A month has passed since Panamera injured herself and had no chance of the Olympics! But life here went on and we all picked ourselves up and looked forward to the future which will be hopefully WEG 2014 in Normandy (France) and then the Olympics 2018 in Rio (Brazil).
Moving onwards and upwards - myself, Gendy Parry-Okeden and Cheryl Sing had our hands full organizing the Leaping to London fundraiser (which actually was a huge party and send off to our Aussie riders from Australia, Shane, Megan and Tim)
Gemma and Cheryl Sings daughter, Paris, displaying their 'Dare toi be Dublin' patents at Leaping to London
The night raised $20,000 and we had some great donations, thanks to Bates for a saddle of choice, CopRice, Naturevet CEVA, Horseland and HIDEZ all who generously donated to the riders. There were many others, too many to list and we thank you all. There are some great pictures on this website as well as the Leaping to London face book page!
Just recently we had the opportunity to trial a 2* horse from WA. We are pleased to say that we have now purchased ‘Sydney’ (ne: Grand Elevation from Makayla Wood). We hope that ‘Syd’ will become a truly International horse and we will aim him for a CCI3* at the end of the year. Talking of ‘aims’ we are also looking at Adelaide CCI4* for Pluto Mio and Orchard Hill.
A new purchase for TE - 'Sydney'
The last event for us was Quirindi ( nr Tamworth NSW) and with school hols- Gemma insisted on joining her dad on her new horse-‘Scenicwood’ or ‘Woody’ for short. After growing a foot in the last year she has sadly outgrown ‘Mighty Midget’ (who is now for sale). What should have been just a normal event turned into being quite a story!
In brief … Friday noon - the batteries were flat in the truck and after two cars hooked up for three hours and two girls keeping the revs up it still failed to recharge. A quick dash to buy two new batteries and we were all away with five horses at 5.30pm! At 9.30pm the truck returns - limping home with the fan belt just about broken in two! No one is smiling. By 10.30pm the truck is unloaded and two cars and two horse floats and a blow up bed are loaded. 3.30am arrive at Quirindi and now we get the blow up bed - it was for sleeping in the car! OMG this is either dedication or just a serious attempt to not lose those horrendous entry fees (five horses= $810) plus fuel! I suppose sleeping in the car saves heaps!
The story continues … 6.30am we are walking courses with NO MAPS and the cross country is on the Saturday … what the! Now Stuart nursing a serious flu, which I so kindly gave him and sleeping in the car for two nights in a row was not so appealing and the novelty had certainly worn off for Gemma. Thank God for Hayley Freiliek for the room you so kindly gave Stuart, Gemma, Aude and for the several boxes of tissues...
Gemma on 'Woody'
With John and Jane Pittards ‘Annapurna’ in the pre-nov (or now called EvA 1.05) plus our own ‘Sydney’ in the CIC**, ‘Gosh’ in the CIC* and Gemma on ‘Woody’ it was busy with very tired riders. However with the way the weekend was gone so far it was a very nice surprise to finish with two wins and a third! (Gosh won the CIC*, Anna her class and Sydney 3rd CIC**) Well done to our student, Hannah Walls, who managed to finish fifth in the CIC**, while fighting off a tummy bug!
Stuart rides for his win on 'Annapurna'
Our next outing will be to Sydney Mid Week on the 18/19 July where Stuart will ride Sydney in the 2* and Annapurna in the pre novice.
Stuart is teaching a clinic at Silver Hills on the 28 July so just contact us if you would like to book a spot and we have some really nice horses for sale at the moment, from Pre novice to 1* so just email us on [email protected] for more information.
