Messenger

We arrived Friday night which gave me time to set up
my bedroom in my float. I have it all organised now. Bed
down the middle, table for stove and cooking stuff at the
end, hooks hanging from my storage basket for all my
horse gear, clothes case under bed, food under table and
lanterns dotted appropriately and, of course, the hot water
bottle ready for sleepy time. I call it my 6-star bedroom
especially when I can view my horse in his pen and over
the paddock with lush grass, trees and dams. Not that I
got much sleep the first night with Boaz pacing up and
down on the fine gravel in the yard and playing football
with his feed bins. Finally I got up about 2am and gave
him a snack which quietened things down for a bit.
Saturday the ridden subject was mainly the use of the
Bowtie as a lead up to flying lead changes. We were in
the morning group which made for a relaxing afternoon
sitting under a tree to watch the afternoon group go
through their paces. Saturday night everyone joined in
for a BBQ. Got a bit more sleep that night too.
Sunday’s online session was comical with Boaz in full
blown attitude. Asking him to go around two cones in
a figure eight can’t be too hard, can it Mr B thought
so – man he was giving me the finger big time. Missing
the cones, knocking them over, jumping sky high, all the
antics he could think of. I love it when he is his usual
Mr Nice Guy but when he’s not is when I do my most
learning. This time I learned the importance of keeping
my feet still as he was thinking that he was driving me
when I stepped back and forth and was gaining brownie
points. Secondly I needed to be clear that he needed to go
around the cone. I needed to stay focussed and say ‘that
cone is important to me so it needs to be important to
you’. I love Pat’s saying of ‘I haven’t seen this take more
than two days’. Just have to out-persist them. Finally I
out-persisted and we quit on a good note.
The funny thing is that I could hardly get a trot out of him
under saddle although he did like jumping over the logs.
Sunday’s riding was using the logs to develop flying lead
changes.
Going back out to Wilton this weekend for Australia
Day. Horsey games and BBQ. Better give him a run for
his money on Saturday then! Oh, we do have fun!”
A quick update from Weemala Performance Horses:
“We were delivered a lovely surprise for Christmas when
Weemala Sapphire foaled down a chestnut filly at around
2am Christmas morning. She got off to a bit of a shaky
start, somehow managing to get through the fence into
the next paddock but we were able to guide her back to
the fence and she allowed us to lay her down and put her
back where she belonged with her mum. Well, she hasn’t
Bell & Moonbah Ridge Keiki
looked back since (see photo in Part Bred Foal Pictorial).
Weemala Fresita (pending) or Chilli is a typical feisty
little redhead who is already bossing her big sister,
Weemala Cougar, around.
Moonbah Ridge Keiki who Bell started under saddle
in November last year attended her first outing under
saddle this month with a trip to a local Adult Riding
Club dressage day. The grown up horses we took didn’t
really help matters by calling constantly when we took
Keiki away (she is quite the favourite) but other than a
few disobediences wanting to head back to her friend
during her first test, we were quite happy with her. And
she improved out of site in her second test without the
distraction of the calling friend.
Moonbah Fortune Cookie who was also started by Bell in
November headed off to ‘boarding school’ with Michael
Godding – Classical Dressage at the start of January. At
home he was starting to think he was The Man but it
was quite surprising when we took him off the float at
Moonbah Fortune Cookie & Michael Godding
14