Buck Clears 1.20m

Wow Buck your cool! =]

Unfortunalty i couldnt get Bradley (Little Brother) to get a photo fast enough, but i got one of him in front of his almighty jump =]

Buck - The Showjumper!

Well if Buck was a horse i think he would be a mighty impressive show jumper!

He jumps on command, but i think hes a little to clever for his own good, he seem to find tricky ways of going "through"jumps instead of "over", Or he crashes through them entirly...maybe he wouldnt be a good showjumper, he might be a rather carless one actually...not unlike Twiggy! =]

Buck Jumping about 80cm, Look and the tidy back legs, Im Impressed Buck.

See, Look. I had to add "the Spade" as a filler because Buck though it was funner jumping 'through' it, not 'Over' It!

Buck can jump with his tongue out, he is clever!

...So then the wee jump made out off chairs and a stick ( + Numerous fillers) wasnt big enough, so we upgraded to the showjumps!

Bucky soaring over 1m! go buck!

Buck Over 1m again, Geeze Bucky your going to make Twiggy look bad!

No Buck, Look thats cheating! you cant do that

WOOHOO, Buck over 1.10m!! Your a star wee doggy!

Honikiwi Trek

I found out about this annual trek the day before, Charlotte convinced me to go, I'm glad she did! it was fantastic, we arrived there at about 9.30 and rode off in a big group 10. the first couple of kilometres Twiggy and Bella (Charlotte's horse) would not calm down they were all frothy with sweat and misbehaving, going sideways and refusing to walk and jog instead, and a few more kilometres they both settled down and walked. We ventured over steep as terrain (so high the view was amazing!) narrow tracks and shallow stone bottom rivers. (which Twiggy decided was much more funner catapulting into the river, rather than sanely walking through like every other horse! - Yes i ride a weirdo)
We came to the 20km mark, and the horses were pooped, this is where everyone stopped for a lunch break, at this point you could choose to ride back home (the 20km ride) or carry on to even steeper terrain which was the 40km ride) , Charlotte and I decided to carry on and conquer the 40! i think most people did the 20km, and there was only 14 of us who continued on to the 40km ride. on this half of the trek we ventured through dense pine forests the smelled like Christmas! and Charlotte and i went for a gallop along the Flat scenic hill top of one of the mountains! it was fantastic.
7 hours later we arrived back to the Honikiwi hall in a state! Twiggy was covered inn dried sweat which had turned to white salt all over her, she was a wreck! Sweat had soaked right through her puffa pad! I'm pretty pleased with Twiggy's first trekking effort!
[Photos to come]

My Trainer - Dna Wells

Dna began riding at the age of 2 and went to her first show at the age of 4. Trained by her mother, Ona Wells, who was a New Zealand Show Jumping representative.

At the age of 15, Dna competed at her first 3 Day Event and then was hooked on the sport.

Auckland businessman, Peter Tatham quickly recognised Dna's talent and approached her, offering to buy her an Advanced Event horse and to support her in her quest to be a NZ representative. At this stage Quest was purchased for her. Then at age 20 Dna moved to Auckland to manage farms for Peter Tatham and surround herself with top class instructors.

Dna graduated from Intermediate to Advanced and was selected to represent New Zealand at the age of 22 in the NZ 3 Day Event Team 1993 & 1994.Quest was later sold and with Peter Tathams on going support and help, along with her parents support and help, Dna began riding an inexperienced Bravo, who she trained up to Advanced. Unfortunately, Bravo died of a heart attack before being able to compete in America. =[

Dna and Bravo

Twiggy

Twiggy is my current horse, [Her registered show name is LaLique] Shes a 15.2 TBx (litttle bit of Clydie) mare. we bought her from muriwai.
I've had Twiggy about 2 and a half years, Its taken me about a year just to learnt o ride, she was such a big step up from Lightning. Lightning was slow and steady and Twiggy is a complete nutjob! A lovely one though, she is a very affectionate horse and loves cuddles.
dressage has proved to be a our weak point, I've decided that Twiggy is just to nutso to perform a dressage test with even the tinyest amount of saneness! But she is definatly capable, having excelled through all the lateral moves at home, including extension, collection, leg yielding, counter canter etc, but fails to even canter in a straight line when out at an event!
Showjumping was another weaker pointer but she has improved truck loads! she used to take rails after rails after rails, but no longer! through the help of my instructor, Dna Wells, i have gone right back to basics and fixed the problem, Twiggy now show jumps clear 90% of the time! Stoked!
Cross is our strong point! funny considering she has never seen decent XC in her life before i owned her, but she has taken to it like a duck to water, some scary things still catch us out though like Ditches and Trakehners, But shes improving all the time. Combinations still prove difficult and Twiggy hasn't seem to mastered the concept that she can concentrate on more than one jump at the same time! But she gets better everyday =]

Twiggy and I show jumping at the Matamata ODE

A old photo of Twiggy at Timberlands ODE on XC

Twiggy and I Jumping at home

Lightning

Lightning is my old Pony, I sadly dont own her anymore, i grew out of her, as she was only 14hh, Lightning was a kaimanawa mare, originally brought in a muster off the kaimanawa ranges at 2 years, Lightning also was in foal when she was mustered (but sadly her foal died - im not sure how - and she furfilled her motherly instincts by mothering a calf, doing so by scaring the rightful cow mother away)
i got Lightning when she was 7 years old, she was my first pony and she taught me to ride. i fell of her the first time i ever rode her, i fell of all the time in the beginning. Learning to canter was a very diffcult task indeed!
But lightning taught me well and she gave me so much confidance, I went to Otorohanga Pony Club with her (back then it was a good pony club and not crap like it is today) Lighting took me from falling off when ever i cantered to succesfully Competing in pre-training ODEs
But after 3 years my feet were unfortunatly hanging below her stomach. and i had to sell her on =[
Lighting was sold up a small girl called Connie, in Katikati, there she has a wonderful life, regurlary going to the local pony cluband competing in gymkhanas and other shows. On the 15th of March '09, Connie and Lightning Competed in their first ODE - At Intro

Im so pleased she went to the very best of homes where she is spolit rotton =]

Lightning after a very sucessful day at Waitomo Sports '06

Lighting and I Jumping at Kaimanawa Nationals '06

First Blog

Ooh Well now this is cool, okay Im guessing this will be about b=my horses so ill explain them all =]