Progress with Autumn

The last couple of days I have been going up to my friend judes arena to work Autumn...I have a dressage comp on Monday and lately I have really not been doing a whole heap of dressage with autumn, I have been enjoying just mucking about around Davids race track and having a break from riding....
Yesterday Jude helped me out with a few of the exercises she does with her horse, Jude rides western and as a english rider I am really interested in the way they train there horses...
So today I rode up the road to Judes and when I got there i just started to do the things she showed me, and really its so simple and it really works for autumn, I just had my hands out wide and high and turned her in small cirlces like I was going to do a serpentine just lots of small half cirlces down the arena then turn and go back up..it really gets her thinking and brings her head down and she stretches and then becasue I am asking ehr to do the small half circles she naturally becomes round....
I rode like  this for about 10mins then gave her a walk and then brough her back up in dessage mode, and she was soft and relaxed, I was so pleased..when I went to canter she was soft and I asked her in the canter with wide hands and just moving the bit and being very soft with my hands and she went nice a low which I wanted and I pretty much had no contact on her mouth and she stayed in the same frame plus she didn't go any faster I actually was able to do and really nice trans to the tro and back to canter all nice soft contact and low round head/neck....this would be the best she has gone since I ahve owned her and I feel like its a bit of a break through with her leftside stiftness....just hope on monday she goes like that!!!...

Mr Grey.....is sold..

Am feeling a bit sad as tomorrow my young horse I bred is off to start another chapter in his life with his new owners....I have got very attached to him lately as I have been doing so much more with him and he really is sooo sweet...Can't keep them all I guess but would love to have seen him grow up and what he would be like as a grown up...Hope you have a happy and spoilt life Mr Grey...

Our restaurant getting down to the last few weddings

now married and having photo's




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  So far our Autumn weather has been great, we really haven't had a good rainy day for weeks, which is just what a bride orders for her wedding and yesterday was certainly another good one for the wedding party at our restaurant....Here are  a few photos of the set up which we did and my motherinlaw did a wonderful job on the flowers, she also did all the brides and bridemaids flowers plus about 10 button holes and sprays..she was a bit buggered at the end of the day to say the least...Waiau sure scrubs up well for a wedding..my friend sally came and helped as well which was great as her kids came along and were able to keep my little treasure happy while we got to work....Although freckles my dog sat happily next to Holly it was for only one reason and yes he got her sammy's!!!!

schooling on the race track

Great when you don't have to walk to catch your horse, so nice for autumn to be in a big paddock instead of the normal break feeding small area I normally have to do

trotting along the track by the roadside

riding back towards the stables and tieup area

Autumn not quite sure of the tie ups but she happy to stand there without having the tie ups on

Autumns bad mud fever...even though there is no mud its an infection from the grass..white socks are terrible for it, trying very hard to get rid of it..

I am currently grazing Autumn back at my inlaws property and they train harness racing horses....David has an all weather surface track, stables, wash down area and undercover tie up area....I have to say I am really enjoying troting around the track and working with autumn on staright lines as being a young horse keepoing her straight is probably the hardest part of all our training at the moment...so easy for them to drop there shoulder to the outside or go on the forehand, so working around the track enables me to just keep the forward momentum and concentrate on her shoulders and head neck all being inline with out having to turn any corners its great...plus I have to say its a bit of fun going for a bit of a blat around the track...good for autumn to go have some fun in the training session...
David has been using his ute to tow around a couple of young horses he has had turned out for a bit, its quite good as they get worked behind the ute and so when he puts the sulky on and drives them they have got any sillyness out them...as its not that great to get the boot from them when you are sitting so close to the back end...

Holly loves sweet things...oh no...

Holly was given a marshmellow snowman, she very much wanted to eat the whole thing but I managed to pry it off her thank goodness I am sure I would have had a very sick little girl...lets just say she didn't get to see it the next day...but no I didn't eat it!!!!

Teeth filed

Poor autumn has had a bit of a battle with her teeth by the looks of things. on Thursday I had Shelley the equine tooth dentist come and look at Autumns teeth as she had been a bit swollen up her jaw a few days earlier and even though I had got her teeth done only two months ago I wanted to get her checked incase she had a bad tooth. Her gums were all ulcerated again and she had quite sharp edges...she was not really very happy about us poking around, obviously quite sore on her side that she had been swollen, so yesterday I got the vet to come and sedate her so Shelley could have a good go at her teeth and also look at her bad mud fever...

Anyway long story short she now has a great set of teeth, sure makes things easier to do when they are a bit sleepy am hoping she will go much better in the bridle as she was still leaning a bit and twisting...and really hoping the swollen jaw thing won't reappear again, she may have an infection from the ulcers but vet wasn't to sure about that so she got another shot in the neck of penicilen just incase of infection and also for her bad mud fever on her legs which I am having a very long hard battle against, lets hope that will come right now....just got to be on top of it..

NZ Horse of the year

This last weekend was soo much fun, myself and two of my friends made the very long trip over to Hawkes Bay to watch the biggest show in NZ...
Its a horse lovers dream of anything and everything to do with horses, so shopping was very much on the menu and I have to say we couldn't fit anything else in our car even if we wanted to it was jammed packed.
The Hawkes bay certainly turned on the weather it was just so hot, I felt for the riders in all thejackets etc we were sweating just sitting down watching !!

The calabre of horses at the show was amazing and my friend was riding in the grand prix dressage and she won the title on her horse KH Arvan...she is now preparing to go to Sydney and compete there before making the big trip to England where she will be based before the 2012 olympics. She actaully gained a Olympic qualifying score this weekend so good on her and her efforts, she is a great rider and I wish her all the best. Its was just such a nice trip away with the girls and being able to just sit and watch with out husbands and children..I would love to be there one day, I have a goal to ride there but it would have to be a high level so Autumn has 4 years to get to at least open medium if not advanced...but little steps first...

Grand prix riders warming up arena

Vanessa about to go in and do the winning test

Sally steiner completing the 1.45m class..I rode against Sally when we were kids

Andrea banks and stallion Limonit, about to be shipped back to Europe