Clevedon A&P Show 14th November

We had a successful day, got reserve champion inhand and reserve supreme champion inhand, I think we looked stunning in our pink bling! Ridden was ok, but scotty got upset by an accident involving a horse and truck which was parked near us, so it set him off for the afternoon, but still did quite well considering. Even got a 2nd for paced and mannered which had me laughing. I got a 1st for rider, so was well pleased about that. Onwards and upwards!

WRC Dressage Day 2

Had a great day at the WRC Dressage day 2 - did 0.2 and 0.3 tests - scotty was really calm and relaxed, managed to get 2nd in the 0.2, which I was really pleased about. Canter work let us down a little bit in 0.3 but I came away feeling really good about his performance.

Winter Woolies Show

Scotty and I made the hike out to Pukekohe on Monday, Labour Day for the winter woolies show which had been cancelled a month prior, so really should have been re-named Spring Show! It was a hot beautiful day! Inhand Scotty collected 3 ribbons, 1st for Best Head, 2nd for Best Bay/Brown Horse and 4th for Gelding over 4 years.

In the afternoon Scotty collected 1st for Novice 0-3 wins, 1st for Open on the flat, 4th for trotter on the flat, 4th for paced and mannered trotter, 1st for best showing mount, I got 2nd for rider and we took out Champion Ridden Standardbred. Was quite pleased with how the day went, we just need to work on his canter! Next show is the Clevedon A&P show on the 14th November.

WRC Dressage

A few weeks ago I took Scotty to WRC dressage at Woodhill Sands, did 0.2 test, only walk and trot. Scotty was really good, I was really pleased with how he was and we ended up 6th overall (out of 13). The judge made some really nice comments: I really like the way you rode your horse in this test, you offered him a lovely quiet consistent contact to go into and when he gets there he's going to be awesome.Next weekend is WRC spring dressage day 2 and we'll be doing test 0.2 and 0.3 - really looking forward to it.

Woodhill Sands Mini ODE - Intro

Took Scotty to Woodhill Sands Mini ODE on the 5th september, his first ODE in a year. Entered in intro, dressage wasn't 'flash' we came 8th out of 12, but still cantered both ways and had some nice 7 movements, so can't complain! Jumped really well, always makes me laugh, for a standardbred, he can jump quite well! I really look forward to moving up the levels, i always think its surprises people to see standardbreds out and about eventing.. I wouldn't trade Scotty for the world, he's such a spunk and will do well with time. We ended up 6th overall... out of 12 so I was really happy and surprised. I've got the season calender now, so no stopping us shortly!!

WRC Ribbon Day - 21st august

Took Scotty to the WRC ribbon day yesterday - his first competition since September 2009 and he was good. Took a little while to get onto the float - and over the course of the weekend he had to get on 3 times, so it was good to practise. As soon as we get the bum rope in place he generally goes on - but will keep working on it!

At the ribbon day Scotty started with Passage and snorting like a dragon! Was excited to be out and about again! Only a couple of bucks in the ring and we came home with three 2nds, one 3rd, two 4ths and three 5ths. I entered him in the afternoon with the jumping but only stayed for three classes as I felt he'd be a good boy and a whole day out might be too much, although he handled the whole day quite well. Will hopefully get a season calender some time soon so will be able to see what future events to enter him into.

Also got Scotty measured today for the season, he measured at 161.5cm's - roughly 16hh. A bit smaller then I thought he was (I always assumed 16.2hh) but good news, less far to fall!

Arena ride today & off for schooling soon

I hired the neighbours arena today and attempted to lunge scotty, he was all over the place, so gave up and got on him. He really lacks bend and gets quite tense when I ask him to leg yield, he's lost the basics so it was a challenging ride today. His reaction to tension is to buck, or throw his body around, not hugely, but gets quite off track.

I've asked some people if he could go to them for a month to be schooled later on (probably september) as I don't have the time (or is it patience?) to work through these issues at the moment, with having started a new full time job and continuing to ride other horses. I also think I am not consistent with my aids so I probably don't help his cause!

