Say hello to Toby

Well my laptop still hasn’t arrived so I’ve decided to bite the bullet and continue my blog by using one of the local café’s computers. It’s going to be hassle. But I’m committed. Anyway.

I’d like to introduce to you a very special friend of mine…

This is Toby.

Toby is my new eventer. Well I don’t own him. But I take full responsibility for him, and I’ll be bringing him with me when I move away from Taumarunui (whenever that may be).

Toby is a 16.1hh flea-bitten grey, ¼ Arab, ¾ something else gelding. He’s the grand old age of 18. Toby is a seasoned eventer with lots of the big pony club competitions under his belt. He’s grumpy, he’s mean but he’s really just big softy at heart.

I started riding him after I turned Ghost out for the winter. He’s the best bareback ride I ever had and I would spend hours roaming the farm with only a halter to control him. In a bridle he can be hard to stop, but bareback and with the halter I would just use my seat and a little hand to bring him back after a gallop. I took him to the last pony club rally of the season. We did flat work and he rocked! The instructor even used us as an example of a balanced canter. Two weeks ago I show jumped him for the first time. Previously I had done a few of our logs bareback but they weren’t much. I started small with the jumps so we could get a feel for each other and by the end of the session we were jumping 90cm easily. I didn’t realise it was 90cm until Sarah-Anne came home and I told her that I had done some small jumps on him. Later when we went to feed the horses we measured the jumps and I was flabbergasted to see that they were that big. A couple of months ago I would have been scared to jump something that height without an instructor. Obviously Toby has been great for my confidence.

Since its Winter Toby and I are just moving along slowly, getting to know each other before the new season which starts in September. We might be doing some Winter Dressage and some dressage lessons but nothing too challenging. Next season I’m hoping to do my first training on him, and also get to Masterton and Timberlands on him (which are two reasonably sized Pony Club competitions).

Sarah-Anne is going to give me a lesson tomorrow if it’s not too wet, so I’ll get her to take some pictures while she is at it.