clairebearnz
Well-Known Member
Dear old Tally and I had a rather adventurous year, as we both moved 8 hours north and back again. I moved to Auckland for my Honours year, and Tally moved with me to Northland for a year's hacking on my friend's dairy farm. The absolutely highlight of the year was the two of us going for a big hack along the beach one evening, at sunset, accompanied by a pod of dolphins. Of course, the one time neither of us had a camera!
Aside from grass staggers, tripping over on the road and cutting his knees open, and laminitis (because it's Tally), he seemed to enjoy his year in Northland.
Tally and Chunky (who obviously found this *young* interloper very frustrating) in their incredibly scenic paddock.
Where my friend lived was fairly rural, so we had (almost) endless gravel roads, plus the beach, plus her family's farm to ride on.
Heading down the hill from her place
Tally rather enjoying swimming, although his attempts to dunk me under were not greatly appreciated.
Lots of galloping
Tally got very affectionate whenever I turned up
.
There was also a (horseless) roadtrip to the top of the North Island.
Then I moved home, a couple of days after Tongariro in the Central North Island (i.e. where the main road north-south goes) erupted. Tally moved home a couple of weeks later.....the same day a tornado hit Auckland.
He seems to be dealing with schooling again. The poor boy is 18 now, so was rather stiff the first couple of weeks.
He'd jumped all of twice in the previous 9 months, so I was expecting fireworks. Nope, he popped over everything very calmly.
I'm now planning his first outings in the new year. There's XC training on the 15th (to test out sanity and/or brakes), then hopefully some jumping/dressage/combined training before the autumn eventing season starts. There seems to be a lack of low-level local stuff going on, so I am half tempted to take him to the local pony club gymkhana. Except the last one I took him to, he tried to start a stampede in the Paced and Mannered class, then lost a flag race to a child on a miniature pony because he kept pulling the flags out and hitting me with them.
Remarkably for Tally, he's both sound AND sane at the same time, and I plan to take advantage of this!
Aside from grass staggers, tripping over on the road and cutting his knees open, and laminitis (because it's Tally), he seemed to enjoy his year in Northland.
Tally and Chunky (who obviously found this *young* interloper very frustrating) in their incredibly scenic paddock.
Where my friend lived was fairly rural, so we had (almost) endless gravel roads, plus the beach, plus her family's farm to ride on.
Heading down the hill from her place
Tally rather enjoying swimming, although his attempts to dunk me under were not greatly appreciated.
Lots of galloping
Tally got very affectionate whenever I turned up
.
There was also a (horseless) roadtrip to the top of the North Island.
Then I moved home, a couple of days after Tongariro in the Central North Island (i.e. where the main road north-south goes) erupted. Tally moved home a couple of weeks later.....the same day a tornado hit Auckland.
He seems to be dealing with schooling again. The poor boy is 18 now, so was rather stiff the first couple of weeks.
He'd jumped all of twice in the previous 9 months, so I was expecting fireworks. Nope, he popped over everything very calmly.
I'm now planning his first outings in the new year. There's XC training on the 15th (to test out sanity and/or brakes), then hopefully some jumping/dressage/combined training before the autumn eventing season starts. There seems to be a lack of low-level local stuff going on, so I am half tempted to take him to the local pony club gymkhana. Except the last one I took him to, he tried to start a stampede in the Paced and Mannered class, then lost a flag race to a child on a miniature pony because he kept pulling the flags out and hitting me with them.
Remarkably for Tally, he's both sound AND sane at the same time, and I plan to take advantage of this!