What a gorgeous way to display that bag of ribbons you have laying under your bed, or hung over your curtain rail. 👌
Contact the beautiful Beth at Prestige Show Garlands, and get those ribbons and rosettes displayed in a beautiful frame, while also keeping them protected and clean.
Such a genius idea!
‘Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.’
‘Never let the fear of striking out, keep you from playing the game.’
In other words, don’t let the fear of falling on your ass, keep you from giving it a go. You never know, you may land on your feet.
To live on Earth is to fail, get bruised up (physically and mentally) every now and again, but getting back up and out there again, is what gives you resilience. We are all going to be dust one day, you may as well spend your time doing what you love, not wrapping yourself up in cotton wool.
Only staying active, will make you want to live a hundred years. Be thorough in your training (I’m not only talking about horses here), be as safe as you can, but take a risk, and trust yourself.
Riding Specky bareback is something I haven’t done a lot of, however at the moment we are in a bit of a standstill in our jumping career, and given that, it’s a perfect time for us to get back to our roots, and start becoming the team I know we can be.
🦄 Young M.E.C. Honour had a lovely start to the season today, jumping around double clear in both her classes.
She didn’t have a great lead up as I have been sick, so she was extra spicy this weekend, but super proud of how she conducted herself throughout the day given all of that!
It is always important to find good things that happened in the day with horses. It can be very easy to get stuck in your mind during bad days, but even if your round didn’t go how you would like, if your horse is relaxed tied at the float, or relaxed standing around, or tried really hard in some parts of the competition, that’s still a win in my eyes.
2023 'started under saddle' graduates
I've been slack about posting videos of our graduates, here's a video of 5 from this year!
Boots (Paint), Winnie (ASH), Wishes (Clydesdale), Disney and Dante (WB), quite the mix! Loved them all.
Big boy Henry!
You could say this young man is officially done with “primary school”. It’s taken a few lots of 4 weeks to get him here, and all worth the wait. Henry has taught me so much about starting these heavy breeds under saddle.
Although people always assume these heavy breeds are quiet (I think because they are slow), mostly they really aren’t. Most of them are extremely sensitive and easily upset, so they need extra patience and empathy. You cannot rush these horses (or any horse really, if you want them to be well rounded and confident), as they are so easily fried.
Henry has grown to be one of my favourites, having worked with him every now and again over the last 2 years. He’s a beautiful horse, with so much presence about him it’s not funny.
Can’t wait to follow him through his life.
The gorgeous “Jemma” having her last ride today before she heads home tomorrow, after being started under saddle.
This lovely mare gives me huge Man from Snowy River vibes, if I had been lucky enough to own her I would have been sporting the stock and Akubra, and calling myself Jim Craig.
She has been a pleasure to start, a sensitive young mare who started out pretty reactive, she has truly started to come into her own since I’ve known her, which has been magic to witness.
Another one of those horses who I would welcome into my paddocks anyday. 💜🦄
Gorgeous young gypsy cob, ‘Raven’. It’s his final week at Inverness after being started under saddle, going back to his wonderful home on Friday. Going to miss his cute whinny at dinner time!
What a cute little pony this fella is! 😍
“Scout”
(Started under saddle August 2022)
This video is from his first ride with his owner upon pick up yesterday. Scout was an absolute pleasure to have here to start, and he’s had a fantastic upbringing which definitely helped his experience in starting ridden work.
He will forever be one of my favourites, he’s a very sweet, trusting horse with a big personality. He’s going to be a very fun horse for his owner!
Beware, I’m going to get soppy here for a moment ❤️
I love this young man so much. ‘Ollie‘ (AKA All In) is back for a couple of weeks of further education after being started by myself earlier in the year. He is by far one of my absolute favourite young horses I’ve had the pleasure to work with.
He came to me in a time when I was not feeling the best within myself, and his owners were wonderful in the trust they instilled in me to get the job done with their precious boy. In a time when I had huge doubts that I could get the job done, they didn’t have any doubts in me at all. I can never properly repay that kind of support, and it’s so valuable in this industry to have that.
So, ‘Ollie’ to me is so much more then a beautiful young Warmblood, when I look at him I see the belief his owners had in me, I see how much he looked after me in a time where a single mishap would have sent me spiralling. I see the day that I broke down in tears because I had nothing left to give, but then found the drive in myself to not give up. I see in this video, what I can accomplish not only in training, but in partnership.
Every time I look at him, I see how much he peers into my soul, and trusts me completely. I’m pretty sure I could ask this horse to walk through fire for me, and he would. He is a horse that will be forever in my memory, for all the right reasons. He is one of those horses that puts a stamp your heart.
