Ok, so the last 12 months. Let's start at the beginning...a very good place to start. I'll try to make this quite a pictorial blog, it might save me several thousand words.
About 13 months ago, we welcomed Hamish into our lives. He started off as a wee little thing and like all new parents, for a while we wondered where the instruction manual was located! I know it sounds cliched, but it is really hard now to remember life without him! He is now a gorgeous 1 year old and enjoying doing all the things busy 1-year-olds do.
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| The gorgeous Hame (not that I am biased, eh?) |
On the horse front. I was back riding within weeks of having Hamish, attending an ARC rally 7 weeks post baby. I decided to not worry about competing initially - just getting back in the saddle was enough to start with. I was also without a horse float for several months, having sold my float earlier in the year, so that curbed my competitive aspirations somewhat. I played spectator when possible however, getting out to watch Snip compete whilst he was out on lease. In January, I finally picked up my shiny new wheels and was back on the road.
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| The pretty new float |
In December, Snip came home. The original plan was for him to be sold - which very nearly happened . To cut a long, boring story short, several circumstances changed and he's still here. Obviously the Universe had another plan - which now many months on, with the power of hindsight, I can say was extremely fortunate for me!
In April this year, I resumed competition with Snip. Our first competition was Westcoast Horse Trials at Lara. Although Snip had plenty of mileage in more recent times, I was a bit rusty, so wasn't sure how our return to competition would go. As it turned out, it went very well and we finished 2nd in the Level 1 class after dressage, and stayed there overall after good cross country and showjumping performances
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| Before dressage at Westcoast |
From there it was onto Dunolly HAC's inaugural Horse Trials at the start of May. This time, I was very ambitious and decided to compete both Snip and Henry (what was I thinking?!!). Despite it being a logistical nightmare, we survived. Snip did a lovely dressage test to lead the Level 1 and Henry was lying 5th in the Level 3. After a clear XC round and reasonable jumping round, Snip took out the L1 section (yay!). Henry jumped clear SJ, but a few problems XC left him 13th in his section. We have a few kinks to iron out on the cross country side of things with Henry, but he is still relatively inexperienced in this area - having considerable time off eventing in recent years (and always seeming to find a way to miss an event if he can wing it!).
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| Henry made a local paper! |
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| Snip on XC - Photo credit Kathryn Toomey |
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| Snip with his spoils. Many thanks to Freemantle Stockfeeds and DHAC for the lovely prizes! |
We backed this up with BDFEG's dressage and Combined Training comp the following weekend - with Snip winning both his dressage tests & CT and Henry placing 2nd in his first Level 2 CT.
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| Henry at BDFEG CT day |
Over the winter we all had a break from competition, with the short days and my return to work part time limiting time to train. We have been busy with property improvements though and I'm pleased to say our houseyard fence is finished. Timing is perfect, given Hamish is not *yet* walking.
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| Spiffy new fence completed! (Thanks Dad and Mark!) |
Since Spring has rolled around, it's been all systems go. I've been to Friends of Werribee HT, a Guy Creighton SJ clinic and most recently Avenel HT - reports to come. In time, I also hope the creative and analytical parts of my brain return so I can share with you some of my insights into juggling motherhood with horses (why has no one written a book on this?), reviews of the latest equestrian books and other such things. Stay tuned!
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