Elmo Running at the Speed of Light

Finally, we have just had the arena levelled and re-sanded, plus the driveways remetalled and fire piles tidied up - yay for Bobcats! I have been waiting 3 years for this to happen - but needed to wait for all the big tree work to happen first. Pics show Sarah riding on hill up to arena, a couple of the arena, and one of the new driveways.

Our pretty garden

We have been doing a lot of work over the last 3 years renovating the house, garden and fencing etc. Thought it would be quite nice to put some pics up showing how nice the gardens are looking (as opposed to the paddocks which are still in need of quite a lot of renovation!)

Oreo comes home

Oreo is three years old now, and has been on holiday just down the road to keep another horse company for a while. He came home tonight, and is none too impressed with the situation! He is best known for his laid back lazing around, but tonight he did a good impression of a wild horse doing some cross between high school dressage and bronc bucking. As you can see, he is sometimes rather unco-ordinated and has trouble sorting all his legs out... but then again, some of his "poses" seem to defy gravity! Anyway, it is good to have him home again, I have missed him, and I am sure he will be back to lazabout boy once I have him wormed and back with the others. Some pics...

Elmo got gelded

Well this post was meant to be so I would remember WHEN he got gelded, but I cant, so there you go! Twas some time about 4 weeks ago, after a few failed attempts to keep appointments due to weather being against us. He is also over a year old now - its amazing how fast time flies! We also just learnt this week that Shari (his mother) died peacefully in her paddock with her new owners. Apparently she was looking great and had been bred to the stallion, so who knows what happened.

Westwood Brisingr (Elmo)

And this is Elmo.... our first we have bred ourselves! After sadly losing the first foal due to birth complications, then missing the next season, we finally had Elmo arrive! He is by a little stationbred cremello stallion with amazing movement and even more amazing temperament, out of JK Shari - liver chestnut holsteiner/TB mare. We are very pleased with Elmo - he is very leggy and athletic with awesome look at me trot, and seems to learn quickly. He is currently a white fuzzy bear, but hopefully his summer coat will reveal more gold. Elmo's mission in life is to be a grey - he loves to roll where the fire was and turn various shades of grey and black! At least he has no white socks to scrub.

We hope Elmo will be Sarah's first hack.

Our next job with Elmo is to get him gelded. He is still very well behaved, but we have no need of a stallion, and with one mare here, it will make life a lot easier. Currently the weather is against us, and we have had to cancel vet bookings due to the darned rain.

Elmo is just rising one.

Onewerre Oreo

Introducing Oreo.... (I really need to locate some "better" pics!) Oreo is my rising 3 year old American spotted draft/Warmblood/TB cross. I have owned him since 6 months old, after unsuccessfully trying to breed just the same cross. He has legs like a bull (lots of bone), and a head the size of a small elephant. He moves well for a heavy horse, and has a very laid back temperament (think giant labrador, LOL). He has been my first young horse, and I am really enjoying working with him. He was started last summer by Jody Hartstone using Andrew McLean methods - only 3 weeks work, but I was very impressed with the results, and cant wait to see him under saddle again this summer.
It will be "interesting" to pull his 2 manes and 5 tails to see if there is a sport pony underneath all that hair.... I have already used my big clippers under his chin to remove the Gandalf sized beard, and Oreo thought that was AWESOME! Like I said - he is pretty laid back!

Olympic (Ollie)

This is Ollie, my most special mate - black 12 year old Gisborne stationbred gelding (with Percheron ancestry I am guessing - solid, but grows little feather??) I have owned him since he was 5 years old. I had two friends tell me he was a definite "Debbie" horse and I should buy him (though I already had another horse at the time). It was a meant to be story, and in fact, I had circled the ad for him some 12 months earlier but never went to look at him. Another friend bought him to hunt when her horse was lame, but found him far too slow, and didnt/couldnt jump.

I felt safe the minute I sat on him, and though he didnt know much past hacking round the farm, bought him and have never looked back. He is very sensible, very not forward going (I joke that halt is his best pace), and suits me down to the ground.

Over the years we have had lots of fun together, trekking, adult riding club, NITE teams event, dressage, South Pacific Games, ribbon days, and even a little jumping!

Over the past couple of years, Ollie has had a cruisy time, as I have changed careers to become a teacher. There are just not enough hours in the day! I have brought him back into work many times, but still there are weeks when I cant manage a ride. My mission this summer is to get back in the saddle, and at the very least, get out on some hills and enjoy myself. Now it is written, I will have to do eeet, won't I!

I am going to have to go hunting for more pics of my boy - but this one to start with is of him with his mate Spots out at an ODE (my good friend Amelia borrowed him to ride).

The horses who live here

This is "Sugar 'n' Spice" aka Spots - ready for fancy dress at Pony Club. Don't you love the "clingons" on her legs! I think she was being a soft toy. She is one of those "worth her weight in gold" types of ponies (which is quite a bit!) Sarah has been riding her since she was nine, and they have a fabulous partnership together. Spots is the ultimate all rounder.

As a beginner blogger, I am having trouble putting the captions actually by the photos. Maybe I need to do each photo as a separate post?? Anyway, the photo above the fancy dress one is Sarah winning the Mahoney Memorial Trophy at PC Combined games - the person presenting it to her is Jody Hartstone (top dressage rider), who won the same trophy 20 years ago! How cool is that!! Well.. Sarah thought it was super cool anyway.

What better way to start the blog but with a picture of little Charlie (Nikodemus) at a ribbon day with Sarah. Charlie never came to live with us at Westwood, going to teach more children to ride in Woodville instead. Sadly he was put to sleep last year (aged in his thirties!) He is here with us in spirit I am sure.

Welcome to Westwood!

This blog has been set up to follow the antics, adventures and escapades of all of us at Westwood (animals and human).... and so I can learn how to Blog!