show name is ‘Keeping Secrets’.
“We took her up to Maryborough Show Horse Council Country Hack Championships on the weekend and she was amazing. She got Champion Newcomer Galloway, Runner Up First Season Galloway, and then got 5th in her open. She is such an amazing little horse. Everyone keeps telling me she looks amazing going and I finally saw that this weekend,” says Leannda.
Sally and Godspeed (Scuba). Photo: Emma Morley
Okay, all well, just forget about me and the Sydney CDI, as we just should not have put the mare on the float. Well, I have learnt a big lesson, folks, don’t go to a big show just for the sake of it… when you have a terrible cold. As I was so sick that I believe that Spider Bite felt this lacklustre energy from me, and, well, history says it all, we did not even run into a placing, we fell way down with our scores. Horrible horrible horrible…
The only good thing to come out of this was the chance I had to have some lessons from Mary Hanna. I thoroughly enjoyed these and Mary gave me some great ideas with CC. Since then we have done a couple of PB scores at Small Tour. And all this training has folded into my other horses at home in training and in competition. Then to polish off a show to remember (or not), on the way home I have done something to my ear and I am having hearing issues, blah blah blah…
Onward and upward is the only place to go!!!!
In late May, we had a lesson with Brett P, and it’s always great to touch base with him, as he always has some good ideas for training. Brett still says to me, be confident on her as she will shine at the Grand Prix.
Then, finally, after some setbacks with a sarcoid, my beautiful mare Penny had her first ever Medium starts, and she was beaten in the first one by one of my students, Amelia, riding Always A Star. And then in the other test, Penny scored a 66% and won.
On the weekend just gone we attended the Grafton Dressage Championships and Penny won both Medium tests and took home her first ever Title!!
We had driven down to Grafton with my great team of students and friends to help me as I had the 3 horses entered. We had GODSPEED in the Novice, A Heaven Sent in the Medium, and of course, Spider Bite in the Small Tour. So I had driven out with 2 in the float and Lynne had driven her new campervan down south to the event. We had the maiden voyage together. Kristie had come from Lismore too, and Sue of course had driven down CC in her Luxury motel on wheels, with her husband Rob. So a wonderful team of super lovely people, and it was a team effort to take 3 horses away overnight and compete both days. To our great surprise… each horse won each test they were in and we came home with 3 CHAMPIONSHIPS!!!!! What a super show for us all. 3 championship woolen rugs from wonderful sponsors of this great country event.
Thanks Grafton Dressage!!!
This weekend I am feeling very brave and am doing a debut start on A SNAP DECISION. He is a super lovely sensible youngster by A’Seduction out of a Warmblood mare of DomHerr bloodlines. Snap is only 3 ½ years old, Baby days.
Then I will be riding Russian Lights to have his second dressage start. He is a 15.2h Thoroughbred gelding and I give lessons on him at home. But I will have to sell him and find a great owner for him. He will make someone a neat jumping/dressage/hacking competitor to have some fun on.
Sue and I have entered our mare Spider Bite (CC) into the Prix St Georges test, just to give her another hit out before the Brisbane CDI. And to top the day off, I am riding Karleah, Lynne’s pony mare, in the Medium. We have a goal set to compete her at the Qld State Pony Dressage Championships in October.
I’m busy, hardly have time to scratch myself, hehe!!!
Scuba and Sally at Bangalow 18.4.2015, Photo: Emma Morley
Here are some pics taken of Scuba at the event of Summerland Dressage Club at Bangalow from Sunday. He competed Novice and won 2nd place with 68%. All photographs in this post are taken by one of my students, Em, she is a professional photographer. Lynne and Jacquie, both students of mine, were there too and they were a great help for the whole day.
CC did a very nice Inter 1 gaining 67% that day too. That was after her 2 days at Caboolture where she did a 69%. We were very pleased with her as she is starting to handle all the movements of the Inter 1 now. CC had only done her third ever Inter 1 at Orange CDI in February this year, so it was nice to give her a chance to have some more practise at it.
Scuba 18.4.2015, Photos: Emma Morley
Scuba and Sally at Bangalow 18.4.2015, Photo: Emma Morley
Scuba and Sally at Bangalow 18.4.2015, Photo: Emma Morley
Scuba and Sally at Bangalow 18.4.2015, Photo: Emma Morley
Scuba and Sally at Bangalow 18.4.2015, Photo: Emma Morley
My Students Lynne and Jacquie helping with Scuba; here they have just unplaited him. Bangalow 18.4.2015, Photo: Emma Morley
Last edited 3.5.2015
CC and Penny with Micha and I at the beach yesterday afternoon
CC and I with Penny and Micha at the beach yesterday afternoon
CC and I with Penny and Micha at the beach yesterday afternoon
Have to start concentrating on CC to prepare for the Sydney CDI 2015. We are in the Small Tour classes, and Boy what a strong field!!! Apparently record entries again for this year’s event. So pack your bags and come down for a little hol and watch all these wonderful riders and horses. It’s an exciting event!!! 7-9 May at SIEC Horsley Park, we compete on the Thursday with the Prix St Georges and the Intermediate 1 on the Friday and then we have to qualify to get into the Intermediate Freestyle on the Saturday night.
