We have been on a bit of a road trip

 We had a few days holidaying around the beautiful Easy Coast.  Stunning place with some amazing friendly people. The Tolaga Bay Wharf is a must see for anyone doing this trip.

 There are prolific numbers of horses, all round remote area's of NZ.

 This young man was heading up the bush for a couple of nights. He was hoping to get a Deer.

 Wandering stock, are a real issue and have been known to cause a few accidents.

We spent a bit of time chatting to this delightful man. Friendly and knowledgeable. He was going possumming.

Which brings me round to an idea I hatched while driving round this week. 

Mostly bought about by watching one young man saddle his horse one morning. Now there wasn't too much good you could say about the saddle, and the girth appeared to only do up on one buckle. He took a flying leap, landed in the saddle, and the girth popped off. Good old mare stood rock still, while he leapt off again, and proceeded to try to attach the girth in some way...again.

Now, I don't want to take away anything from the group of NZ's who are doing amazing work oversea's, but I just thought about some of the gear we all have hanging around, that is often not worth trying to sell, but is still in good safe and use able condition.

I am going to take along whatever I can find, next time we visit some of these poor and fairly remote area's, and give what ever I can to these kid's who mostly know no better. 

If it makes life better for one horse, I will be happy, and if it helps one child stay a bit safer, then I will be even happier.

So, guess what I am saying is, if you too have something, you are happy enough to donate, them let me know, or pass it on some time, and I will make sure it get's to where it will be extremely well used!

You can contact me via email Armadeus@xtra.co.nz if you want to help. I am in the Waikato so getting stuff to me needs to be possible!

Small steps.

About a month ago now, while in an East Coast town, we spotted this young horse being used as a taxi. We tracked down his owner and negotiated a price, and now "Cash" as we call him, lives here with us.

He turned out to be a colt so a gelding was arranged while he stayed at Dean's for a few days, and eventually he made it home.

A couple of weeks later he was beginning to look a whole lot happier and more relaxed. He had been wormed twice, gelding and had his teeth done.

We have continued to ride him a wee bit, and while basically quiet, he really has very little idea and after a ride last week, I decided another course of action was required for Cash.  I had been including some ground work sessions into his routine, and while he is a fast learner, what he had learnt prior to us, was stuck fast so undoing some of those things is taking a while. 

Today was an awesome breakthrough. After 3 serious efforts to get him flexing and turning and just generally responding to a bit properly, he is backing up with light pressure, where before, he just leaned into it and gagged on the bit. He now is turning his head right round to his sides without moving his feet. Wednesday he is getting his back checked as I suspect he is a bit sore in a few places.  Then I hope the rest will be easy for him.

Poor Pink

She seems to have the dreaded Trumpet Nose virus and has a snotty, swollen nose. Shawnee too has the snots but no swollen nose on her.

We had this virus hear 2 yrs ago and it was ultimately what caused the throat collapse that Summer ended up with.
We will be keeping a close eye on them of course but they seem ok.

Today we locked frosty away from her mum for the first time. Frosty is a bit precious, and even though she could see Busy the entire time, she threw a fairly decent tantrum because she couldn't get in for a drink. She is one dominant personality that is going to need some careful handling I suspect. Eventually she gave in (got tired I suspect) and we let them back together. Tomorrow we will repeat the process. I know a lot of people just walk the mares away, but I am too soft for that and prefer the slow approach. It achieves the same result with a lot less trauma.

All the horses seem to be a bit ditzy of late. The wee bit of rain has bought on the fresh green grass shoots they love and we don't. Going to have to put up some tapes tomorrow and slow down their intakes.

It's been a while...again

So it's been a while. Not too much has changed with me. Some horses have arrived, and a few have moved on.
Currently we have the totally lovely Melody who carried me through the GNZ Trek with grace and style.
Busy is still here too and her foal Frosty is now 5 mths old.
Then there is Juno if course, and the delightful Pink, and super dude Cash, along with Shawnee the pinto Standy who is in foal to the Missouri Foxtrotter.

We just had a weekend away riding in Taumaranui. I totally tied myself in knots about going as I knew, I really had to get on one of the young horses.
Confidence still spirals up and down with me, and I had all sorts of scenario's running through my mind.
Of course, it all worked out just fine really and left me wondering just what the heck I get so worked up about.

