So far this season I have had two stars in my team… DSE Sunset Pass (aka Gary/Gazza) winning the Beyond the Barriers Overall title for 2016. In the process he scaled and cleared 1.50m, which is no mean feat for a lot of horses, let alone one less than a year off the track!!! Needless to say I was very proud of his performance and what an awesome way to showcase the versatility of the NZ thoroughbred – go Gina and Nicky!
The other major star in the team is Yogi….DSE Mr Hokey Pokey who rocked around his 3rd CIC*** ever to win the New Zealand One Day Champs at Arran Station. He made the XC feel awesome and also did a new personal best in the dressage! I came home that night and told Bones (DSE Tangolooma) and suggested that he best get over his ongoing foot abscess, as Yogi is stepping it up a couple of levels, while he is at home eating all the pies!!
We have also been doing a bit of Show Jumping, which is a lot easier than eventing a large team of horses! We took the babies to Mystery Creek during the week shows and jumped them in the indoor arena… which went remarkably better than envisaged! Then the following weekend we took the older horses and did a few bigger classes. The “Most Improved” was won by Rocky (aka DSE Sagacious) who started in the 90cm at his first show, and finished jumping double clear in the 1.10m! He became very rideable in the arena, however his warm ups are very interesting… Hannah’s comment from last weekend at BOP HT about Rocky’s dressage warm up was, “wow he can really get in the air… I can’t wait to see how high he goes when there is actually a jump!!!” He’s a very fun horse to ride so watch this space! 🙂
Another watch this space is DSE Exuberance (aka Marty), who is currently a full time Show Jumper with Jeremy Whale riding him. We are super excited to watch their progress, Jeremy might have a better chance staying on, as I had one too many dismounts for one season 😉
Elise and DSE Mendoza have been clocking up the miles doing their first couple of 2*, and also jumping round their first 1.35 SJ!!!
As I’m writing this blog … The new kitty “Blue Bell” is being passed around amongst all the kids (aka grooms)… this is one super loved kitty!!! Once again, thanks Diane Gilder for the capture of this well bred, fine specimen of a cat, from the offal pit hahahaha… she is currently walking all over the keyboard!!!!!
In the meantime we have picked up a few young horses, which we are really impressed with and hopefully bringing them out next season to do some Pony Club events 🙂
On the working student front, Cameron Boon has joined our team from the South Island. We’ve convinced Hailey Gahan to return next year after a wee trip home to Canada for Christmas 😉 PLUS Andie Gibberd has finished her exams at school so she is also more full time at the moment…
We have Puhinui 3DE next week, which we are really looking forward too. Go the DSE team!!! Then onto Christmas and New Year, with a wee holiday/break for us all!
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Donna 🙂
Donna Smith Eventing 