I'm back... but only temporarily

I'm back!

But not for long since I still have very limited internet access in Taumarunui but I'm in Auckland for the weekend as a suprise for my mum for mothers day... and boy was she suprised when I showed up on the doorstep tonight!! It was great!

I'm riding Toby at the moment (he features in the photographs in this post). He's a flea bitten grey cross breed thats a pro at eventing and so is awesome for me to learn on. I'm concentrating on getting him fit at the moment since he's been out of work for almost a year. He's a grumpy old man (much like Red) and I love him lots! I have lots of fun rides with him.

Anyway here are some pictures from a photoshoot I did with Sarah-Anne and Toby last weekend... enjoy!

Going into Hibernation

Hey guys,

Just a quick note to say I’m going to have very limited internet access over the next couple of weeks and so my blogs will be having a temporary break! But I will be back, so check back here in early May!

Stay safe and happy riding!

Love Katie!

Photoshoot

A while ago I mentioned that my Massey Pony Club friends and I were going to have a photoshoot with our horses, photographed by the wonderful Peter and Rosemary at photoshoot.co.nz

Well the day for the shoot came and it rained and rained and rained. So we decided to move the shoot into the studio (minus the horses of course).

These are some of my favourites:

You can view the rest at photoshoot.co.nz or on my general flickr account which is on the sidebar.

Swirling mass of confusion

I’m confused..

A couple of weeks ago I started feeling like I didn’t want to ride. It started becoming a chore and a hassle. I really couldn’t believe it myself since I’ve never felt that way before.

Then I went to the Easter show. Ghost and I entered in one class to start of with and if we did alright we were going to enter in one of the higher ones. Sarah-Anne warmed us up. Ghost refused on the first warm up jump and I fell off. Not a good start. But it didn’t really faze me since I’ve done that more then a few times with Red. We went into the show jumping and it fell apart. We had 2 refusals and I forgot the course and so crossed my tracks once. I came out really angry with myself since I knew Ghost was more then capable.

A few things were said unintentionally to me after the round that hit a raw nerve and made me question riding even further. I opted not to do the Easter show on Monday (which I now regret) and go back to Auckland a day early. I thought a lot about riding during my week off. I came back to Taumarunui wondering what to do. After a good talk with Val I decided to just ride casually over the winter. I had been feeling pressure (from no one in particular, it was just a general feeling) to be riding continually and doing really well in the competitions. And since I wasn’t do well I think it put me off riding competitively. But Val and I cleared that up and since the conversation I have been feeling much better about riding in general.

I’m still at a loss what to do though. I have always wanted to get into horses full time but over the last month and a bit my feelings have been bouncing back and forth in regard to that. Sometimes I am adamant I never want to get into horses full time and sometimes I still think it would be cool. Right now I’m thinking of going to university to study photography next year and have a break from horses for a couple of years. For the last four years my life has been devoted to Red and to horses. I’ve worked my butt of trying to pay for him and trying to do the best I could which I regret in no way what so ever. A break from the continual pressure of trying to afford to keep a horse would be wonderful. Especially since I’ll only have a part time job if I’m at university. Keeping a horse on a part time job is not fun. I would NOT be giving up horses forever, I’ve realised now that I do love horses. As soon as I’m out of university or in a better financial position I’ll be getting back on the band wagon of riding.

So that’s where I stand at the moment. Still a bit confused but getting there slowly. The good thing is I went for an amazing three hour bareback ride on Friday night. My friend Emma convinced me to go for a ride on our neighbor’s farm. I thought it was going to be a short ride which is why I went bareback but it wasn’t. We ended up doing the last half an hour in the dark and I can’t believe we didn’t get lost. I wasn’t even sore after it which was great! Then yesterday afternoon some of our neighbors and us went on a big goat muster to get the feral goats in. Murray is home for a week from his job just out of Palmy so I rode out with him and we spent an awesome three hours chasing after goats and talking about everything. Its so great to be relaxing with horses and in good company. I’m also starting on cleaning out and organizing the tack room tonight which is going to be a big job, but I’m excited. The room is a mess and I love organizing :)

Checking in

Its been pretty quiet around here. I haven’t posted recently because frankly I wanted a break from everyday life. Our office closed down the week after Easter so I took the opportunity to go to Auckland to visit family and friends and get my winter shopping done.