Not only confidence, but I am super tired of late. Sore from trying to do more than I am capable of but still not prepared to admit ;-)
Easter weekend last year, we spent with Brian T who is no longer with us. I do miss the man we called Koro but knowing how much he would have enjoyed the riding we did, made me smile.

It's weird how all those emotions make you do crazy stuff sometimes though.

The best part of the weekend was catching up with a couple of people we haven't seen in about 13 yrs. Funny how life takes you away but brings you back together at random times.

And so it goes.

The internal battle continues.  Would I not be happier doing something completely different?. Hell, I don't even know what that might be.
No, I want to regain those memories when everything felt achievable, but it makes me tired.
Maybe I am just tired. Every day life is tiring when you hurt. And it didn't kill me, so it makes me stronger right?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Juno goes to the beach

After Juno's long lesson yesterday, I thought a trip to the beach would be something different for her. She's never been before and sometimes the beach can be a scary place. The water moves, so does the sand, and the wind blows.

She started off with her head in the air and spooking at the little waves coming at her but before too long she was plodding around in the sea.

She tried several times to drink the water and seemed quite concerned about sinking in the softer sand.

But after some time and a bit on lungeing, she decided non of it was too scary so we headed back to dry land. It was cold today and both of us were wet.

 Once she hit the soft sand she got down on her knee's and played in it, ate a mouthful before deciding it didn't taste so good,

She a then dug a hole, got down on her knee's and buried her face in the sand.

 

A much needed rest was had before she got to her feet

and proudly showed off her sandy nose.

A successful mission that should mean our first ride there will be nice and uneventful.

Ribbon Day and a lesson

I have been a bad Blogger of late. Trying to only write about positive things, sometimes is harder than it seems and Facebook is such an easy option.
But the Blog was originally started as my own personal record and it really should stay that way.

So, the news from the weekend. Juno came home on Friday. I had a lovely wander around Windsor Park Stud on her. She was totally unaware of the yearlings racing about with the big flappy covers, but the gateways were worthy of a second look. Horses are funny creatures sometimes.

Saturday morning, we had a brief and positive ride here at home and then the afternoon was spent preparing Shawnee for the ribbon day.
Somewhere along the way, I decided it would be good to take Juno, thinking that the experience of just standing around at an event would be good if nothing else.

Shawnee really did very well. She is only 2 yrs old and never been anywhere. She was fairly fed up with all the washing stuff and had never really trotted inhand so the whole day for her was about learning.
she ended up with a ribbon in each class.

There didn't appear to be many horses so I made the decision to ride Juno. I hadn't counted on all the late arrivals who came just for the ridden classes.
There are some really scary types of horses and riders and I am now remembering why I don't do this kind of thing.
I had my eyes on swivels trying to keep away from the ones that got stuck in revers, and the one who keep standing on it's hind legs but Juno just went round and tried her wee heart out.
We kept in the centre and told the judge we were not there to compete but still tried do do everything being asked. We opted not to canter at first as the random one's were leaping and bucking, but in a later class of less horses, we did canter.
She really tries her heart out.

Monday, I decided Twinkle needed some riding as we hope to go on a trek in 3 weeks time. She plodded away round the farm like an old pony clubber, and then we got 2 paddocks from home and all hell let loose. Twinkle has obviously been allowed to go home FAST and she made it quite clear that is what she was intending to do.
After trying to get her to settle for a while, I got off and led her as it was going from bad to worse. Charlie came along and gave me a ride up the house paddock on the bike with Twinkle going alongside. She is obviously full of spring grass as she was even trying to buck beside the bike!

Consequently, Twinkle has been behind the wire since then and today's ride was far more pleasant. Still some expectation when it came to being close to home, but a lot more manageable.

And also today (it's been a busy one) Juno and I had a riding lesson. Again she tried her heart out. She is such a lovely kind mare. We worked on straightness and rhythm.

Today I got to thinking, that I have only ridden Twinkle about 10 times now, so still getting to know her. And I am actually riding around the farm on my ow. Something that hasn't been done for about 18 mths now due to various things. It is so nice to be able to open gates again, and if I have to get off, I can. Getting off was an awful mission for a long time there.