I think I've ridden Scotty about 6 or so times now, and its all road riding, there is no where else to go.. which means I get to put up with crazy drivers who seem to not even notice they are speeding past a horse. A few slow down which is kind but far out - the amount that don't? Insane! The weather is miserable, last thing I feel like doing really is riding but I need to build Scotty's fitness levels, so road riding it is! I rode him to a friends place this morning to say hello, Scotty gets so fidgety all the time, throwing his head around and wanting to do something. Never heard of 'standing still'. Was trying to take a pxt (next to the horse road sign) and he was trying to tank off at a trot! Think I got the picture, lets go home! He was quite tense today, tried a buck or two when I first got on - what i've found is if I sit on him without moving for a few minutes he is ok, if I get on and try to start riding straight away he bucks, he also took fright at a horrible german shepherd that came screaming up to the fence as well - gave me a fright too!

First ride!

Got on Scotty for the first time since I got him back - if I was the last person to ride him it would have been 10 months since he'd last been ridden. He was perfect! He is normally quite cold backed and bucks when you first get on, or is tense but today he was lovely. Went on a short road ride with him - it wasn't the most ideal setting for our first ride but I didn't organise an arena to potter around in in time - so just trusted he'd be a good boy! Was nice to be back on board. He also had his feet trimmed yesterday so hopefully we are all in tip top shape to begin the long slow process of fitness work - right in the beginning of winter! Hooray!

He badly needs a sheath cleaning too..lots of gross smega, *almost* feel like paying the vet to sedate him and get them to do it!

Teeth!

So on Saturday Scotty had his teeth done by Kristina Naden (www.horsedentist.co.nz) It had been probably around 4-5 years since his teeth had last been done so I was really curious to see if leaving them that long had done any damage.

Kristina and the vet got all set up in the stables with a long extension cord out to the stables only to find (after Scotty had been sedated) that the cord was giving Kristina shocks... so we had to move the whole set up and Scotty out onto my landlords back yard and use the old swing set up (kids playground thing) which you can see in the photos.

It was certainly interesting watching the power tools, I'm used to old school rasping - Scotty was pretty well behaved (and sedated), he was infact rather cute, snoring at times. I'm so happy he's had his teeth done now as I want him to be comfortable - and I noticed the difference in him eating hay - the grinding noise he had been doing had disappeared.

New Jim Jams

Scotty's new jammies arrived and I had to take a photo before the cover gets covered in mud!! I should have put it on tonight (as he is wearing his inbetween) after reading that north Auckland is going to get lashed in rain but figured I'll do it in the morning, bring him in and put the nice warm ones on before the whole day of nasty rain is supposed to be upon us.

The landlord and I took the horses for an inhand walk along the road this afternoon. I was well impressed with how Scotty is with traffic now. Kudos to his old owner. When I first had him he almost killed us one day when I was riding him on the road. He swung out infront of a concrete truck which was going WAY too fast, I honestly don't know how he missed us. But I was really happy to see he's gotten ten times better - I tired to ease his traffic phobia when I first had him but I think living on a state highway, no matter how much I tired, traffic was fast and barely ever slowed. I'm also looking forward to road rides with Nic and Rachel (who happen to graze not far from me) when I do get on him. I want to buy this 1/4 sheet to ride in from Tackshop that is bright yellow with silver reflectors on it...they'll see me a mile away!

You spin me right round baby, right round..

I decided to give Scotty a quick lunge tonight after I got home, and wooo hoo, he hooned around, bucked and carried on, probably the first time in awhile he'd done much work, he settled after a while and is great - still has all the voice commands down pat, worked up a little sweat, kept it under 10 minutes. He's probably thinking, damn it, this lady means business! I do wonder if he remembers who I am!

Scotty arrives back in Dairy Flat

Photo taken on Monday 17th May 2010

A funny wee story - I brought Scotty from Postmans Road in 2004 and now I happen to live on the same road 6 years later - the property he came from his about 1km up the road! Scotty arrived Monday afternoon the 17th after a short trip from Coatesville. He is so calm, settled in as if he'd been here all the time.

Scotty hasn't been in much work - infact the last time he was ridden was by myself last year in September I think when I competed and rode him for a short time. i intend to take things slow and work on developing his muscles slowly over winter -lots of road riding, lunging, long-reining etc Ideally I would like to event him, and do standardbred shows on him. It's nice after a 4 year break of owning horses to have him in my life again - I have missed him over this time.