No events ….. but lots of love, kisses and body work
Category Archives: What’s up
Covid lock down
SDS Summer Holiday
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.
Transitioning SDS to rebuild in 2017
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.
Out competing with them all
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!!!
Upcoming events
Vilayet in his racing days at Lismore race track, Dec 2012, who will now be known in the dressage arena as “Russian Lights”
This coming Saturday is the last of the twilight series. Our clever little ex-racehorse, Villa, will be having his ‘Maiden start’ in a dressage competition. We have given him a new name to commence his dressage career… ’Russian Lights’, a name that I think really suits him. We came up with it because he is by the stallion Fantastic Light and his racing name was of Russian origin.
Peter and Villa checking out the racing form !!!
The following weekend, I am off on a road trip with Wendy to go judging at Hastings Valley Dressage Club. This should be good fun, Wendy and I always have a great time when we go off judging together. I sat and passed my B level judging last year and now Wen is going to go for hers this year, so we will probably see her at some of the CDIs, as she will be Shadow Judging. Good Luck Wendy xo
Oops, I forgot to throw in the date of the 20th, as we maybe going to a Racehorse auction in Victoria, yes!! you heard right, we are now looking for another racehorse to play with. Well, I don’t mean literally play with, I mean serious to train as a racehorse, as we have our Owner/Trainer Licence. This horse, whether it is a mare or gelding, needs to be easy to ride as I will probably be doing most of the work on the racetrack and I would also want to be able to ride it on the beach. So it does need to be reasonable to ride, and I will probably give it more dressage training as well. This racehorse will have the most unbelievable life as our racehorse… very spoilt… a beautiful grassy paddock to go into every day… lots of treats… beach rides… pampering body treatments…
April, Easter long weekend, I have been invited to coach and lecture at the Dressage Unravelled clinic at Caboolture.
NOW we are into the start of 3 weekends in a row of Dressage Competitions, going with Spider Bite, and Heaven Sent and with GODSPEED.
12 April Caboolture 1 Star Event with Spider and Heaven
18 April QSEC Event with just Spider
19 April Bangalow NSW with all 3 of them
26 April NADEC Gold Coast with the girls!! The final hit out for the Spider before we do ‘Meditation on the Beach’ and pack up the new gooseneck of Sue’s and head down the Pacific Highway for the Sydney CDI on 5-10 May. I will get to have my birthday at home for a change instead of on the road. You know, I just don’t know how many of these CDIs I have been too, I think we competed at one of the first ones at the new ex Olympic Venue at SIEC, and I think I have also competed at one of the first ones ever started at Lochinvar, yes folks, that was way back!! Oh man its great to advance forward in years of experience!!!!!!
22-24 May Toowoomba Championships, we maybe take all 3 of them, as Anne will be back and so that means that Scuba will have his own Chariot and driver.
30 May QSEC again this time for both girls. Spider will need to be preparing herself for the Brisbane CDI, where we will have our new Intermediate Freestyle, and QSEC is the venue for this.
31 May Bangalow Member Championships for the two younger ones, being Heaven Sent and GODSPEED.
A Heaven Sent (Penny) and Sally, April 2014
Off tomorrow – starting our trip to Orange CDI 2015
Qld State Champs 2013
The Qld State Champs, very hot days, high temps of 36 degrees. 5 horses and I rode 25 times in 3 days. A marathon. I even had to go and buy some bike shorts with padding in the bottoms. He he!!! I have the most amazing team of fellow riders and lovers of Dressage to help me achieve this great effort. Sue, Lynne, Wendy and Felicia and Lizzie, they are all the most loving, caring and thoughtful girls you could have around you. They should be paid to go around the world grooming for world class dressage riders. Each horse was meticulously prepared and presented beautifully for me to ride. We had air conditioning in the van for instant quick recovery from the very warm riding conditions. It all worked amazingly well. I have come home feeling very well, even my sugars levels are pretty good.
As last year I was diagnosed with Diabeties, grruu bummer…..
Basil is so gentle and loved having any person in his stable with him, or Lizzie and Wendy taking him for a walk. Sydney and Penny were totally tired from standing in the stable and the heat, as they both laid down many times, even flat out like a pancake or Syd as big as he is, with his legs all folded up under him, looking very neat… Sue even had to plait him whilst he stayed laying down one time.
Karleah and CC seemed to get along pretty well, they acted like the true professional sportswomen!!!! A little grumbly in the faces at times but one hint of the carrot bag being opened and they have big happy faces on instantly :))
We came home with 2nd in the Advanced and Novice Freestyles, 2nd in the Grand Prix Special, 3rd in both of the Novice tests, 7th in the Preliminary on the same % as the forth place getter. And we got the State Pony Medium Champion with Karleah, Lynne Muller’s lovely mare. She has only had a few starts at this level. Such a darling pony, supa attitude, we will go the FEI on her!!!
What a time we had, some wonderful memories.
Thanks Girls!!!
xx