Thank you Ollie ❤️
‘Aloise W’ - jumping at Mallala 15/5/22
The best of ‘Aloise W’ popping around at Mallala Showjumping Club over the weekend! Yesterday she went around her first full jumping course, and this video is from her third ever round. Pretty good if I do say so myself, she’s proving to be very honest, brave and careful too, with a good technique and scope! If only she were two hands higher. 🙈🔥
#forsale #showjumpingpony
(Video of full rounds available for interested buyers)
It was the day for it!
Sale horse ‘Harley’ had her first ride out on Monday, chaperoned by my dear friend on our equine CEO ‘Katniss’. She handled it very well, and looking forward to attending her first show this weekend where we are doing some beginner dressage just to get her out and about in a nice relaxed environment.
Must be 10am at Inverness… 😴
‘Romeo’
🦄 First time jumping courses at home for baby ‘Romeo’. ‘Romeo’ is owned by one of my wonderful clients, and he’s having an extended stay with me to develop his education under saddle, and also begin his jumping career.
This was his first day jumping proper little jumps at home, before this we had trotted and cantered around poles and smaller cavalettis. In his flat work, he’s mostly been learning how to connect to the rein, learning how to shorten and lengthen in his paces, and above all, how to be a well rounded, elastic, relaxed horse.
Next weekend he will be attending his first show, and I’m very confident he will strut his stuff!
🤍 If you are interested in having your young horse further educated after being started, or having an introduction to jumping, please enquire. This is something I would love to do more of, I truly love this stage of educating horses. 🤍
Very happy to be back jumping after nearly 12 months out of the competition ring after selling my beloved ‘Iceman’. ❤️
'Teddy'
'Teddy' is a young Arabian Riding Pony. He was an absolute pleasure to have around, he was started under sale back in May 2021. Here he is being ridden by his owners young rider when he was picked up. 'Teddy' is currently looking for his new home, his ad is in the comments. Please inquire to the contact number and email within his ad, and not this page.
Day for it 👌
‘Ivy’ was a very good girl on her first ever ride out, she’s not had a lot of riding experience so was very proud of how grown up she was about the whole thing!
'Iceman' - Loose Rein Work
Over the next couple of weeks I'll be sharing some continuous footage of 'Iceman', for my clients, future clients and anyone interested in what I do. So that people can see me with my own horse, for them to be able to see what the end result can be under saddle and on the ground.
The first installment, is our warm up and loose rein work, where we demonstrate relaxation, rhythm, forward and (horse) self control, which I believe to be the most important first steps with any horse. We also do some neck reining, slowing off my seat, and some lateral work.
.
.
.
Since 'Iceman' was a yearling, he has been solely trained and ridden by Darcy, with the occasional ride from Ali (Darcy's mother, who she owes a great deal of her knowledge to).
'Iceman' is an established 1.30m Jumper, with placings in the top classes here at home in SA, and interstate. He was recently sold, and these videos were taken as memories.
Sale horse ‘Harley’ having her first sit today 🦄
I’m all about taking it easy when horses first get ridden. Some you can get on and way you go, some you just have to let them take each moment in their stride.
Harley came from Echuca sales when she was a baby, bought by one of my dear friends. She’s never had much handling, and she’s quite a sensitive little mare. I bought her in winter, she’s now 5.
To give you an idea on how much of a big deal it is for this little mare to be completely cool about me sitting on her, early in her work with me, I was leading her back to her yard and she was getting a bit close to me. I just jumped in the air to get her attention back on me, and she reacted to that by running backwards so fast she ended up falling over.
I’m very proud of how this little mare is progressing. She is a gorgeous young mare, and is coming along in leaps and bounds. I’m especially pleased with how she reacted to me today.
The process hasn’t been easy, and it’s very important to remember horses don’t turn out like this by accident.
Some major renovations happening at Inverness lately, we’ve moved the round pen over to make way for some new yards, so had to take the rubber off of the sides. Very heavy stuff conveyor belt, so we’ve borrowed the JCB again from our very generous neighbour to move it around, among other things while our tractor is out of action.
On a gale force wind day with all of that going on too, future kids pony ‘Bo’, was proper losing it… 😂
Gorgeous young Harley wore the saddle for the first time today, she thought through every second of session, which has been a big deal for her to do. Normally she wants to react first, think later, but lately she has started to think and then decide how she’s going to react. I feel very blessed when I’m able to help horses understand how to do that.
Harley was originally intended for sale after being started under saddle, but I’m enjoying her so much she might just stay for a while… a very special little mare. 🦄
