Improvements on the horizon

With the New Year come the New Year’s resolutions. The concept behind New Year resolutions is to reflect upon self-improvement annually … and the beginning of a New Year is the perfect time to do this.

So, it leads me to ask myself, how can I improve my blogs? A blog is a website containing a writer’s experiences, observations, opinions. They can be informational or personal. Which led me to think how can I make my blog more interesting?  Rather than just posting a monthly recall of events that have happened in my life I would instead like to be more engaging. So my New Year’s blog resolution is to try and provide you with equestrian items that I am learning or have learnt each month, to pass on information that I have found useful, and perhaps you might too.

In saying that, it has been a quiet start to the year, with the horses coming back into work in dribs and drabs depending on what their year finished like in 2013. The start of the New Year also brought with it a new sponsor for me – my long standing equine therapist – Reset Equine – is expanding and has come on board to support Lush Eventing. 

Nancy, the head hauncho of Reset Equine has been working with Murph on and off for a while now and even in a short time I cannot support her work enough. The difference to the horses is amazing – which has led me to really follow the mantra of what I do for myself as an athlete, do for the horses, including physio!

   Murph enjoys a session with Nancy

Also this month we made use of Yalambi Stud Farm owner, Rory Hovell, being home from Europe and took Murph and Bradley over for some lessons. I have been going to Rory for a few years now to help with not only the jumping but the flat work as well. And it was a bit of a lightbulb moment/weekend, with everything that has been drilled in me the past few years starting to make sense and make a difference in the way Murph travels (although there is still A LOT of work to do!).

We did some jumping exercises on the Sunday with curving lines between a vertical and an oxer trying to keep Murph relaxed and rideable to keep the canter the same – it sounds simple, and basic, and it is, but for Murph who sights a fence from 300m away and believes he is Superman, it was a really good exercise. It also highlighted how far away from the fences Murph was landing – with Rory telling me straight “this is the difference between eventers and showjumpers”.

So what did I learn? Not only do eventers have longer take off spots, we also have a long landing spot. The solution – to put a placing rail behind the jump but not in front, forcing me to ride to a decent take off spot and to help Murph control the arc of his jump and land appropriately.

Check out the video below to see us in action.

And last but not least for the month is the arrival of a new addition! Last year I leased an older broodmare who, after many attempts, didn’t manage to fall pregnant (with everyone telling me welcome to breeding!). So she returned to the owner, and instead we purchased the mare’s daughter – an Australian Stockhorse filly named Touchstone Vegas, (see photo below) who will be broodmare for me and performance horse for Ben Mitchell later in life.

Happy New Year

I have to apologise for being a bit absent – the end of 2013 is quite a blur!
After Melbourne Touchstone Felix enjoyed some amazing 2star runs, although the weather was pretty keen to stop us enjoying cross country, he went out on spell in October after giving us a slight scare by ‘rolling an ankle’ in boggy going cross country. Luckily it was nothing major, and our sights are set firmly on Adelaide CCI 2star in 2014.

Tempus Fugit enjoyed some time out in the paddock as well, due to accumulating many minor injuries after Melbourne 3DE all adding up to some serious time off. He commenced work late last year and is ticking along nicely. We are really excited to have him back for 2014 and are aiming for either Sydney or Melbourne in the first half of 2014, following up with Adelaide CCI4star at the end of 2014 – all things going according to plan!

Hope Springs didn’t have a good end to the year – he suffered a bad slip XC (in more wet conditions!) where he managed to break his stud girth and shatter his confidence resulting in some time out. And then deciding that he didn’t want his holiday over we awoke to find him with a deep puncture wound to his knee. It was extremely touch and go as to whether he would live, but the team behind Warwick Vale did a great job. Bradley has been allowed to recommence work, and is also going really well. We don’t have any goals for him at this stage as we want to see how his knee will hold up to being in full work.

So as usual with horses it is onwards and upwards, back to the drawing board, reset some goals and enjoy the journey.

Home from Melbourne

As always with the sport of Eventing, you have your good days and your bad days. As someone once said to me, one day you’re a shining peacock, the next a feather duster!

That was my luck at this year’s Melbourne Three Day event. We took two horses over, Touchstone Felix in the One Star and Murph in the Three Star. We had a great trip over, but it all started with getting bogged at our first overnighter! We got out luckily, but it was a bit hairy! Then we had arranged to pull into Kirby Park (the home of Megan Jones) to give the guys a few days in the paddock to rest. It was a good idea on paper…but it rained, and rained and rained – boy did it rain!! I haven’t seen rain like that for some time, and never in my home town. It rained for nearly 36 hours. So my poor boys didn’t get much rest, if any! Luckily by the last 2 days it stopped raining, we got a few rides in, and headed to Melbourne.

Felix was the super star of the event – doing a good test, absolutely zooming around the cross country course and adding one rail showjumping to his score. He finished 7th! A tough showjump course saw a few rails fall, and even with one rail down we stil managed to move up a few places. I was very very pleased with how he performed!

Murph on the other hand, continued the bad luck run – he did a good test, although we were all holding our breath in the walk! Final score of 54. Cross country however was another story. He started out good, really listening, which in hindsight isn’t like him at all (he normally argues like crazy to the first and second fence). And then a hesitation at the first water, left us with a big jump in, landing way off line, and missing the B element. I put it behind me and kept going but couldn’t help but think something was wrong. After another uncharacteristic run out we walked home. Confusing at the time but I knew something wasn’t right. It turns out he has suffered a minor injury, one that sees him earn a couple of weeks rest but still lets us aim for Wooroloo 3day.

So as always with eventing, you learn something every time you compete, every time you hop on to ride!

Now I look forward to working with the younger and greener horses while the big guns rest, and Felix goes back to his owner Ben Mitchell for a bit of fun.

2012 wrap up

Well another year over and done with – unfortunately I didn’t get to finish my first 4star event the way I wanted, however that is horses! We believe that Murphy (Tempus Fugit) suffered a minor injury in the float on the long journey over, which became the reason for my retiring at jump 22 on course. He’s young enough to live to fight another day, and with a big year planned for 2013, I’m proud that he got as far as he did. However, we both had a ball, and came home with lots to work on! But what a great event Adelaide organisers put on – this was my first time seeing it run in front of the newly refurbished grandstand and I am very impressed. The Trade Village being right next to the stables was also deadly, as I think I spent way too much! We made it home safely, after a very long 3 days, and my horses are now all out in a big paddock together in a little herd, free to be horses. For me, I get a month that is mostly horse free, and plan on spending most of my time at the beach, fishing rod in hand!

Thanks to everyone who supported me to get to Adelaide, it means so much, I couldn’t have got there without your ongoing support. Especially a big thanks to Prydes for keeping my ponies fat and happy and full of energy, and to the Valley Equine Centre and Warwick Vale for putting up with me!

2013 brings many exciting things – my team will definitely be returning to Adelaide to again tackle the 4star class, and also hoping that I can bring at least one, if not two, youngsters along to experience the atmosphere in the 2star class.