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!!
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 and I were impressed with CC for this trip as she seemed much more mature, with the whole experience and competing. Although at times she does get a bit overwhelmed with the event and the atmosphere and unfortunately that is reflected in her scores, as a few tiny mistakes crept in. But it was only her third Intermediate 1. We will post some photos of C at Orange as soon as we get some.
So we are back home and already working on our areas to improve.
We had a day of beach riding this morning… meditation for CC and going really fast for Penny…!!!
The two girls are off to Grafton this Sunday, CC to do the Small Tour and Penny is going Medium.
We are off to Orange CDI with CC in a week’s time and CC will be doing the Small Tour. We went last year and really enjoyed ourselves and CC placed in the Advanced classes. This year, they have record entries with very strong fields in the Small Tour and the Grand Prix.
We will leave on Monday and arrive there Tuesday, give her a work out and then on Wednesday is the official Trot Up for the International classes. CC will be ‘dolled up’ in her beautiful led bridle, as if she is being taken to the Royale Show… Then the next 3 days we will have a class each day!!! The first is the Prix St Georges, then the Intermediate 1 and, fingers crossed, we will qualify for the Intermediate Freestyle… then Sunday we will drive home.
The following weekend we will be at Grafton competing on CC and Penny.
I on Penny and Lizzie on Scuba, Australia Day 2015 at SDS
These are Penny and Scuba aka ‘A Heaven Sent’ and ‘Godspeed’, both 7 years old, one 16h and the other one 17h.
I on Penny and Lizzie on Scuba, Australia Day 2015 at SDS
They were born in the same year and grew up together in the same paddock and here they are for the first time together on the arena!!!! Lizzie and her fiancée, Dan, came for a visit to see us on Australia Day 2015 , and up she jumped onto Scuba, let’s go for a ride…
We are off to a three day clinic with Rodrigo this weekend at Grafton, with the two girls. Looking forward to working on the piaffe and passage and the flying changes with both of them!!!!!
The Far North Coast NSW Dressage Championships held at lovely Bangalow was on three weeks ago and we took all 3 of our A’seduction progeny. We came home with two Championships and a Reserve.
A Sydney Boy won both Preliminary classes with over 70% tests. He even got a “9” from a Grand Prix judge from Sydney!!! She loved him!!!
A Heaven Sent came second in both the Elementary classes. It seems she is always the bridesmaid!!!!
A Spider Bite came second in the Prix St Georges. Yes she was a bit cheeky and had a few breaks of pace, ooppps!!, and then she won the Intermediate 1 and got the Champion.
The weekend after that, we took Spider Bite up to the NADEC Gold Coast Championships. We did the two Advanced to prepare her for the Nationals at the end of October. CC did two nice tests and won both with 70% and 71%. She brought another beautiful woolen championship rug home.
Sue and I are very happy with her and in fact, all three of them, they are supa horses.
Penny went to the TVEG Dressage Championships recently and she did the two Elementary tests. She came 3rd in the first one. She was a little worried about the freshly laid sand on the grass with tractor tyre marks, but she still got a 68% and I was happy with her. Then on the next day she went very nice and won with a 70%.
She got Reserve Champion !!!!!
I did some more shadow judging at Tweed, as I am aiming to sit my B-level judging exam at the Nationals this year. )))
I really like the judging, its fun and great learning.
Well we had a great Sydney CDI this year. The classes were very strong with lots of wonderful horses.
The highlight of the whole CDI for us was CC finishing 2nd in the Advanced Freestyle with 69%. (Her Dad won this many years ago). In the Prix St Georges CDN, she finished a very close 7th with some silly little mistakes. But in the Advanced class of 35 horses, CC put together a supa test to finish 5th place. But then she got a bit tense in the other one, oh … well.
Our little girl Penny went to this event to accompany her big Sister. She ended up with a score in equal 6th position and was awarded 7th place with a huge sash.
The year is really moving now. CC and Penny they both just try so hard to get it all right, we were so impressed with them. Good Girls!!!
Here is Penny during a lesson with Brett Parbery. She was a good girl. Last weekend, Penny has qualified for her 6 year old class at the 2014 Sydney CDI.
