Winter is definitely here now, at least with these freezing cold mornings the days are stunning in between and we can be productive with the babies! 🙂
Gaye McClunie took Elise and I away for 9 days to Hawaii, which was incredibly generous and also amazing to hang out in the sunshine! It was so cool to be around the American accent again and their food….. which we sampled a lot of!!!
We arrived home and within a couple of hours we were on the backs of a couple of horses mustering! We had a bit of an “Angry Bull” moments here at home a few weeks ago when one grumpy bull took exception to dad and laid him out. Therefore with Mum and Dad leaving for their Sunshine tour soon after our arrival back home, it was planned that we would remove the Big Hairy Angry bull from the farm before we took over running the place! Elise’s horse Teddles was a superstar holding his ground in the middle of the bridge whilst the bull sized them up, and Izablu was awesome in the yards loading the Big Hairy Angry bull finally onto the truck.
I must admit that all thoughts of my holiday fast disappeared when I found myself sliding down the face of one of our hills not attached to my horse… As whilst we were chasing a mob Izablu slipped and we both fell over…!!! So, within 4hrs of coming home, I was covered in mud, and so was my trusty stead. Elise on the next ridge saw it happen and was laughing at me, as dad walked around the side of the hill and said, “what are you doing down there on the ground?” and to top it off my trusty website coordinator (Chanel) said “did you get a photo? that would be great for the blog!!!” Hahaha….Just like that, I was back to reality!!!
The babies always make winter exciting/edge of the seat/ but also slightly painful! 🙂 We all admit that when you have 8 babies in and they are all doing slightly random things in the cross-ties you remember how far the older ones have come in a year. Sometimes when they are all going crazy at the same time it crosses my mind that maybe a daytime desk job would actually be ok!!!
Hit The Lign (Bart) my “Beyond The Barriers” horse, is the grown up of the babies and stands in the cross-ties and stays there now… that’s a big thing!!! We find ourselves asking when did he grow up? And you find yourself saying “leave Bart in he’s a good boy”…. 3 months ago that was not the case!!!
Then we ride them and love them, so by the time they go out again all is forgotten until the next day!!! We have an awesome team of babies that I’m so excited about. I’m not sure who is the standout one, but they all have their talents and quirks, which is pretty cool, they are all interesting!
All the babies are doing different things. Some are simply just learning to stay in the cross-ties without disaster!!! Some are learning to free jump, some are learning to put their heads down, and a couple are adamant that they are doing none of these things!!! Oddly, the later usually become the characters of the team and sometimes the best behaved… perhaps it’s because we end up spending so much one on one time with them.
Roxy of course LOVES “buzzing” the babies… Just to wind them all up when we think we have them calm…. Where would I be without my desensitizing co- trainer of Roxieroo!
Bart, is learning to become my main new Musterer (see the gallery of photos below), as Elise has realized how good Izablu is out on the hills and has stolen him, and Gucci is just that little bit fresh at the moment so he needs a little more work before we go take on the steep slopes! 🙂
One of the coolest things that has happened is Bryden (Mamarura Hunt Master) has taken Alleundro (Alex) to the Hunt felid. He’s leading the hunt tomorrow, which I’m so excited about. He’s an amazing jumper but doesn’t like dressage. He and Bryden are a match made in heaven! 🙂 It also carries sentimental value for a lot of the community, as Alex is from an awesome mare line that has produced great horses for years locally and internationally 🙂
Last weekend I was down in Christchurch teaching and got to hang out in the snow again! I’m heading back down to Oamaru and Cromwell next month. I think I’m learning to layer up enough finally!
That’s about all for now, we have our first Baby Day Out in 2 weeks…. I’m sure that will be quite the experience for us and them!!!
Donna Smith Eventing 