Kitten has a name!

After being called 'the kitten' for the past week or two, we have decided to call her Sheryl. Very tongue in cheek name... a true westie name and she is a real westie kitten. Plus now we have Sunny and Sher(yl) as our two cats, haha. The two of them have been getting along really well and Sunny has been great with her, letting her bounce around him and I think he secretly wants to join in some of her antics. So we have a huuuuge load of pics of the two of them and a few of Sheryl bouncing around on her own:

Sheryl's rearing horse impersonation

Sheryl spots her own shadow...

Am I cute when I do this? (Obviously not based on Sunny's reaction, lol)

What about this?

Wake up Sunny! I want to play!!

Did that work? No? Hmmm...

What if I pretend I'm a big scary grizzly bear?

Grrrooowwwwwwwwlllll!! Wake up Sunny!

Sheryl loves Sunny xxx

Such a time waster! She is so full of beans, I think Sunny gets pooped just watching her sometimes.

Oscar was a bit pooped yesterday too, we went to the forest with Ellie and Spyke and did the 'up and over' track, which involves a lot of hills and some quite steep bits at that too. Was good fun, haven't ridden on terrain like that for a while, and Oscar did really well I thought. He hardly stumbled so I think the new farrier is doing wonders for his feet. He used to be very stumbly, even in the paddock which made me a bit wary about cantering in the forest with the odd tree root lurking.

We met a couple of deer yesterday, just as we had started to go for a canter. They went running straight across the path about 40-50m ahead of us. Oscar stop and froze, and I could feel his butt shaking, meanwhile Spyke decided to go cross country and bounded off through the trees (this is the horse that had a mini tantrum about going through a puddle and walking over a broken branch in recent times, haha). Was quite funny to see him disappear off (with Ellie still on board) into the trees. They both settled fine afterwards although Oscar did keep a sharper look out - literally looking left and right a few times while trotting. Funny boy.

He is a bit fitter than I thought though, he was tired after the ride but not exhausted, which was good.

The hay is going okay, and we should probably be cutting in two weeks or so. We have had some good weather for it, a bit of rain and then sunny days which will give it a bit of a boost.

The pigs should be heading off soon too hopefully, will be nice to have some real bacon again. And soon we should be adding to the mob too which some more weaners in a few weeks time. I have no idea what prices are doing now although suspect that with the rain they won't have dropped as much as they did last year when we were already heading into drought by this time.

Cantering, kittens and Christmas

Been a busy couple of weeks!!

Oscar has been going great guns, and the lesson we had on the Monday after the dressage day pretty much cemented in my mind that he is the right horse for me. We did some jumping, which is not really my thing at all - or so I thought... we started off doing some trot poles and while I was trit trotting around my trainer, Laura, started fiddling around with the poles and next thing you know they were getting higher and higher. We got to the dizzying heights of about 35-40cm but the best thing was that Oscar just cruised around really happily. He was as forward as I asked him to be, if I dropped back then he did too but when I rode him forward we had a lovely bounce through a couple of grids followed by (get ready for it) left canter at the end of the grids!! Yahooooo!!

Then we got a left canter again on Wednesday night at adult ride. Asked for canter over a pole and he leaped over the pole which I wasn't expecting at all but then cantered left for a good 10-12 strides. Clever pony :-)

And to top off a great week me and Ellie went to the forest on Saturday and we had two lovely canters through the forest. I forgot how much fun that was. Bowling along happy as larry and when we stopped cantering he just cruised along again, wasn't all razzed up about it. Only time he did get a bit full of beans was on the second canter when we ended up in front - but still completely controllable and nothing to worry about at all.

He is really coming along well with all the work we've been doing on schooling him to what the different rein aids are as well and we can now move his shoulders over really easily. Love my pony!

We also have a new addition to the family - a wee black and white kitten who is only about 7 weeks old. She is very cute and full of energy, bounces around all over the place. She and Sunny are still not too sure about each other and she got a smack from him the other night when she was playing with his tail a bit too vigorously... Anyway here are (lots) of pics of her:

The day she arrived home - pooped after exploring

Snoozing on the computer desk

Watching Sunny
Rrrooooaaawwwww

Little poser! Watching birdies outside

And a cute one of Sunny, all curled up in a platter - the perfect size for a cat as it turns out!

The garden is coming on really well and we have had our first harvest of peas, yummmmm. Also had the first lot of carrots, and the zucchinis are days away from being ready. The tomatoes are coming along slowly, not sure what is going on there. Ben put some more manure around them the other day so hopefully that gives them a boost. The capsicums are doing well and one plant has a little capsicum growing quite nicely on it.

The first lot of peas with the day's eggs

And tomorrow is Christmas day so it will be all go around here. We have 13 adults and 3 kids coming over, so it'll be a very full house. Not sure how the wee kitten is going to handle it so may have to shut her in her room when everyone is here if it's all a bit much for her. My niece is very excited about seeing her (she is animal mad) so she will have lots of cuddles tomorrow I suspect.

Oscar wants to be a dressage pony

We had our second dressage outing today, and went to the third spring dressage day run by the Waitemata Riding Club. It was pretty quiet at this one, not sure why, perhaps because it was on a Saturday - they are usually held on Sundays.

I entered Oscar in two training tests, which meant - eek - attempting to canter in the arena. We have been working on our canter but just can't get the left canter lead. Driving me nuts. Had a ride at Ellie's on Wednesday night as adult ride was cancelled, and we just about did a 20m circle (ok it was v egg shaped but still...) so it gave me some hope! Only on the right rein of course...

