Westwood: July 2010

Sunset at Westwood

It has been amazing weather for a winter school holidays - cold, but sunny, and NO RAIN! YAY!

Sarah captured a beautiful sunset after we had spent most of the day outside with the horses...

School holidays is a grand time to do some more handling with the young horses. Elmo needed to learn to float load, and Oreo could probably do with a refresher (or so we thought....)
Is this what you call self loading?????

Float is hitched to car and driven into the arena.

Baby horses are let out of hill paddock and into arena...

Before we have time to grab the halters and start the float work...

Oreo marches straight to the float, and puts himself on (nearly taking Elmo in with him!)

It has been many months since the big boy has even seen the float -

not bad for a 3 year old!

Just because I am the "trainer", I did actually put his halter on and walk him on and off a couple of times, sheesh - cant he let the mum have a little bit of the credit!

Elmo had to have a bit of think time, especially without his big mate, but got the idea pretty quickly.

Gotta watch out you don't bang the head Elmo...

... and we are on (and quite relaxed about the fact).

He was then super confident and "knew what to do", marching on and backing off when asked like a pro.

He is meant to be a golden baby, but is such an icky wishy washy cream colour at present.

(Secretly he wishes to be grey, and was VERY happy to find old fire ashes to roll in again!)

Elmo is 20 months old, and I measured him at just under 15hh, which is bigger than I thought. He always looks so puny next to the big fellow (who is now 16.2hh at the bum and a bit less at the wither!)

Well I don't know why Sarah insists on doing this with the camera(because it is not the first time), and my Oreo really is a beautiful horse (in my eyes anyway), BUT...

and...

Maybe this is a horse version of a bug-eyed emoticon???

Fantango (Hunny) - Sarah's New Pony

The week after we returned from Europe, we ended up driving all the way to Kerikeri to take a look at a pony I had had my eye on since before we went away. It was well worth the trip (taking the horse float "just in case....") - as we ended up bringing Hunny home!
She is a beautifully schooled 14.2hh 12 year old mare by Kingsway Diamond. In the past she has done a lot - show hunter, show jumping, dressage, pony club, saddle hunter, but for the last little while hadn't been doing much as her rider had turned 17.
Hunny is quite a step up from Spots, and has more "buttons to press", but once Sarah sorts out how to ride her properly, they should have great fun together.

Sarah looks pleased with her!

Working on the basics

Hunny loved it at WEC

And just because Spots does, Sarah thought the new Hunny princess pony might like to splash through puddles.... and she did!

And stretch her legs over some trotting poles.

We look forward to reporting on progress over the coming months.

Goodbye to Spots

It was a sad day in our house a week ago, when we said goodbye to the lovely Spots, who has gone to live in Featherston with a family who will adore her.
Spots has been the perfect all rounder Pony Club pony for Sarah over the past three years - she has turned her hoof to everything from games, to trekking, polo, jumping, camping, pony rides, road riding, home movie star, and everything in between - always exactly at the pace that Sarah has asked for. We couldn't have hoped for a better pony for a girl to have fun with!
The day before, we took her to the local Equestrian Centre to blow out the cobwebs, and have a fantastic last ride with Sarah. The wind was howling, but they didn't care - they had a ball!