Well I really hate to speak to soon but the stirrings of spring appear to be in the air! It does of course take a professional to tell the difference between an Auckland winter and an Auckland Spring but my wishful thinking tells me it’s looking up climate wise!

The horses are malting their pants off, I’ve been dragging musty spring rugs out from the nethers for these smokey hot days we have been having here and there, the cry of orphan lambs can be heard from our loose box aaaand the Showjumping calendar is out, all sure signs of the swing to spring :-)

We toddled of the SJ Waitemata at Woodhill yesterday with a truck full of horseys, Miss granny (My Life haha) was a star again, and ended up with some booty for her efforts. I simply can’t understand the dynamics of granny, how does any beast with such a big head and short legs get so high in the air, perhaps she flaps her giant ears like Dumbo? r. 5yr old manuka baby Weiti Fawn was his normal stunning self, he did 2 super cruisy double clears in the 90 and 1m classes, and also collected a bow. Coloured coastie Mohawk was a dude, he can jump when the time is right! I just about fell off in shock as my skinny little bush horse jumped 1.20m to escape from the double in one stride, SCOPEY. Bush baby the SUPER star coloured pony we have had to be content with a look around and a play in the warm up ring for his first show, they would not let me ride him HC which I thought a bit mean for a non reg show! Anyway we love them for putting them on for us so we won’t complain

So only 6 weeks till our first show at Pukahu in Hastings, I spend my days walking fat horses up and down long hills or on the end of a long line, getting them fit is bor-ing

Fawn being a silly billy at SJ

Gisborne.. The beautiful world cup show reknowned for it’s scorching weather and competition, only came to the party in one respect this year.

And it wasnt the weather! Along with a vast convoy of other showjumpers we set out on the windy, 8 hour journey to glorious Gisborne on Thursday morning. The sun was shining!

Friday treated us pretty well. Agastache jumped lovely in the welcome stakes, Little Ruby very much enjoyed herself in the 1.15m, her first class back from a horrendous neck wound she sustained on a seemingly innocent gate gudgeon at home in her box in early December.

And then the rain came… with all the force Gizzys parched stations so desperately needed, them… but not us. Weiti Eros managed a beautiful win in the 5yr old on Saturday morning, despite the weather and Archie had a 4 fault 1.25 champ, which i was happy with considering he is a huge drama queen about mud and rain.

And that was it! Severe weather warnings chased us away on Saturday night, we arrived home at 2 in the morning with alot of soggy covers, wraps, horses and grooms. The Sunday (and the world cup final) had to be cancelled, this saw the ridiculously talented pair of Katie Mcvean and Dunstan Dephi take out the N.Z world cup series.

Bit of a bummer, but i’m sure the Gizzy sunshine will be back on form next season!

Waitemata worldcup show at Woodhill 2 weekends ago were blessed with considerably more tasteful weather. The horses jumped very well indeed, Eros had a lovely win in the 5yr old over probably the most testing track this seaon. I managed to get dropped in an oxer by a certain bush pig! who luckily redeemed himself by winning the novice young rider class the following day.