Looking good for Horse of the Year in March!

Lang Lang was a good show with nice warm weather. On the Saturday Animate placed 6th in the A&B grade and 5th on Sunday. Cavalli Park Annibell was also 6th in the 1.20m championship. Rachael and Hayley also came to the show with their ponies and won a truck load of ribbons in the fun ring. They had a great time along with many other show jumping kids.

Your SE Qld Sales Manager, David Owen, called in to see us recently and it was good to catch up and discuss feed regimes for our horses. I have been particularly pleased with the sample of Polished which was given to us some months ago. I have been feeding it to the Dancier gelding and it has made a huge difference to his coat and general condition. The plan is to take this horse to the Sydney CDI and contest the 4 year old class run as part of the NSW Young Horse State Championships so I need to keep him looking super!

Hebe has his first competitive outing in over two years, following his injury layoff and he jumped a lovely double clear in typical Hebe fashion. However, I was most thrilled with Leo who won both the 1.05m and 1.10m and was much more ride able than he has been in the past. I have to say a big thanks to Geordie Bull for the work he did on him for me.

A lot of these clinics we do every year, so it is great to see the same people coming back each year and how much they are improving. In some of the kid’s cases, how much they have grown up!

Amanda travelled down to Dapto for good results with the young Vivant mares and her grand prix ride, Oaks Altes placing well in both the major classes.

We had many compliments throughout the weekend on how well our horses presented. The compliments reflected our results, averaging just over $25,000 for 7 horses, and topping the 2yo section with $31,000.

As it was the final for the World Cup season and they had flown in international course designer Leopoldo Palacious from Europe, the course was very tough. Fourteen fences with a double and a treble. Although I only got to compete in four World Cup’s this season due to only having Animate for a few months we were really pleased to still finish in the top 20 across Australia on the final overall leader board.

Our other big news is that we have acquired another horse for our competition team. Valmont Katarina is a 3yo purebred Clydesdale, and is royally bred, with both her dam and her sire being Melbourne Royal Supreme Champions. Katy comes to us in foal, and we look forward to competing her at Gatton in May, as well as the CCHS Junior Championships in June.

On his way home from Tamworth, Pete judged at the Tannymorel draft and also held a very well patronised clinic. Son, Clayton, won the Juvenile draft on Response while there.

We welcomed into our world a beautiful Rotspon filly on the 22nd December 2011. Whilst she in no way replaces the lovely mare we lost, Bregola, she certainly was a welcome distraction arriving 2 days after Bregola's death. Jet black and cute as a button she will probably be a "keeper".

I currently have a very exciting team of horses coming on including Ru and Clyde jumping in the Young Rider and Grand Prix classes, Tilly beginning in Junior Riders, two 5yo geldings, a lovely 7yo mare just starting in competition and a very exciting, well-bred 3yo filly.

2012 is set to be a very exciting year. The arrival in mid Feburary of our new stallion, Baluga is eagerly awaited and we have all sorts of new years resolutions to live up to.

The regional clubs have started announcing their end of year results. Hunter Valley Dressage Association recently held their presentation where Jeremy and Django were awarded 2011 FEI Big Tour Horse of the Year (equal with Molliere).

Jonathan McDonald

I have been training hard over xmas ready for Boneo park CDI in Jan (Melbourne) and 2 weeks later Orange CDI. I am doing the Grand Prix and the Grand prix Special. I have even made up a new GP freestyle that has taken weeks to get right. So much for resting over the festive season!

The showing and Campdrafting starts back up in February for me.

On a happier note, I have finally finished my NCAS Level 2 dressage coaching accreditation. A four year struggle is now complete! I am very grateful to have worked with some fantastic mentor coaches to achieve this. In particular, Irene Bakels-Noreen and Rozzie Ryan. I know it has improved me as a coach and also a rider and I consider it to have been a valuable learning experience.

Em and I took two truck loads of horses ranging from the 75cm class up to the 1.20m class. They all jumped well and it was a great opportunity to jump the babies around course after course. Keniski jumped beautifully with 3 double clears and ended up 1.20m series champion!

As with every facet of Sam's life, he was a champion to the very end. He fought a brave and noble fight and showed incredible courage during all treatment. He will forever be remembered not only for his amazing results but as a most incredible character who was loved by all at our stables.

Just last weekend, I went to the Sydney Showjumping Champs where I won the Junior Grand Prix.

At Wellards Star Of The West Campdraft, Pryde’s sponsored a jackpot beast in each draft. It worked extremely well and made the crowd really give that beast a cheer, and it also put Pryde’s in their eyes wondering about this great feed. I took a couple of books and brochures over there and I chatted to a few people about it and they all said that they were going to look Pryde’s up and I told them to give you a ring.

It was also officially announced on November 1st that I am a top five finalist in the AMP study start scholarship (to the value of $15,000), to which thousands of people applied for from a vast variety of fields including film production and music to sports and science! This is very exciting for me and has taken up much of my time including photo shoots and filmed interviews, since I found out in August. The winner will be announced next week on Thursday 24th so fingers crossed!

We also launched Brett’s new training dvd’s The Proffessionals’ Way. Equitana and our launch were a great success, with lots of positive comments on both the demonstrations and dvd’s.

He is now for sale so will remain in Sydney with his owner. I will certainly miss not having him around but this will now allow me to concentrate on getting my young ones up and going ready for next year.