Penny is magical in her trot work, but needs to better perfect her canter, as she is soo under.
We took all 3 of the Basil Babies to the Grafton Dressage day today.
CC competed in her second Prix St Georges and got a 65%, and she won the Advanced too. So happy with her.
Penny did the Elementary and got second with a big hiccup in there, she thought she had to do some flying changes… ooops, but it was another Basil Babe who won it. Penny is just such a dream to ride, such a lovely trot, the GP judge had her in first place, even with her moment where she was about to prepare for a flying change in the Elementary.)))))
And Sydney also came second in the novice with a 70%, he too was beaten by a Basil Babe.
CC, Grafton Dressage day 2.3.2014
CC, Grafton Dressage day 2.3.2014
CC in canter pirouette, Grafton Dressage day 2.3.2014
Penny, Elementary test, Grafton Dressage day 2.3.2014
Sydney, 70% Novice test, Grafton Dressage day 2.3.2014
Here is Michaela with her boy Sydney and his sashes in Bangalow, 02.06.2013
We went to the local dressage clubs Associate Championships on the weekend. And Basil Babes, they cleaned up.
We won the medium championship with CC (A Spider Bite).
We got two Reserve Championships with A Sydney Boy, he is only 4yo, his fourth event.
And the Darling Penny, named A Heaven Sent, won the Novice Reserve Championship. (She is amazing, she has only had one week’s work.)
Always A Star with Amelia Gilmore came second in the Elementary.
Glenview Audacious Lad with Anne McDiarmid won the Novice Championship, and Anne’s other younger Basil Babe won the Twilight Overall Champion.
Yondella Arlen under Carol Maxwell also scored well.
When we came home, we told Basil, but it seemed all he wanted was his dinner…..oh well, the tummy often comes first eh!!!:)
CC, Sue and Sally in Bangalow, 02.06.2013
Sue and I have a laugh
Sydney showing off his stylish competition head wear of a beautiful silver/grey hood!!
It was an eventful CDI this year, with not only riding 3 horses, but having 5 most wonderful Ladies assisting me. I only wish that we had done a little better in our success, but we were so happy with the way the horses all went. We took Basil (A’Seduction) for the Grand Prix and the Grand Prix Special, CC (A Spider Bite) and Penny (A Heaven Sent) in the 6yo and 5yo events.
Three years ago when Penny was a yearling, she loved to live in her paddock. She was not really into the creature comforts of the stable. As she matured and went under saddle, she told me she wanted to stay barefoot for as long as she can. She loves being one with nature, our Pen, so I nicknamed her “my Nimbin Pony” (after the town of Nimbin here in the Northern Rivers), ‘cause she reminds of someone who would live there, someone who loves living with one in nature, and a balance of all things, with a little bit of magic on the side!!!
AND BOY did she live up to her nickname. She was so cool at the CDI, so relaxed and chilled. The girls were talking of hanging some posters up in her stable of rolling pastures and trees. Penny’s first really huge event and she showed an absolutely amazing attitude. Pen put in a good run in her first round of the young horse championships. Considering she has done 2 other young horse classes, both achieving 71%, we were all pretty shocked to see the judges did not respond to her this time. But oh well, I do have the thought that these YH classes are a bit biased, (a little like the Hack ring): big names, big horses, powerful movement. But Pen, she has it, attitude and power, but the judges did not consider this today. Oh well. She will make the most amazing competition horse for some very lucky rider, and right now I want to campaign her onto higher levels and get her changes and half passes happening.
CC is completely different to her little sis. We call her our OH&S girl, cause, man oh man, she is right on top of it all: safety, safety, safety comes first. CC must make sure the environment is safe, the conditions are up to 5 Star, (as that is what she is accustomed too), and then she will perform. She went so fantastic. CC had to compete in the main GP arena, so it is all dressed up with pot plants and 5 judges boxes, and flags and signs and all, BUT CC excelled and gave me the trust, that bond you have with your horses, and she went so great – she finished 5th only, 1% off placing 3rd, with the horses in front of her all having been imported into AUS. CC did the same at the Qld YH championships last year. She will be a Grand Prix horse of the future. Both her parents are GP competitors, so she is a very lucky girl. Sue and I completely enjoy training her and her antics keep us laughing!!