I did compete at one Easter show on Saturday and only entered one class… it didn’t go well. We got eliminated. I’d rather not talk about it at this time. I’m still trying to think it all through, process it a bit.

While I was up in Auckland I got the chance to visit my gorgeous man Red. He’s doing really well and being looked after superbly. I’m not ashamed to say I cried a few tears when I saw him, I’ve missed him a lot! His age is starting to show on his HUGE potbelly, he no longer holds his weight on his ribs… its all slid back a few centimeters and is hanging out just in front of his legs.

He’s soon being moved to his new retirement village way out west of Auckland. Auntie Sue has found a place to graze which will be perfect for him. He’ll have a companion of another retired chestnut gelding called RED! What a co-incidence huh? Since the other Red is bigger then our Red it looks like they will be known as Big Red and Little Red. Red was previously known as Little Red at his old home so it won’t be a huge change. The lady whose house he’s going to live at sounds like she is one of those perfect horse owners that dotes on her horses in everyway possible. And she’s happy to feed Red (our Red) and groom him daily. Since the place is so far away, Auntie Sue will have limited visits of only a few times a week but it looks like Red will be in good hands. The new place is quite small which is a good thing because the horses can be seen from the house at all times. He’s also slowly going through the process of being barefoot since he won’t be competiting and won’t be road riding. Since thoroughbreds are known for their bad feet, no chances are being taken. He had his back shoes taken off last week and was only a bit ouchy when he was led over the rocks to the arena but otherwise was great, so I’m pleased.

That’s about the gist of it. Until next time.

Mustering in...

It was cattle mustering time at the farm last night. The herd needed to be bought in so the calves could be separated from their mamas, and then tagged. The Whanau (that means family for those who aren’t kiwi) left for the muster as soon as Emma, Mere and Sarah-Anne were back from school and so no-one was home when I arrived. “Ahh,” I thought to myself “Some time alone to read my book.” I snuggled onto my bed and was soon lost in the world of Show Jumping. After about ½ an hour Lance appeared and knocked on my window. “Did you see my note on the floor by the front door?” he asked. I hadn’t. You see, there is a lot of paper around in our house, and one piece of paper doesn’t stand out from the rest. “Oh well, Ghost is in the yards for you to ride, we thought you could meet the others out the back but their might not be much point now”. I decided to go see what I could do anyway so grabbed Ghosts bridle and jumped on her bareback. We cantered up the hill only to meet the cows coming through the second to last paddock before the yards. I didn’t attempt to get to the others since it only would have sent the cows running back the way they came. Instead Ghost and I stood to the side and watched the others chasing the herd through the paddock. Have you ever seen or rather heard people chasing cows? It’s rather fascinating. Cries of ‘Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey Hey” and “Get up, getttt up” along with the bellowing of the herd resonate through the evening air to create a sort of ‘Mustering Symphony’. Finally the cows were through to our paddock and it was our turn to help.

After the herd was in the yards, Val asked Emma and Mere to go to the river lease paddock to get some of the extra cows and bring them back. Somehow I got roped into doing it also and so off we went. We first had to check the Ostrich pen to see if the cows were in there. Thankfully they weren’t since none of us really wanted to face the ostriches. On the way back to the river lease we passed the hay paddock. One of the herds of feral goats, that roam our farm and eat all our grass, were chomping happily in there. We were soon in there, chasing those blasted goats out of the paddock and down a small bank. Into the river lease we went, searching for the small herd of cows that we knew were in there. Now the river lease is a huge paddock, I’ve spent over an hour looking for horses in there before. There are hills everywhere and dozens of little side clearings that a small herd of cows could hide in. We were riding down the main hill when we met the horses. They came straight up to us and wouldn’t leave us alone. This would have been fine in normal circumstances… but at least two of the horses were stallions. One was only a yearling (I think) colt but the other was fully developed. And two of us were on mares. Emma, who was on Summer, seemed to be fine with them. Summer was biting and kicking anytime any of the horses came near. But Ghost wasn’t trying to fight them off at all. And the stallion wasn’t leaving her alone either.