Anyway today Sarah came along with her old boy Em and did the same two tests as us. He was great as usual, although Oscar was very clingy and spent all our warm up calling out to him. We did have some nice moments in the warm up so he was definitely better than last time where our warm up involved tanking trot, jig jogging and not much else.

Second test warm up was marginally better and we even had some really really good (for him) trot-canter transitions. Steering was a bit crap but that's not unusual. He is quite funny though - he can be a complete twit outside the arena but as soon as we go in he settles right down and in his second test particularly he did some really nice trot work and I was very pleased with his free walk. Bit bummed that his right canter flopped a bit - he did the transition but then went back to trot. I think a big part of it was me not giving him enough rein but ah well that is what training tests are for I guess.

So this leds me to believe (and was suggested by Ellie) that Oscar does in fact have a burning desire to be a dressage pony, given his love of the arena. Fine by me :-) Although we are going to attempt an ODE at the end of the season. Gulp.

We have had some good growing weather here in the past week or so, with a bit of rain and then sunshine. The tanks are full and the hay and garden are growing well. We even have some peas ready!! Stoked about that. Had my first couple of pods straight off the vine the other day, was lovely. Lots of flowers on the tomatoes too and the zuchini and cucumber plants are also doing well. Have a few zuchinis coming along nicely.

With our tank now pretty much full we have discovered that our tank stand needs reinforcing. There is quite a bit of bowing in the wood which is a bit of a bugger. There is no way we will empty it at this time of year so hopefully it will last until the end of summer and we can sort it out then.

I thought the whole thing was about to come crashing down the other night when I heard a cracking and popping noise. Ran outside but the stand was still there, and couldn't see anything else. It sounded like gunshots so I thought maybe the neighbour was off shooting possums again. But no - it's a rather large branch from one of the trees by the driveway. It has split off the tree and is currently resting on a tree on the opposite side of the drive, about 15 metres above the ground. Don't think it is going to come down of it's own accord so will have to get someone in to chop it - it's waaaay too high for Ben to get up there. Just don't have the gear really.

The piggies are doing well, and are pretty happy now that we have got loads of veges for them. We can get 4-5 big bags of vege scraps each day from the fruit and veg shop up the road, which is almost a bit much for them to get through! Although they really don't like raw onions so there are a few of them lying about in the pen.

Hopefully they will be ready for killing in a month, they are still growing well but to me just need to get bigger butts (don't quite look roast size to me just yet....)

Big week!

Well it's been a huuuuge week for Oscar. Monday we had a lesson (in the pouring rain - discovered that my favourite jods chafe when wet, ouch), and we had our first proper bash at some canter work. We have had a few canters in the paddock, but our steering is not great. Anyway we had a play on Monday and got some hilarious leaping forward transitions into the canter to start with and then had a few lovely ones. Left canter is a bit rubbish but right canter is great.

Tuesday was a day off then Wednesday night was adult ride night and we cantered in a group of horses for the first time, and it was Oscar's best adult ride ever. He has been a bit clingy with his paddock mate who also goes to adult ride but last week he was so much better. Called out heaps (Bert the paddock mate was on the other side of the grounds in a different group) but was just fab otherwise. Had some lovely trot work and good canter. No left canter though, argh. Think part of it is me, I am quite asymmetrical with my hips (from being dragged a few years ago) and find left canter a bit tricky on a well schooled horse, so on a green horse like Oscar it's even harder. Have asked Ellie and Sarah to have a go with him (they seemed really keen for some reason... ) so hopefully they will help cement it into his brain a bit.

Thursday we headed up to Whangarei with Shelley and her mare (renamed Bitch Lips as she was in season, out of work for a couple of weeks, and on spring grass), and it was Oscar's first long trip on a truck. He travelled great and was quite impressed with the flash accomodation we had lined up for that night. A client of Shelley's lives just outside Whangarei and has a lovely property with stables etc so the ponies stayed in luxury accomodation that night. Then went to the A&P show on Friday, which to be honest was a bit crap as it was raining, then really muggy but Oscar behaved so well. I was really pleased with him.

Drove back on Friday afternoon, and he was pretty pooped when we got home. Had Saturday off then this morning we went to Muriwai and went for a forest ride with 8 others. It was a bit exciting to start with but all we had was jig jogging, apart from that he was a star. He loves to be in front which is a bit hilarious as he was the greenest horse there! Had a cruisy ride and he does seem to be getting fitter which is good to see. Although he did come home and have a big lie down and snooze - I have never met horse that loves sleeping so much...

After the ride this morning me and Ben did some fencing down on the creek boundary. We put a fence up there a few months back but then all the rain and flooding stuffed a bit of it up so we had to reset some of it. All good now so hopefully when the creek goes really low in summer the cows won't wander into the neighbour's place.

The garden is going great guns, and we should have some peas very soon! Have been eating the lettuce for a couple of weeks, very yummy! Some pics of our bounty:

Tomatoes - three batches worth, newest ones in front

Peas - one older row and two new rows from about 3 weeks ago. There are pods on the older row that should be ready in about a week, yay!

Lettuce - bit of a random variety with weeds in amongst them all for, er, variety.

Sunny checking out the carrots. The bigger ones are the ones that the chooks ate most of the seeds from, the others are much newer and were the ones we chook-proofed.

Courgette and cucumber plants - newer courgettes and some gherkins on the left

And then to top off a great day we have just been nibbling on some cheese and crackers and champagne. It's a lovely sunny early summer evening, we have some scotch fillet steak for dinner courtesy of one of the cows, and I can see the horses grazing in the paddock, pretty nice really!