Nothing wrong with old horses....

Okay so I just thought I would quickly tell u about my lesson the other day. I was doing a jumpng lesson as I have show jumping champs trial comming up, the 1st being on the 13th of november. Well anyway I got Gizmo in and got him all ready and gosh he was in a silly mood that day, not behaving like the other day at all. Well my instructor, Belinda (who is my cousin in-law), kept changing the jump height. The one where the barrels are she put up huge. There was a gap between the barrels and the pole. She even put the other jump up too. Well when she put the barrel jump up it looked HUGE and I didnt wanna do it so Gizi refused. Then i bought him around again and he refused again because I was nervous still. The 3rd time around I was like "we can do this!!" and he jumped it. We jumped it 3 times, clearing it the 1st and 3rd times but knocking it in the 2nd. Before she left she told me that she had put the barrel jump up to the top nail (thats what holds our jumps up) and I was freaking because on the the nail thats 2nd to top it is 1.15m!! Well I measuerd the 2 jumps and the barrel jump was 1.38m!! I jumped almost 1.40m!!! And I cant believe it. My horse is 21 too and we have come so far . The other jump was 1.15m!! So im definately trialling for show jumping champs but i tend to break under pressure. I will keep you updated with posts and pictures of how he trials go. The funny thing is, I've only ever competed Gizmo to a height of 70cm! Thats because at the start of winter thats all I was confident at. I thank him for giving me more confidence and for always trying his hardest. I thank Val too, for giving me this wonderful horse. I promised her one thing when she told me I could have him, and that was that i didnt send him on the dog trucks. Well no way will he ever end up there. Hes way too special. So dont worry Val, im keeping my promise to you and Gizmo.
This just goes to show that......theres nothing wrong with old horses.

Flying without wings....

Ok so today i asked mum to come and video me riding so that i could get some still pictures. shes not the nest at taking them at the right time with a digital camera so this was best option and then to play them back on the TV and take pictures of the tv.

well i got out to see my boy and he was quite pleased to see me. i think he was a little bit sorry about standing on my foot yesterday. I go him all tacked up and he was good.
I have decided to use a martingale in jumping as we have bonked heads a few time from him throwing his head up. Anyway i went out to the paddock at put the jumps back together as the cows had demolished them.
I put the jumps up to 1.10m as this is the maximum height that is in the show jumping champs senior ring.

well anyway Gizmo was soo good. he was listening to everything i asked him to do or not to do and he enjoyed it i think.
Theres a song sung by Westlife that i like called "flying without wings" and thats what jumping Gizmo feels like. whoever said that we cant fly was rong, they obviously havnt ridden a horse before.

Anyway heres some pix for ya, sorry about the quality.

This is one of my favourite pictures because im looking up, hes clearing it by heaps, im releasing enough, and im leaning foward enough. The only thing i dont like about it is that my leg has slipped back a little and my heels arent down enough.

And here is another one of us jumping.

This one is the other jump. My position isnt too great over this one but thats ok.

Filling in the gaps....

Well as you all can see, i havent really updated my blog. so this post is going to have lots of pictures to bring you all up to speed.
During the winter i did the first day of the winter dressage series. my gosh was that a horrible day, he wouldnt walk, or go on the bit or do anything i asked him to. basically it was a disaster. and to top things off, i was using a jumping saddle to do a dressage test! anyway we managed to get some pictures from that day and here it is.

During winter i also chose to get Gizmo clipped as he was quite hairy and it was getting quite hard to brush him down properly. Warning, hes looking very skinny in these pics, but has since put on much more weight.

I also took Gizmo to the open days at the waikato equestrian centre. my goodness he was awesum!! ive never jumped so big and he gave me so much confidence. my position is absolutely terrible but i stayed on and i have now sorted out my postition. here are some of the pics from that day.

The pony club season started quite well with our first rally at the top part of the Waikato Equestrian centre. we just walked, trotted, and did one tiny circle of canter. we did trotting poles and we wernt allowed to do the cavoletties which was frustrating. Two weeks later we had a combined Hamilton rally at te uku which was amuzing. Gizmo was packing a tantrum on the cross country course. imagine a little child in a lollie shop on the floor kicking and screaming and flailing their arm about-well that was gizmo. he wouldnt go foward, you gave him the reins and we start walking back as fast as possible, he would stop and stamp the gound so hard while breathing like an angry bull. it was so hilarious and nothing me or anyone could do would stop it.
We have since figured out (from another tantrum at my pony club) that Gizmo cannot do cross country in a group. Hes 21 so for 18 years hes been taught that he goes out through the start gate and gallops, and if theres a jump in the way he jumps it. he doesnt understand why he has to stop after each jump and it does his head in.