I tried scaring the stallion off by yelling at him, but he didn’t care. Then when he started getting mouthy I started getting worried. I’ve read stories about stallions trying to mount a mare when a rider has been on and things never ended well. Emma was starting to get worried too and I told her (I could have been over reacting) that if the stallion tried to do anything to Summer (i.e. mount) she was to get off immediately and leave Summer to fend for herself. I jumped off Ghost and grabbed a stick of the ground and tried throwing it at him. Unfortunately I missed so I picked up a huge stick that took two hands to carry and charged at him. He ran off but was almost immediately back to Ghost. I grabbed another stick and vaulted back onto Ghost and got him in front of me and then hit his rump a couple of times. Again he ran off, but came straight back.

By now we were coming to the entrance of a small path that led out to the back of the paddock. Since Mere was on Morrie and was having no trouble with the horses, in fact Morrie was being a hero and fending the horses off, we left her to guard the entrance to the path so we could have a quick look for the cows. We rode along as far as we could but couldn’t find them and was on our way back when we heard a shout from Mere. The stallion barged past her. It came galloping straight up to Ghost and I gave it a good couple of whacks with my stick. It ran on ahead of us and we were soon out in the open again. The stallion was still being a big pest and I was still worried so I made the decision to get out of there. I stuck Mere at the back since she was on a big fast thoroughbred that was doing a great job of being aggressive to the horses and we started up the hill home. At some point we put the horses into a canter and Emma who had been just behind, blasted past me. Mere and Morrie had set of at a canter too and the other horses were soon past her and were fast catching up to us. I felt Ghost getting tired and since I didn’t feel like we were in any immediate danger since we were almost to the top of the hill, I let her trot. Emma had gotten to the gate and was holding it open for Mere and I. I trotted Ghost through while Mere kept the horses at bay, then jumped off Ghost and helped give Mere a chance to get away. We walked home, full of talk of what had just happened.

The cows still haven’t been found.

Questions and Answers

Misha commented my one day event post and I thought I might answer it as a post here since its a relevant question for all horse riders. If you have any more advice stick it in my comments :)

Misha: That's awesome that you have so much fun riding! Don't you ever worry that you'll fall? When I go trail riding the thought of falling barely enters my mind, but I've never jumped before. I would like to learn how to jump someday, though. That sounds like a really super ultra amazingly awesome day! lol-that's alot of adjectives!

Hey Misha

Thanks for your comment. I believe that having a healthy fear of riding is a good thing. Horses weigh hundreds of kilograms, are fast, agile and strong and worst of all… they have a mind of their own. It’s dangerous not to have some kind of healthy fear, call it respect if you will, of horses. I’ve experienced fear many times on the back of a horse. Fear of falling being one of them. But really if I let the fear of falling get to me, I’d never get on the back of a horse again. As Katherine Patterson once said (I have no idea who she is) ‘To fear is one thing. To let fear grab you and swing you around by the tail is another.’ Which is totally true.

And so ‘Risk Management’, as I like to call it, comes into play. You’ve probably heard of the old barrier at the top of the cliff, ambulance at the bottom analogy. My barrier is my balance and independent seat when I am jumping and also riding in general, which will hopefully keep me in the saddle rather then on the way to hitting the ground. For my ambulance I, as a rule (which is only seldom broken), jump wearing a helmet and back protector. Back protectors were the norm at my previous pony club and competitions in Auckland although I seem to be one of the only ones to wear them down here. But really, I would rather be safe then worry about whether I looked cool or not. I also think the horse you are riding can boost your confidence a million percent. My old horse Red was a terrible show jumper in competition and as a result I went into the show jumping round on Ghost feeling worried but I needn’t have been. She flew around like it was nothing and I felt secure the entire time.

If you want to learn how to jump make sure you get in contact with an experienced instructor that will be able to teach you all the basics. An experienced, safe horse is also a must. I hope this answered your questions and one day you have lots of fun jumping too!