Basil on the other hand, he was told for weeks leading up to the CDI that he was not going, until the night before. Then he saw us packing and preparing his horse float and parking near his stable for a quick getaway in the morning. So he arrived there almost so relaxed, it too was funny. Unfortunately due to my hand having been broken last year, poor Bas had not even been out to a competition for 7 months or more and I think it was a bit of a shock to him. He must have thought he was in a type of semi retirement, just training at home, and he has a student who has a lesson on him every week. But to his credit, considering that most of the other horses had been to many events in the last several months leading up to this prestigious 3 Star international show, I was very happy with his effort in the Grand Prix. The international judge from the Netherlands had never seen us before and he gave us 7’s for Piaffe and 7’s for our transition out into Passage. This I was very happy to see as I had been working on this. It was good to see credit for my training. The centre line judge had us in 11th place. So you see I would like to have had a better result, (maybe finish in the top ten), but I was most satisfied and happy with my man Basil, and he too was very happy doing his test.
And my 5 lovely ladies were absolutely fantastic, and really spoilt me so much. I felt like a princess, with a team of horses and a great team of supporters.
It was a great fun CDI this year.
Here are Wendy, Amelia and Sue. Missing are Lizzie, Poppy and – Sally – she must be the one they keep an eye on!
Basil (A’Seduction) in training at SDS in 2008 as 11 year old. Photo: IB
A’Seduction is now 16 years old. We bought him when he was an 8 months old colt. He has won so many Regional and State Championships and so many trophy rugs, I have lost count. We competed in a total of 6 young dressage horse events, every time finishing in the Top 3. He was 3 times a Champion of his Age and twice he was awarded the Champion of Champions. And now this year we have two of his baby girls qualified for the Young Horse Classes at the Sydney CDI. We will also take A’Seduction himself to compete in the Grand Prix International class. So WOW, I never in my dreams thought that this would ever happen. We are very proud of A’Seduction and his two girls. He has produced some amazing lovely trainable young horses. There are many out competing now and doing extremely well.
The two girls going in the Sydney CDI Young Horse Classes this year are A Heaven Sent (aka Penny) and A Spider Bite (aka CC). They are going in the 5yo and the 6yo events. The fields are so strong, with so many very nice top quality horses. But you have to realise that they judge just what they see on the day, and if you have a little glitch then you suffer the consequences. Success will show up as the years pass by with many consistent performances, and the results will be on the board. And ultimately, that is what we all want: a well behaved, calm, flowing, active and alive test, then we progress up the classes to Grand Prix. IT’S SO EXCITING!!!
Penny (A Heaven Sent) as yearling in 2008, and in Dec 2007, 11 weeks old
A Heaven Sent has the most beautiful temperament, and lovely suspended trot action. She is also a very pretty girl. Pen is my little worker girl, she loves training and practising all her work. When she was growing up, I called her my Nimbin Pony, as she loves to be outside with nature, she loves being in her paddock and she is very laid back about life in general. As she grows and matures, I believe Pen will be the near perfect dressage competitor!!
CC (A Spider Bite) in 2009, 3ys old, and as a 7 week old filly (Photo: IB) in Jan 2007
A Spider Bite, and yes she was actually bitten by a spider when she was a yearling, cause I knew you were going to ask, how did she get that name? CC has already won 3 championship rugs herself. And she has won her first test this year, the medium at the NADEC event – she even got a 9 in that test. She was soo well behaved, calm yet a bit excited, just what you need to produce a good test!! We call CC our OH&S (official health and safety) girl: CC makes sure everything is safe before she goes anyway. She is spunky, studious, and is the life at any party she goes to!! CC has the big plan picture already set in her goals… Grand Prix!
So it is very exciting for Peter and me to have a Family Affair going to the Sydney CDI International 3 Star 2013. And of course thanks to a big team of friends, students and owners, this plan can happen.
